Spoilers ahead for Episode 3 of Fox's Filthy Rich, called "Psalm 25:3."
Filthy Rich hit the airwaves on Fox as one of the first noteworthy scripted series of the thinner-the-usual fall TV season so far, and the Kim Cattrall drama got off to a wild start that set the Monreaux family up for a spectacular, soapy, and very public downfall. Now, after three episodes, I find myself wondering if the show is moving too quickly with the family drama.
Filthy Rich really is a show where you can miss game-changing twists if you look away for even a few moments, and the abundance of characters means that there are a lot of plots to keep track of. "Psalm 25:3" was nearly a bottle episode only three weeks into the series, with almost the entire hour taking place in the studio during production of a Wings of a Dove episode.
If you missed the second episode after catching the first, I can only imagine that tuning in to "Psalm 25:3" was incredibly confusing. A lot has changed in not a lot of time, and an episode mostly comprised on conversation in a limited space isn't something I would expect to see this early in a series, before viewers are necessarily invested in characters and plot.
For example, I personally don't know what to make or how I feel about the Rose/Jason dynamic. It wasn't that long ago that fans had just about every reason to believe that they were half-siblings, but "Psalm 25:3" had Jason sneakily finding a way for Rose to read an admittedly sweet note from him on the air.
Even if Jason -- or Mark, as his buddies revealed at the end of "Psalm 25:3" -- knew all along that Rose wasn't his sister, she thought he was her brother for one full episode, and that's saying something heading into just the third. I think it's fair to say that their dynamic got off to a weird start, and I expected Rose to need more time to move forward than just last week's episode.
As another example, I don't know what to make of Eugene's plot. He was arrested at the end of the episode, but there have been so many jumps in his story that I find it difficult to really care about him. For me, his most interesting contribution to Filthy Rich was fathering a brood of secret kids and then "dying."
I will say that I'm interested in Ginger Sweet's plot, and I can suspend my disbelief about some of the unlikely twists. Filthy Rich is a soap opera, after all! Kim Cattrall is also doing a solid job as Margaret Monreaux at the center of all the melodrama, especially considering how different Filthy Rich is from her other most recent TV drama.
I just wish that Filthy Rich had spread some of its twists out and developed the characters, so that I would spend less time wondering if I have all the characters straight and more time paying attention to what they're doing. Many shows experience some growing pains in the early days, so maybe this will become appointment TV as the first season continues!
That said, Filthy Rich will be off the air for an extra week due to the Major League Baseball postseason. The next new episode airs on Monday, October 19 at 9 p.m. ET on Fox. Be sure to vote in our poll below about the freshman series! For some additional viewing options now and in the coming weeks, check out our 2020 fall TV premiere schedule and swing by our 2020 Netflix premiere guide.
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