‘Easy Money’ Tries To Get Just That

The commercials that ran on CW, channel 31, prior to Easy Money’s season premiere on October 5, made it a point to state that this particular show was being brought to us by the producers of The Sopranos, (Diane Frolov and Andy Schneider).

How anyone could possibly put these two shows into the same category is beyond my comprehension because…

…the apple sure fell from the tree on this one.

This show is centered on a family of loan sharks. The Buffkins.

No, not the kind often portrayed in movies. The sleazy, sneaky guy in a suit, who will collect his money by any means necessary and by any means meaning, death threats or even murder.

These loan sharks are the people you would literally find at your nearest Check into Cash. They run a legitimate business, Prestige Payday Loans, making money from high percentage fees being charged to people who seem to be stuck in a rut from advancing money on a continuous basis.

Unfortunately only the first ten minutes were slightly entertaining and sort of enjoyable with the first customer of the day being rejected from taking out any more loans due to non-payment and NSF checks.

He threatens Bobette Buffkin, (Laurie Metcalf of Desperate Housewives and Roseanne), the cashier and head of the family it seems.

The customer takes a plastic chair and flings it across the room hitting the window shielding Bobette and repeatedly demands her to give him a loan, “I need that money b*#$%! Give me the money! Give me the money!”

Her sons, Cooper and Morgan, escort the irate customer out the door only to be arrested by a cop with a grudge. The car he and his girlfriend share was re-possessed because of his inability to pay back the loans he too had taken out. The cop manages to blackmail the two into getting his car back along with $3,000 to, “…recover from his humiliation.”

Morgan stands out from the rest of the cast because he tends to be the brawns of the family and also seems to possess what every other member in his family lacks, a conscience.

A private investigator is hired by Morgan to get some dirt on the cop. Turns out the cop has a wife who is oblivious to her husband’s extra-curricular activities. Morgan takes the cop’s car and rear-ends him at a parking lot and is victorious in collecting their debt in exchange for keeping his mouth closed about the other woman he has on the side.

Unlike the people who work in Check into Cash, these characters tend to take matters into their own hands by using blackmail and the occasional fist fight to their advantage.

In the end, the show makes it all about family in the cheesiest way possible and the results of a DNA test that Morgan and his sister took left questions as to who in the family didn’t quite belong.

Considering how bad the economic situation is now, there might be more and more people who will probably be able to relate to the show and be all too familiar with some of the terms being used, like ‘NSF’ for instance, (insufficient funds).

However, simple minded and just plain dumb one-liners were used sporadically through the show and it eventually had me questioning myself. How was it that an hour of my life could have been given up so easily?

Then again I’m not exactly sure where my mind was when assuming that this network, which brings us Smallville and now Valentine would be able to grace us with another great show like The Sopranos.

Yeah, not happening, atleast not anytime soon.