Majorthebys Charming and brutal

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

torontononna If a DVD was available, I'd buy the whole set in a heartbeat. I have some of the episodes on VHS, complete with commercials, and too hard to locate on my tapes. Plus they aren't in order! I am not in "the business" but I found the satire clever and funny, the acting terrific, and the whole thing strangely both believable and outrageous. I think the biggest problem with the show, during its original run, was that there was so little marketing for it. I found it by accident and thought it sounded interesting, so I watched the first episode, and was hooked immediately. Most of my friends had never heard of it, until I told them about it. Maybe if there had been more hype, more people would have watched it. Also, in my area (Toronto) it was only on TV once a week, Friday nights at midnight. A lot of the audience who would enjoy this show are out on Friday nights.Anyway, I was devastated when it was cancelled. Special favourite performances were from Lori, Malcolm, Larry the drag queen, and Brad, plus of course Rob and Cecile. Also Mr. Ludden and the fabulous Lydia Ludden.Some favourite moments were when Mr. Ludden came out of his coma, when Parker Meridien died, when Kendall was getting people to throw out their TVs. And who could forget Lori and the Russian mobster.I really hope a DVD comes out before the show becomes a pile of archival garbage in Showtime's back storage room.

mozli It was good satire and was never designed to be a big crowd pleaser. Some good folks on it. Brian Kerwin seemed to be never more accessible as a comedic lead. If the show had gone to a bigger network they would have tried to push it into a Dick Van Dyke Show sort of blandness. Thank goodness it didn't. It kept the Russian mobsters around a lot longer than I would have imagined. Charlotte Ross and Gary Dourdan(to a much smaller degree)contributed to the shows contained anarchy. I lost track of the show after the lesbian birth doctors messed up and put the sperm of Rob Malone with his daughter's Audrey egg and Cecile's egg with Audrey's dead boyfriend sperm.

Yarmouth Bad writing, bad acting and bad direction are the three prongs of anti-talent that skewer the viewer and roast him slowly over the fires of television hell while watching this piece of dreck.Why is it that HBO is the stronghold of quality original programming, while Showtime comes up with shows that wouldn't survive half a season on UPN?

katherinef (Contains spoilers)I *love* Beggars and Choosers. I love it to bits and pieces. The Irish TV station, Network 2, shows it on Friday nights (when it feels like it and there aren't too many sunspots or a vital tiddleywinks match), usually after midnight, and even though I'm always exhausted by Friday night I never miss it. How could I live without my weekly fix of Rob Malone, the only good man in Hollywood? Not to mention Brad, the whore of an agent; Yolanda, the actress with Tourette's Syndrome; Lori "the fox" Volpone, as ruthless as she is beautiful, and the Russian gangster Nicky Krasnikov who wears down her resistance with poetry and smouldering looks (oh, and killing people who threaten her); Malcolm, the VP of Talent who dithers about coming out and finally does it on national television. . .not to mention the two characters whose sole purpose is to be in the restaurants when the others are eating lunch and make phone calls about who's eating with who. ..Beggars and Choosers is a television show about television, and the gloves are definitely off. I'm frankly amazed that it got made at all, it's so scathing about the business. Rob Malone (boss of the fictional LGT network) at one point says that television is "sh***y"; and he's the only one who cares. Everybody else is out for themselves and only themselves. They don't care who they have to stab in the back to push themselves ahead.And yet even the scummiest of the characters have real motivations. Even though we *know* Lori Volpone is a workaholic megabitch who'd sell her own mother if it would get her the credit for a #1 Neilsen-rated show, it's impossible not to see through her eyes as she is gradually seduced by Krasnikov -- and even though Krasnikov is a ruthless killer, he is so honest, so straightforward, so undeniably *real*, that after the phoniness of Hollywood he comes as a breath of sweet, fresh air. Brad spends twenty minutes choosing socks, on the grounds that each pair of socks represents a different career track, and the scene is ludicrous yet at the same time logical; it's quite possible that the wrong socks *will* cripple his career, and his willingness to pay such attention to detail is what gives him the edge over the others.Beggars and Choosers is hugely funny, audacious, and sharp; but it's also surprisingly warm. Through all the back-stabbing and lies, the characters remain likeable as well as fascinating. I hope it runs for a long time.