Filthy Rich is an American version of the New Zealand soap opera of the same name which premiered on Fox on September 21st, 2020 (with the first three episodes all dropping online the next day). It revolves around the Monreauxs, a family running a multi-billion dollar evangelical empire megachurch/TV network. When their patriarch, Eugene, dies in a plane crash, his will reveals he has fathered three illegitimate children with three different women. Now, a clash of wills erupts between the family as secrets threaten to bring down the empire.
Not to be confused with the 1982 sitcom of the same name starring Delta Burke, Dixie Carter, and Jerry Hardin, or the 1987 Brit Com Filthy Rich & Catflap starring Rik Mayall.
Tropes
- Abortion Fallout Drama: Rose. Faced with the prospect of having Mark's baby, and having to enter into a loveless marriage to cover up the fact that she had sex with a man posing as her half-brother, she opts to get an abortion. Ginger obviously supports her in this, and while Margaret does not support abortion, and initially threatens to disown Rose, she decides that she doesn't want to lose her daughter over it, and accompanies her and Ginger to New York.
- The Ace: Antonio is handsome, athletic, has a somewhat respectable job, and an adorable little baby, so naturally Margaret loves putting him on her show.
- The Alcoholic: Margaret's friend Veronica Dockerty is an epic lush. It's her way of coping with her troubled marriage to her husband.
- Armored Closet Gay: Becky Monreaux married Eric to cover up the fact that she's into girls, as being openly gay isn't really an option when you comes from a conservative Christian family.
- Big Damn Kiss: In "Hebrews 9:15", Becky finally surrenders to her "unnatural lust" and plants a big kiss on Ginger's lips. Ginger does not seem entirely appalled by this.
- Bland-Name Product: The Sunshine Network is likely modelled after the real-life Smile Network, part of the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Margaret's show, Wings of a Dove, is likely a nod to Smile's original name, "Smile of a Child".
- Broken Pedestal:
- Eric and Rose are obviously stunned to realize their father had been cheating with multiple women over the years to the point of having three illegitimate kids. They're also upset their mother knew about his cheating (although she claims not have known about the illegitimate kids) and hid it while standing by "Christian values."
- Much of Ginger's anger towards Margaret stems from the fact that she idolized Margaret as a kid, and is deeply disappointed that Margaret isn't the warm, loving mother figure she portrays on TV.
- Hagamond honestly believes that the 18:20 group is out to do such things as "Rebuild the Temple and one-world government" and jarred when it sinks in that they don't actually believe their own rhetoric. He thus decides they're heretics and have to die.
- Everyone gets this in the final scene when they discover Eugene is the father of Becky's child.
- Career-Ending Injury:
- Don Bouchard uses a cane to walk, suggesting that his MMA career ended because of some sort of leg injury.
- Yopi's hands were shattered when she took money from the 18:20 to get an abortion and then pocketed the money and gave birth to Antonio instead. This ended her hopes of becoming a professional MMA fighter herself.
- Cassandra Truth: A unique variation. After she sees Eugene alive and well, even Tina soon believes she was just hallucinating from too much drinking and checks herself into rehab.
- Closet Key: The real reason Becky is so hostile towards Ginger is because Ginger awakens feelings that she's been deeply suppressing.
- Contrived Coincidence: Eugene just happens to hitch a ride with two of Mark's friends who are headed to expose Jason as a fraud.
- The Dragon: Margaret and Eugene both held Luke as merely a rising star on the network, unaware the man is using their brand for his own ends to make money for an elite group of friends and, eventually, take it over.
- Entertainingly Wrong: A fun variation: When Veronica keeps trying to get close to him, Mark thinks this older woman is hitting on him and trying not to freak out in her presence. As it happens, Veronica is Jason's real mother, trying to get to better know the son she gave up for adoption after he was born. Veronica, meanwhile, has no idea "Jason" isn't really her son so is "bonding" with a stranger.
- Ethical Slut: After Becky broaches the question of whether or not there's any future between them, Ginger points out that Becky is married to her brother, and while she is down for a lot of things, breaking up her sibling's marriage is not one of them. She changes her mind later after overhearing Becky discuss how unhappy she is and how she feels undesired.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Rose dreams of being a fashion designer, but her mother has consistently discouraged such dreams, intending to groom her for a role on "Wings of a Dove". In "Hebrews 9:15", after Ginger finally extracts her money from Margaret, she offers to use the money to build Rose her own fashion start-up.
- Foreshadowing: The revelation that Eugene's entire journey home has been some grand hallucination seems more obvious in hindsight. For a start, getting a job at a store with barely any application or waiting seemed off. Plus how the store owner seemed to know who he was and let him just sit watching TV during working hours (with no other customers around). Also, upon his arrest, one would assume in no time the authorities would be broadcasting this supposedly dead famous evangelist was in custody but instead, without any trial, he's put to work in an old-styled prison gang overseen by the very cop who was interrogating him yet can easily escape.
- The Fundamentalist: The 18:20 group are mostly using their religious pretensions as a cover for their greed and lust, but their hired killer, Hagamond Sheen, is a genuine, dyed-in-the-wool religious fanatic. This comes back to bite them in the ass when Luke fires him; Hagamond decides that they are false prophets and kills Townes Dockerty.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Yopi declined to get an abortion when she was pregnant with Antonio, and suffered consequences for it, but her reasons for keeping Antonio were not entirely noble; her career was already waning, but believed that she could stay in the fight game as a trainer, whereas if she got the abortion, she would probably have ended up retired.
- Greedy Televangelist: Deconstructed. This series posits that it is possible for someone to be be a selfless televangelist, as Eugene and Margaret Monreaux tried to be when they founded their televangelist empire. The problem is that humble televangelists don't get very far without patronage, which means letting less altruistic people like the 18:20 group in, and it's very hard to be around greedy, opportunistic people for long periods of time without their tendencies rubbing off on you.
- Hidden Depths:
- Much to Margaret's consternation, Ginger turns out to be surprisingly knowledgeable about the Bible and its history, turning their on-air sparring sessions about faith and religion into a much more even contest than she would have preferred.
- Becky isn't nearly the airhead she pretends to be, having received a surprisingly thorough home-school education, but between her older brother and Margaret stage-managing her life, she doesn't get much opportunity to show it.
- How We Got Here: The pilot opens with Margaret storming out of the family mansion as it burns down. It then flashes back four months to show what drove her to this.
- Hypocrite: All over the place, especially Eugene who boasted of "family values" while lying and cheating for years.
- Eric tries to paint himself as a good man, but he is much like his father, including cheating on his wife with a website porn actress.
- In her recaps and behavior, Becky carries herself as the most pious Christian imaginable... save for the tiny detail she happens to be gay.
- Luke claims his money-making moves is to build a fortune for "when the Rapture comes and we rebuild the world." Even Eric doesn't buy that, recognizing Luke is just greedy and bilking the faithful.
- Lampshaded when Eugene complains about Eric put in charge of a charity and his boss (one of the few who recognizes him and knows he's alive) points out that Eugene has no room to complain about someone else lying and making bad choices.
- Imagine Spot: During an interview when told about Eugene and Ginger's mother, Margaret imagines finally erupting to everyone on how she feels keeping it all quiet, that Eugene always came back to her and tearing into Ginger as a slut. In reality, she just makes a simple smile before cutting to commercial.
- Internal Reveal: By the season finale, everyone has discovered that Jason is Mark and Eugene is alive.
- It's Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans: Episode 5 is set amid the Mardi Gras celebrations.
- Meaningful Name: Eric's mistress is named Rachel. In the Bible, Rachel was the favored one of Jacob's two wives.
- Missing Mom: Antonio's baby mama is absent.
- No Such Thing as Bad Publicity:
- In-Universe as Margaret uses the scandal to actually enhance the family's brand.
- Ginger uses a live baptism to expose herself for her porn site. Margaret is able to use the publicity from the event to score bigger ratings and web hits for her SunnyClub.
- Ginger decides to take advantage of her former site's infamy to draw attention to Rose's fashion line, by hiring her former webcam girls to be Rose's models.
- Not Blood Siblings: Rose freaks out a bit after she and Jason kiss as they are technically half-siblings. Subverted when Rose discovers "Jason" is really Mark, Jason's lookalike adoptive brother, so they're not related at all..
- Not Quite Dead: Eugene didn't die in the plane crash.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: A unique variation for episode 9: Rather than start with the light and funny "prayer recap" by Becky, it's more somber by Eugene to note the raised stakes of murder and kidnapping a child.
- Oh, Crap!: The reaction of Eugene when he spots a TV broadcast of the three kids he's been trying to hide from the world now being welcomed into his family.
- Out-Gambitted:
- Ginger demands a bigger payday or she goes to the press to expose the existence of the illegitimate kids. Margaret responds by calling a press conference herself to admit her husband's "failings" and welcoming the kids as family.
- Ginger appears to agree to be baptized on live TV to win over Margaret's failure. But when she rises from the tub, it becomes obvious to the viewers she is wearing no underwear under her now sheer and soaking gown which now bears a message for her porn-themed website as she delivers a message to the audience to tune in, instantly reviving her site.
- In "Romans 8:30", the members of the 18:20 group corner Margaret and claim that Eugene promised them shares in SunnyClub. In a bid to fend them off, she offers them preferred vendor status, which they grudgingly accept... except that later, Franklin tells her that Eugene never offered them any shares in SunnyClub and they had no legal claim, but now she's allowed them into her company.
- Everyone is being outgambitted by Luke, who is working behind the scenes to keep Margaret, Ginger, and Eric at loggerheads in order to take over the company from within.
- Previously on…: Each episode opens with Becky recapping the previous events while praying.
- Really Gets Around:
- Ginger is downright proud of her bed-hopping ways which appear to have been inherited from her mother.
- Antonio is surprised that a popular MMA promoter knew his mother and misses the way the man chuckles "a lot of people knew your mom."
- The Reveal:
- Jason is actually Mark, his adoptive brother, who bears a striking resemblance to him. With the real Jason in a coma and not expected to recover, Mark took this opportunity to gain money on behalf of their sick adoptive mom.
- Tina was paid to sleep with Eugene by the 18:20 group to catch on film and the pregnancy was never planned.
- Margaret's long-time friend Veronica is Jason's real mother and is sleeping with Franklin.
- Becky is actually gay and only marrying Eric as a cover.
- Franklin was the one behind Eugene's crash over A) jealousy at not being named CEO of the company; B) long-time anger at being overlooked by race; C) payback for Eugene having his goons beat him up long ago and D) his feelings for Margaret.
- Luke isn't a reporter but an undercover FBI agent.
- Becky Had slept with Eugene and he's the father of her child.
- Riches to Rags: Eugene, once a multi-millionaire with his own private jet, has been cut off from his fortune and his reputation has been ruined by the revelations about his infidelity. He takes it surprisingly well, all things considered.
- Secret-Keeper:
- When first meeting the three new heirs, Margaret tries to talk on how she knows this must all be a shock... only for Ginger to state she's known her entire life Eugene was her father and the family owes her, and her mother, for keeping this quiet all this time.
- Rose is so far the only one who knows Jason isn't really Jason.
- Margaret confirms in private she knew for years about Eugene's cheating and kept silent for the good of their business (although she insists she knew nothing of the children.)
- Shady Lady of the Night: After relocating to New Orleans and becoming enmeshed in the Monreaux family, Ginger Sweet orders her webcam girls to start keeping recordings of any high-powered religious men who visit their cams, in case she needs to blackmail one of Margaret Monreaux's wealthy, powerful friends, as she suspects that Margaret is looking for any excuse to shove her out of the family. This backfires terribly when Margaret finds out that the Governor of Lousiana is a regular on Ginger's site; Margaret is in a feud with the Governor, and thus leaks incriminating footage to the press, which ruins him but also ruins Ginger, as no one's going to visit her website if they think they're being recorded.
- Spanner in the Works: The fact Eugene is alive is undoing many of Luke's plans to take control of the empire. Notably, he gives a reporter "evidence" implicating Eric being behind so many shady deals, unaware Eugene has revealed he's alive to that reporter and already admitted how he and Luke were deep into the corruption.
- Spoiled Sweet: Rose has clearly never done an honest day's work in her life, but she's easily the nicest, sweetest character on the show.
- Spotting the Thread: Ginger is warmed when given a note Eugene wrote to her years ago on how he truly loved her and sorry he couldn't be there for her. But as she studies it carefully, Ginger realizes that the note was written by someone who was right-handed. Since she got her left-handedness from her father, that means Margaret wrote the note to manipulate her.
- Stage Mom:
- Antonio's mom Yopi encourages him to worm his way into the Monreaux family's good graces in order to boost both their careers.
- Luke turns out to be a stage brother, manipulating his sister Becky into a shotgun marriage to Eric.
- Stealing from Thieves: In the episode "Proverbs 20:6", Eugene gets roped into helping two stoners blackmail Mark, who's been impersonating Eugene's son Jason while the latter is in a coma. After the blackmail attempt is successful, Eugene realizes that the stoners intend to keep the money for themselves, and thus decides to steal the cash and bring it to Jason's hospital bed to pay for his care.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Margaret tries to put a spin on it but when the head of a supposedly moral Christian network dies in a plane crash with a pair of prostitutes and is revealed to have fathered at least three illegitimate kids, it's only natural the entire brand suffers.
- Ginger at first is happy about the publicity her website gets from subscribers. But her decision to put the site "dark" for a few days in order to relocate the other girls to New Orleans leads to their competitors undercutting prices to steal their clientele. She also discovers that the increased publicity attracts more stalkers, some of whom are very dangerous.
- Taking You with Me: Invoked by Franklin, when Margaret discovers he was behind Eugene's crash as he points out he knows scores of the family's dirty secrets and will ruin them all if she goes after him.
- Terms of Endangerment: Margaret's habit of calling Ginger "sweetie" is only occasionally a sign of affection.
- A Threesome Is Hot: In episode 2, Ginger wakes up naked in bed with a guy and a girl.
- Throwing the Fight: Antonio is pressured by his mother to throw his first MMA fight, which she defends as being for a great payday and can set up an honest rematch down the road.
- Wham Episode:
- "Romans 8:30" reveals that Eugene has been hallucinating ever since leaving the swamp, that Ginger's mother was paid to blackmail Eugene, and that Jason's mother is one of Margaret's friends.
- In "Proverbs 20:6", Ginger finds out that Eugene's alive, Margaret destroys both Governor Love and SaintWagon, and the real Jason wakes up.
- Wham Shot:
- Jason entering a hospital room to take a swab sample from a comatose man... who looks just like him.
- Eugene waking up alive somewhere in the swamps.
- A portrait of Eugene's mother... who looks exactly like the clerk at the store who Eugene stole from.
- Just as Eric has confessed to killing Luke, a very much alive Luke saunters into the room to reveal he's a federal agent.
- Wham Line:
- "Tell me something, Franklin. Why would Eugene pay $15 million to a dead man the day before he died?"
- Eugene saying he wants to "do right by all six of my children". Cue Becky coming down with the child a horrified family realize is Eugene's.
- Wrong Line of Work: Neither of Eugene and Margaret's children are particularly well-suited for the roles they're given after Eugene's death.
- Eric is a genuinely nice guy and a beautiful singer, but feels compelled to make a go at taking over the family business, where he proves to be a Horrible Judge of Character, letting his pastor brother-in-law steer him into a needless conflict with his mother, who inherited control of the company.
- Rose has been groomed to take a spot on her mom's TV show, but lacks Margaret's confidence or ambition, and doesn't particularly want to preach to anyone; she'd be much happier designing clothes.
