After a three-year absence from television, Courtney Cox is returning to the small screen (with an assist from co-producer/husband David Arquette) in the salacious tabloid-grinder Dirt, premiering January 2nd on the FX network. Those familiar with FX's offerings thus far (The Shield, Rescue Me, Nip/Tuck) have no doubt noticed that the channel seems to thrive on shows that focus on the worst aspects of human nature. And in that sense, at least, Dirt is a wholly appropriate addition to their lineup.

Dirt revolves around Lucy Spiller (Cox), the utterly unscrupulous editor of the tabloid rag “Dirt” and the once-great pictorial news magazine “Now…”. Juggling the marginally more legitimate publication with the other, Lucy finds herself constantly on the verge of being fired if she can't get that one perfect cover – a dramatic convention that already wears pretty thin in just the three episodes available for screening.

Lucy is aided in her unsavory endeavors by a functional schizophrenic paparazzo named Don (Ian Hart), a friend of hers from journalism school who would do essentially anything for her … except take his medication. His dementia and the hallucinations that accompany it are the only moments of reprieve from the utter loathsomeness that saturates the rest of the show – only serving to suggest that those in Hollywood with a more tenuous grasp of reality might have it better off.

There's a small circle of central characters, all of whom to some extent are victims of Lucy's selfish maneuverings. There's Holt McLaren (Josh Stewart), a once up-and-coming actor who has hit a plateau and falls prey to Lucy's promises of stardom in exchange for becoming an informant for her tabloid. The plan works, but not without fallout – his loose lips wreak havoc on the lives of his girlfriend Julia Mallory (Laura Allen), a hot Hollywood sitcom actress, and her friend Kira (Shannyn Sossamon), who's pregnant with another wash-up's baby.

There's also retired basketball player Rick Fox (who also appeared on Oz for a few episodes) as a happily married basketball player who happens to like receptive strap-on sex with buxom strippers (I wish I had been there when Fox's agent talked him into that one). David Fincher makes a mind-boggling cameo in the second episode, and secondary characters like nameless magazine interns, drug dealers, and Christian singers come and go like the dazed inhabitants of a Hollywood triage ward.

Cox herself comes off rather well (once the shock wears off from hearing lines like “I just came a little” pop out of Monica Geller's mouth). She looks fantastic, obviously isn't afraid to muss up her image a little, and seems to have a vested interest in her role, which suggests that the character could become more interesting and complex as the series develops. Her equally deadpan delivery of both horrible news and surprisingly succinct industry data is actually quite similar to that of Amanda Peet on Studio 60. Only in Cox's case, it's much easier to believe that her character actually understands the words that she's speaking.

The first two episodes have nothing explicitly gay in them, other than a joke during the pre-credits sequence where Lucy spots a guy eyeing another fellow's backside and envisions the tabloid cover that should accompany the glance (“He's Gay!”). This is actually one of the things about the show that is most insulting to gay viewers – the offhand way in which homosexuality is used as a “scandalous” element.

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