Scoundrels

It's hard to say how the series will play out because by the end of the first episode Mom has declared that the family is going straight. In this, I hope they fail.

Scoundrels is wicked fun when the Wests are being wild.

Most of the screen time goes to Ms. Madsen, and she works hard to pump some life into the script's mild zingers.

Some of the comedy--which arises from the situations, not jokes--is good. So is the drama. Whether they'll work together as the show moves forward remains to be seen.

Virginia Madsen cuts a fine figure as the matriarch trying to hold her family of four kids together while their dad goes to prison, but the fanciful tone makes the show a little too pastel-colored when a bolder palette would seem to be required.

Charmless and predictable, Scoundrels seems like a tepid rehash of The Riches, a lively and thoughtful FX show about a family of gypsy thieves trying to go straight that was done in by the 2008 television strike.

Not a single one of the characters were funny enough, or touching enough, to make me want to see more of them. If the Wests were thrown in jail, I'd be tempted to throw away the key.