HBO’s 'Rain Dogs' Brings the Reals & the Feels

Early into HBO’s new raw and worthwhile dramedy, Rain Dogs, Selby (Jack Farthing) uses the phrase “poverty voyeur” to characterize the date who just showed up for main character Costello Jones (Daisy May Cooper). In lesser hands, it felt like that could have easily described this show’s audience, watching the misfortunes of others from the comfort of our cushy streaming services. But writer/creator Cash Carraway (author of bestselling memoir Skin Flint: Notes from the Poverty Line, which has informed this series) doesn’t present Costello’s life in an exploitative way. We see Costello for the very flawed human that she is, warts and all, and with dignity.

Costello is one tough mother. The series premiere kicks off as she and her daughter Iris (Fleur Tashjian) are being evicted, and Costello can’t help but mouth off to the police, who are there to roust them. What follows next in this series of eight half-hour episodes is a raucous tumble into their lives as Costello maneuvers and attempts to better their working-class plight. Adding to this mix, we have Selby, Costello’s upper-class, volatile, and self-destructive gay best friend, who has just been released from prison.

The series explores the power dynamics of men and women; rich and poor; sobriety and addiction, focusing on the toxic friendship between Costello and Selby. Costello is a recovering alcoholic working as an entertainer at a peep show, but her passion is writing. She dreams of finishing and selling her book and spends time writing toward that goal. Putting her work out there online leads to an opportunity with The London Reformer newspaper.