Boston.com – By Joanna Weiss – Globe Staff
Carmelita is beautiful. There’s really no denying it. She is sultry, with long blond hair and ample cleavage. She looks fairly majestic in a ball gown. That she used to be a man is an afterthought.
Almost.
But the character – played by a transgender actress named Candis Cayne – brings more than just a layer of prurient intrigue to “Dirty Sexy Money,” ABC’s new series about a rich and miserable clan in New York. She adds surprising poignancy to a mostly satirical soap. And she brings something new to network television in general: a transsexual character who doesn’t function entirely as an oddity. Yes, she’s a punch line at times, especially at the start. But she’s also the very believable, surprisingly likable mistress of a troubled man in love.