HOLLYWOOD — The Malloys, those hustling grifters who assume the identity of a dead affluent suburban couple in "The Riches," were in a constant struggle the first season to keep from being exposed or arrested.

Last week's launch of the second season found the series in a state of arrested development.

Due to interruption from the writers' strike, "The Riches," which stars Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver, arrived in shrunken condition: The drama will have only seven episodes instead of 13. "The Riches" shares the same dilemma as "Dirt," another FX series in its second season that was affected by the strike.

More significantly, the seventh episode of "The Riches" sets up a cliffhanger that has no guarantee of a resolution if the show is not brought back for a third season.

The dilemma has cast members and producers grappling with a mixture of optimism and concern over whether they will be able to bring closure and continuation to an ambitious and satisfying story line for their characters.

"I really do feel great about what we've been able to do, and we certainly do hope to be able to tell our story," series creator Dmitry Lipkin said. "I feel so proud of all the seven we've done, but I think it would be a disservice to our fans if everything ended with a cliffhanger. It would be good to perform well, and if we do, we'll be back."

Izzard, who also serves as an executive producer, sounded much more confident that the series not only will return for a third season but for many years to come.

"We're going seven seasons," he announced with a wink as he introduced a premiere screening of the second episode. "Of course, no one's agreed to it yet. But seven sounds good."

WEAK FIRST SEASONS

John Landgraf, president of FX Networks, called the new episodes "very strong." But both "The Riches," a pet project of his that had been in development for two years, and "Dirt" did not perform as well in their initial seasons as he had hoped, and both series need to demonstrate staying power if they are to return.

"We went the extra mile to give both of these shows a second season, and now they will have to show us something," Landgraf said. "It's not an unchallenging road for both of them."

"Dirt" is already on shaky ground. After three episodes, the series is averaging 1.6 million viewers on Sundays. Last season, it averaged 2.2 million viewers.

As for "The Riches," the series, which received largely positive reviews, will keep its serialized structure. Landgraf said the series will have about four weeks of limited competition before new episodes of network shows return from their strike-imposed hiatus.

Thematically about the quest for the American dream, "The Riches" combines flavors from "The Sopranos," "Weeds" and "The Fugitive" in telling the story of Wayne and Dahlia Malloy, who live with their three children behind the gates of a ritzy community.

HIGH-STAKES LIES

At the end of last season, the heat on the family and the increasing danger of being found out led them to attempt to flee their idyllic life, a plan that was foiled.

This season finds the family returning to their cushy lifestyle as Wayne plots a scheme that could result in a huge payoff.

"He and his wife start lying to each other," Izzard said. "He really puts his family on the line, taking a route that is very dangerous. The stakes are much higher."

Although the series last season mixed the comedic and the dramatic, this season is much darker in tone.

"I actually prefer the darkness," said Izzard, who first impressed audiences as a cross-dressing comedian. "There's some black humor that twists out of everything."

The series reached "a happy marriage" between its two tones halfway through the first season, Landgraf said.

The executive producing team of Nicole Yorkin and Dawn Prestwich said the writers and producers were "on a roll" with sketching out the season when they had to go out on strike.

"We were exactly where we wanted to be in terms of story and character," Prestwich said.

"We had built this natural cliffhanger into the season, but not one for the series," Yorkin added. "We feel that we have much more story to tell."

The producers had to abandon overseeing the filming of several episodes and post-production as they went out on strike. But they were more than pleased when they screened all the episodes after returning to work.

Said Prestwich: "Everyone really stepped up and did their job. Now it's just a matter of eyeballs showing up."