Cable's guilty pleasures: delightfully, bombastically naughty TV is here.(Television program review)

Thoroughly "bad" TV is a naughty, guilty pleasure and one that is made more irresistibly watchable lately by the folks at here! TV. If you haven't DVR'd these queer shows, you need to host a DVD party to enjoy some of this fare. It's simply too good and "bad" to miss.

Dante's Cove, Season Three (here!): For those uninitiated (or nonaspirant) to the bizarre world that occupies this fictional inlet (somewhere in magical/geographical relation to Laguna Beach), how can mere words describe the witch blasts, oiled chests, Twin Peaks-esque musical underscores, sudden queerific sex and deliciously wooden (or hyper-melodramatic) line deliveries? Perhaps the producers of Dante's Cove have created a whole new homo genre or form of beyond-the-Sontag camp: a soft-core/soap opera/fantasy/horror melange. We could call it campsoapfanhorror or something unintelligible like that. But unintelligibility is Dante's Cove's strong suit, along with butt shots, and most recently, more tattoo-revealing, bump-and-grind, strokey-strokey, kissy-kissy hott! (with two t's and an exclamation point) lesbian sex between Michelle Wolff and Dante's Cove newbie Jenny Shimizu (yes, the former CK model). Jensen Atwood (Noah's Arc) also appears as a Tresum Council member who knows a load about sex magic. You might catch a glimpse this third season of beautiful and out actress Jill Bennett as a post-typhoon bush-, tree- and people-eating monster, but who really knows what comes of that? Tune in to find out who's on the giving and receiving end at Dante's Cove. It's worth renting the back episodes, not in any kind of "quality," or spiritual, sense, but because John Waters would likely also eat popcorn and believe. (heretv.com)

Lesbian Sex and Sexuality (here!): Director Katherine Linton's six-part documentary miniseries on dyke sex and sexual expression goes behind the scenes of the lesbian erotic film industry and between the sheets of queer women and bois who configure their love and sex in a variety of ways: embodied experience, gender performance, public sex, nonmonogamy, BDSM practices and more. While not comprehensive, the series makes a dent in a subject sorely in need of further filmic (and personal) exploration. Framed by informative, contextualizing interviews with lesbian sexpert Diana Cage (former editor of On Our Backs), Lesbian Sex and Sexuality takes a localized approach, visiting two or three groups of interviewees, who are in their element for each specific topic. Audiences get to know each episode's subjects and their takes on fucking and filming fucking intimately; however, as if contemporary TV documentary is starting, in reverse formation, to emulate reality-show aesthetics, we do see that fast-and-loose look played out here. Definitely worth catching on the here! Network or on DVD, the series features interviews with important artists and auteurs of lesbian sex, including Shar Rednour, Jackie Srrano, Nan Kinney, Debbie Sundahl, Tristan Taormino, Shine Houston, Mistress Leda and Phyllis Christopher, among others. (heretv.com)

The Lair, season one (here!): If the Lost Boys were muscle queens who lured their bait to an exclusive sex club to service them with vampiric mouths and fangs, Thom (David Moretti) would be the Corey Haim character on their trail of perforated, naked John Does: fairly clueless, curious and cute. The thing is, Thom, whose flash-forward jump-starts The Lair's first season--a monologue taped from behind bars, where he awaits sure doom--is an adult journalist after a scoop, not a pre-teen Bop model. Handed all his clues about the bathhouse blood-('n cock-) suckers by supporting characters, he succeeds best at lathering himself at home in elongated shower scenes. But when his boyfriend Jonathan falls into head vamp Damien's clutches, Thom finally gets his clothes on (well, temporarily). Birthday-suited soft core that might've made a befanged Kiefer Sutherland blush is this show's bread and butter. Luckily, there are enough Dante's Cove-style interludes in this gay horror-soap to play out master-servant scenarios and provide scenes aplenty of BJs, rimming and leather-clad, wrestling, full-boy orgies. There's certainly enough cheesy fantasy fodder, as well as cheeky laugh fodder, here to go around. (heretv.com)

For Dante's Cove interviews, visit curvemag.com.

Want to ...