The mention of Eliot Spitzer in the previous post obviously brings up the subject of sex workers. And being a TV nut, it also brings up the subject as it pertains to TV.
Here in North America, we prefer our ladies of the night to work on the big screen, not on the small screen. Pretty Woman was one successful movie the TV people made NO attempt to turn into a TV series. The subject is taboo here. Across the pond and under the world, not so much.
The show Spitzer SHOULD have been home watching instead of indulging his fantasies in person was a British show called The Secret Diary of a Call Girl. The show, shown here on Bravo, featured Doctor Who companion Billy Piper doing the mock documentary thing about her business. Piper, who's playing a looooong way away from Doctor Who's Rose, tries to be as frank as possible about the ups and downs of the biz.
Now, I'll admit, seeing Piper nekkid was the driving force in watching the show in the first place. But the allure of that particular bit of flesh turned secondary as she portrayed a character in badly need of a shake-up in her life. The overly-detailed opening episodes turned into character pieces by the end of the season. The happy-go-lucky commentator on the how-to's of the business in the first episodes became a disillusioned young lady seriously in need of a new career. The friend/boyfriend/friend, so irksome at the beginning, became a pillar to be admired. It's actually an interesting series of half-hours.
Much, much better was the Australian take on a middle-class house of ill repute in the suburbs. Satisfaction is basically Desperate Housewives WITH the sex, full frontal included. It's entertaining, amusing and heart-breaking. Like Secret Diary, it's certain that any idolistic person who believes in the romanticism of the sex trade, won't after see this. From jaded super-call girl Mel, played by Madeleine West to not-yet jaded rookie Tippi, played by Bojana Novakovic, the business houses all types of sex workers of the female persuasion. The business is shown in about as good a light as it can be shown.
The effects on the home-life of the workers? Not so much. Still, it's a good series and I'm glad a second series (which will tie up the dead body at the end of the first one) has been ordered.
In America, the sex has to be secondary to the plot, not to be THE plot. That leads to such series last season as Californication and Tell Me You Love Me.
Californication had David Duchovny playing a blocked writer who works through the block with drugs, booze and a succession of women. I had to watch it, cuz one of those women was Paula Marshall, a lust object for much of the last two decades. She does not disappoint. On the other hand, the noted series killer (she's quickly killed off more than 10 series at this point), is in only one episode. Also disappointing is the fact that another of the conquests is a 16-year old girl. Well, maybe girl is putting it too indelicately. Psychotic narcissist might be more accurate. But still ..., 16! Overlooking that, the show's worth the time, especially if you're female and have a healthy lust for Duchovny.
Tell Me You Love Me had yet another middle-aged mommy who I've thought highly of over the years, Ally Walker. Waited ten looooooong episodes of brain-numbing depression to finally see Walker starkers. Wasn't worth it. Under no circumstances, especially if already depressed, should you watch this show in re-runs. Simply dreadful.
Sexpertise might not be my milieu, but it's like art. You know good sex entertainment when you see it. Hope this guide helps you avoid the American approach and wait out the arrival of the good stuff from overseas.
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