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Dante’s Cove
A random thread on Thingbox put me onto the existence of this little gem of a series, made in the US for a subscription gay channel (some people have dubbed this phenomenon “pay-for-gay” which amuses me), and I have to say that I have become rather hooked.
It starts simply enough, in Dante’s Cove, with a woman walking in and discovering her husband to be in the process of being buggered by his valet on the eve of their wedding. The obvious thing to do, therefore, is to kill the valet with a flash of her eyes, and then imprison her fiance as an ugly aged figure for a hundred-and-fifty years until he can be released from his aged form by the kiss of a young man.
And after this, ladies and gentlemen, it goes a bit mad.
It’s essentially Dark Shadows crossed with Buffy, crossed with softcore gay and lesbian porn, which makes for startling viewing I can tell you. The plot, such as it is, steams along for a while and then you suddenly think “hang on, there’s been no sex for 15 minutes, what’s going on?” before, right on cue, you’re rewarded with some quite surprisingly frank (if obviously non-penetrative - this is for TV after all) boffing.
The men are at times almost distressingly hairless and jock-like - although I seem to be coping since they are generally rather woof (especially Charlie David who plays Toby) - and the acting veers wildly between mediocre and appalling, but there’s definitely a certain captivating quality to the whole thing.
If nothing else you have to keep watching to see if Tracy Scoggins manages to nail down her English accent at any point. So far the signs aren’t looking good, I must say, but it’s a fascinating blend of vocal styles all the same. On one occasion she even managed to pronounce “aspirant” like “arse-print” which I’m afraid to say almost made me choke to death on my dinner - but it still made me love her all the more.
The thing I love most though is that in three short series it’s done all those things you’d expect from an American soap opera. It’s changed the actors playing two characters completely, replacing them with people who look nothing like the originals (”Hey Michelle, good to see you, you’re looking… different!”). It’s even changed location completely so that series one is set on a visibly different island to the subsequent ones (”It’s amazing what a lick of paint can do”).
But best of all they’ve also had to completely abandon a plot strand when one of the actors didn’t come back for series three. “There’s a new power in Dante’s Cove!” says the end of series two. Series three starts with: “Whoops, she appears to have died in a Tsunami! Got out of that one…”.
So, couple all this insanity with melodrama so thick you could tar a fence in it - and season with that wonderful trick that US soaps seem to have of having perfectly reasonable conversations switching to heart-wringing arguments with no pause for breath - and it really is something to behold.
I’m absolutely loving it.
Of course, given my track record with series like this, it’ll probably do a Hex and finish the season on a cliffhanger and then never get recommissioned. Oh well - such is life.
Posted on January 6, 2008 | Filed Under Film and Television
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