Here's a repost of my thoughts on Dante's Cove in my Multiply.com reviews:
I've received lots of email requesting for Dante's Cove...uhmmm, well, I'm not exactly ACA Video rentals, you know? I'm better than that, because you can download Season 2 of Dante's Cove by joining my group " Iason R*cks Riki " ( http://iasonfucksriki.multiply.com/ ). It's downloadable in the video section, and of course it's only available for members of my groups. If you like R rated and X rated gay stuff, it's in my 1st group, "Iason R*cks Riki", and if you like Yaoi Anime and Shounen Ai, it's in my 2nd group, "the Yaoi Cove" ( http://yaoicove.multiply.com/ ). So, Nicki, Evan, Vince, and all of my Multiply gang, just look for it in the video sections and click on the download links. Pamasko na 'yan for you!!! I will upload Season 1 as well as episode recaps for both season in the near future. To quote Ciara, go ahead and enjoy "my goodies!"
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For beginners, let's try to describe the series. Describing Dante’s Cove as “Melrose Place meets Dark Shadows,” isn’t too far from the truth, except you have to add “as imagined by Bel Ami.” and "directed by Chichi LaRue." The tag for the series is “Your newest guilty pleasure.” It is mine. ☻ The series, packed-to-the-abs with heartbreakingly gorgeous men and women, all powerfully queer and seemingly ensorcelled toward preternatural arousal, tends to dance around the horror… so as not to interfere with all that sexual tension, or sex. My favorite love scenes are the ones between Charlie David and Gregory Michael, man, they look like they're in love and in lust for one another. Jon Flemming is a great addition to the cast...look at that six-pack! It's good he replaced Stephen Amell, cause the latter really didn't deliver the character of Adam, the best friend of Toby ( Charlie David ). It's rumored he didn't like the development of the character, unwilling to go "gayer" ths season. Too bad, Stephen, but thanks, otherwise, Jon wouldn't have stepped in. His Adam was funnier. sexier and a worthwhile competition to Kevin ( Gregory Michael ) for Toby's love and affection.
Dante's Cove, the gay gothic serialized franchise that serves as one of the first original offerings from the on-demand digital cable network here!, won't win any awards for its acting, writing, direction or production values. There are times that the actors seem to be OA ( overacting ) but you'd forget about that another raunchy sex scene is coming up.
But it might be remembered as the first television series about gay characters that is not a silly situation comedy or a serious drama about personal relationships and the social and political issues of the day. Yeah, and that's a relief. We've had enough of that in Queer as Folk ( great show, but please, not all of gay shows should dwell in this kind of drama ). Cove delivers unapologetic, gratuitous nudity (mostly male) and constant sex (mostly between men, but with something for everybody). Even our Lezzie sisters wil enjoy the show, there's a lot of hot women in both seasons. In other words, Dante's Cove bears no resemblance whatsoever to NBC's Will & Grace or Showtime's The L Word and Queer as Folk, the three most prominent series about gay people in the history of American television. Instead, Cove is something new: A gay television series intended as nothing more than mindless escapist fare. In some ways, by refusing to take itself seriously and seeking only to unashamedly entertain on the same level as similarly low-budget productions, Cove is as progressive as higher profile and higher quality gay-themed programming on other networks.
So, what's the story so far? The character abd resident Queen Biatch causing most of the trouble on its canvas is Grace (Tracy Scoggins of The Colbys and Dynasty), the latest in a long line of witches who mate with and then kill their men. Here's what happened in Season One: In 1840, a young Ambrosius (William Gregory Lee) is caught by future bride/hellspawn Grace Neville (Babylon’s 5 Traci Scoggins) bumping uglies with a hot young thing--a thing of the male persuasion, incidentally. Now Grace, being a woman scorned, and a woman bristling with awesome unholy powers, instantly microwaves her fiancé’s boy toy mid-coitus (simply by staring at him, her eyes blazing with red malevolence ), then entombs said fiancé SM/dungeon style for being so naughty. She also curses him with that most unholy of curses--eternal un-hotness--until some virile male locks lips with him and breaks the spell. "The kiss of a young man shall set you free," Grace teases. Ambrosius in the more than 150 years that follow learns to "channel the mystical realm and harness it," as he later explains to Corey ( Josh Berresford ) before turning him into his slave. (The details of Ambrosius' dark enlightenment, like many elements of the plot, are never made entirely clear.)
Bump up to the present, and lots of sweaty bumping between lovers Toby (Charlie David) and Kevin (Gregory Michael. And yes, sex is on tap in this series). Problems mount after their sexy mounting, of course; seems Kevin’s a bit of a closet case, and can’t accept Toby’s “lifestyle” or his offer to move in. But when bashed by his family, Kev hightails it to Dante’s Cove... a little Key West-style hamlet featuring an inn of the same name where Toby bartends.
And where one Ambrosius lies moldering.
Crusty old Ambrosius doesn’t molder for long, however. Getting a supernatural whiff of Kevin, he tricks the young stud into planting that vitalizing kiss on him and escapes his bondage, literal and magical--only to grow obsessive over his fresh-faced liberator. To complicate things, Grace, ageless as a chip of brimstone, has survived, and is still pining for her former paramour. In the present day, Ambrosius lures handsome young Kevin to the basement and finally gets his kiss. Kevin flees while Ambrosius, able to move for the first time since 1840 and transformed into his former hunky self, goes directly to the mirror to check his hair. Ambrosius, now a nasty warlock, seems intent both on enslaving Kevin and having sex with him. If I were Kevin, and Ambrosus looked as good as the actor who plays him ( William Gregory Lee ), I'd submit to my new Master...just saying, okay? Of primary importance within the narrative are opportunities for revealing sex scenes between Kevin and his good-natured boyfriend Toby, who brought Kevin to live at the hotel after Kevin's parents rejected him. Good for all of us, I love to visualize Charlie David being submissive, wish I was Kevin, damn that closet queen.
Scoggins is the best performer of note in Dante's Cove, and she seems to enjoy playing the evil, spurned priestess Grace, who is still hanging around the title neighborhood and causing problems in the present day. (Perhaps after all that time Grace can explain why there is frequently thunder and lightning inside Cove-area buildings when, during the same scenes, the weather outside is calm and inviting.) Jon Fleming also is good, he revitalizes the character of Adam which was kinda stale and boring in Season 1. The other actors -- William Gregory Lee as Ambrosius, Gregory Michael as Kevin, Charlie David as Toby, Nadine Heimann as the understanding lesbian Van -- are all unknowns, and their thespian talents vary, but they come across as a uniformly likeable and largely uninhibited group. One thing I didn't like was how they easily wrote off Amber and the Russian Lezzie off the show in Season 2. They totally disappeared. They were replaced by Michelle Wolffe ( bartender with the hot abs of steel, Brit ) and Erin Cummings ( who plays Michelle, Van's girlfriend who wants a commitment and has a phobia for the unknown ). Thea Gill is back from Queer as Folk, and it's nice to see a familiar face once again. As for the new gay guys, I'd have to be critical. Marco ( Gabriel Romero ), Kain ( Germann Santiago ) and Dylan Vox ( Mr. Sex Club Operator ) don't really have anytinhg to contribute to the story, although Marco and Kai are hot Latinos, and the show also needs to have some race diversity. And Pornstar Dylan Vox running a sex club? We've had plenty of these in Queer as Folk, it's a tired reference to gay life. Not all of us are into it. It worked very well for Queer As Folk, but do all islands and all towns in gay TV shows have to have a bathhouse or a sex club? Please. The show can do without these 3 weak characters, they're taking away precious airtime from our hot boys and friendly lezzie sisters in Dante's Cove.
Before you download or buy online ( oooh you're so rich... ) darlings, let's get something out of the way right off the bat - if you're looking for quality programming along the likes of "Masterpiece Theater," you're sure to be disappointed if you watch here!'s "Dante's Cove." To put it into easier phrasing: "Dante's Cove" is the Velveeta cheese of television world - creamy, rich and tasty, totally devoid of nutritional value and best consumed with a box of affordable California burgundy. (Better make that two boxes.) No, the epic good vs. evil struggle between the lusty Ambrosius and vengeful Grace is not likely to win any Emmys this year, but gosh darn it, it's good, dirty fun and you should be watching. Did I mention there's a ton of nudity? (Oh yes, there's oodles of it.) Not since "Dynasty" has trashy television been so delicious and I congratulate the cast and crew of "Dante's Cove" for bringing such frivolous fluff to fruition! By the way, thank you Charlie David, Gregory Michael, Jon Fleming, William Gregory Lee and Josh Berresford for inviting and adding me at their MySpace. You guys rock, I hope to see you all in Season 3!!!
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