Dante's Cove

I loved Queer As folk because the characters were complex: it was not simply about gay characters but about flesh and blood people. Besides, all the actors were excellent. But Dante's Cove is so ridiculous and funny, though not voluntarily...

The Gothic background is a caricature, with witches having red, glaring eyes when they curse their victims, and people turning into dust all of a sudden. Harry Potter sounds like Kierkegaard compared to that rubbish of hidden manuscripts, pentagrams and undead people... The acting is below awful, so much so that I couldn't help laughing most of the time. And the sex scenes so conventional, the men looking all more or less alike. A real waste of time! (and money if you have been unfortunate enough to buy this series)

Starts off in 1840 with Ambrosius (William Gregory Lee) about to get married to an evil witch (Tracy Scoggins). But she catches him having sex with his butler and immediately puts a curse on him.

Cut to 2005--Young hunky Kevin (Gregory Michael) is in love with young hunky Toby (Charlie David). Toby takes a job in Dante's Cove and stays at Hotel Dante. Kevin joins him and meets the various inhabitants--gay Corey, bisexual Amber, straight Adam, straight Josh, lesbian Vanessa. Kevin starts hearing voices calling him from the basement and unwittingly follows them...

I only saw part one of this of here! TV On Demand. This is (basically) a supernatural soap opera full of nudity (mostly male) and simulated sex scenes. Heck, within the first 10 minutes there's a (fairly explicit) gay sex sequence! There are more later on mixed in with lesbian and straight sex...something for everyone. This is squarely aimed at gay male audiences though--there are plenty of hunky young guys here frequently out of their clothes.

This is pretty well-made but the sex scenes are the main reason for this. As for the acting---all of the actors were probably hired for their looks, bodies and comfort with doing nude scenes...not their acting ability. Some of the acting is pretty bad--Kevin, Vanessa, Adam and Josh are TERRIBLE. But Toby and Corey are pretty good. But let's face it--you're watching this for the nudity and sex. There's plenty of it and all the actors look great nude. This does have limits--the sex is (obviously) simulated and there's no frontals on the guys (except for one brief scene at the beginning).

So--for gay men this is a silly but fun and sexy soap. Others might not like it too much. I give it an 8.

Having watched the first and second seasons of this show, I find myself drawn into the world of "Dante's Cove". The cast members are all very good looking and the sex scenes are very enjoyable. A common complaint with this series is that the writing and the acting is a bit off. The truth is, this series is being built from the ground up and I have hope that this series will get better as the the seasons roll on.

I do have one complaint, Kevin's crying, at least three episodes in the second season alone had Kevin crying and the first season had him on non-stop waterworks. Aside from that, the series is great.

I've seen the trailer for Season 3 and I am very excited to see the inclusion of Jenson Atwood, who I adored in Noah's Arc. The Story is engaging and yes it can be a little slow, but as the budget gets bigger and the actors become more accustomed to their characters and the writers become more accustomed to those characters, the writing will improve.

This series has great potential and is a breath of fresh air to the AIDS awareness films that have dominated the queer market for the better half of 20 years. Please give this show a chance and you'll see the magic in it too.

Make no mistake: Dante's Cove is targeted primarily for the gay male audience. Its young, cute, hunky and beautiful male actors aren't cast by accident. While their acting doesn't quite hit the mark, the main characters, Kevin and Toby, do well, and I suspect may improve further in the remaining segments. In their scenes together, they represent a plausible young gay couple in love–refreshing and what most gay (and straight) people need to see. Sure, the great bodies and handsome faces are wonderful, but we all want love, and this show provides the chance to vicariously jump head first into more than just sex.

For those not tuning in to see guys, take heart--there are lesbian scenes; beautiful, scantily-clad young women, and just a nice bunch of young people kind of lazing around white, sandy beaches doing what most of us would enjoy: not much and having a hell of a good time. There's also a strong Gothic and macabre element reminiscent of Dark Shadows from '70s television.

Roll all of the show's elements together, and you have an entertaining, albeit exaggerated plot, that adheres to the show's preternatural basis. Dante's Cove is not about BEING gay, but more pointedly that gay people find themselves in everyday AND extraordinary situations--trying to navigate life's labyrinth and survive (Wow! exactly like straight people do!).

Take a look at Here!'s new miniseries. This genre and its audiences are here to stay; get used to it, folks.

Someone mentioned 3 parts; I just got the DVD set which is 2 parts. Fortunately the second part redeemed it, because the first part was pretty bad: it's about half softcore porn (going beyond QAF even), and the writing is pretty rough, as is some of the acting.

The second part improves just about everywhere, though some of the writing and acting still leaves a little to be desired. It actually gets gripping and leaves me wanting more, and I certainly don't mind seeing lots of bare chested hunks, especially Gregory Michael! I just wish they'd make up their mind: one minute, they're showing a sex scene out of a soft core porn video, and the next they have the actors contorted in a gruesomely unnatural position in order to avoid showing a body part that they already had on camera early on in the first episode. If they shot it naturally, even though we'd see "everything", the scene would still be far less sexual than the one that preceded it, and would flow much better.

Anyway, if it continues to improve at the rate the 2nd episode did over the first one, I'm looking forward to seeing it continue.