Fantasmes

I use to really like this show as it had a better storyline than the other junk, late night soft erotic shows of the past. I especially relate to Jake's (David Duchovney's character) yearn to know why his late fiancé kept the secret of an affair she was having hidden from him, when he thought they were perfectly happy and when he gave everything he could to her.

My favourite episode was with Cheryl Lee entitled 'Jake's story'; it made such a change to see Jake share with us his experience and encounters with new love with a mysterious woman.

Occasionally there was the bad episode, but the great camera shots and the whole style of the show when showing people and places was worth watching and made up for it.

Worth a watch!

Late night eroticism, but the stories were told from a woman's perspective. The music in this series was fantastic, and it set the mood perfectly. Many of the stories were good, but there were some clinkers, as well. Some of the actors and actresses that appeared were those that viewers would recognize from other TV series and B-grade movies (Joan Severance, Steven Bauer, Denise Crosby, Matt LeBlanc, Francisco Quinn, Paula Barbieri, etc.). This was one of two TV series that David Duchovny appeared in before he starred on "The X-Files" (the other was the odd "Twin Peaks").

Jake Winters (David Duchovny) is still heart-broken by the betrayal and death of his girlfriend Alex. He has placed personal ads in the paper as Red Shoes asking for diaries from women to better comprehend. He reads the material he receives at the start and at the end of each episode with his dog Stella always at his side. In between, there are the pulpy erotic romance stories with some fleeting softcore nudity told by the women's diaries.

Zalman King uses his movie of the same name as a launch point for this late-night erotic cable show. Duchovny gets to walk around at the docks pretending to read letters. It is what it advertises to be. It is cheesy and pulpy. There are scantily-clad hot women with little or no clothes. It is an after-dark lounge with impossibly hot people getting it on. Some of these women are actually known with real acting experiences or other exposures. There are plenty of nude models, and B-movie actresses like Audie England or Joan Severance. It's the 90's and it filled that softest of 30 minutes porn needs. The stories are nothing special to write home about but they could be a lot worst.

The first episode is fantastic, but after episode four in Season One, the quality and vibe completely change for the worse. Lots of good concepts and storylines, but the way it is executed with casting, acting, and writing does not do it justice. The show very quickly becomes stale and boring by not stretching itself creatively, which is a shame. It started out very sensual, erotic, and romantic at times with a promise of more to come and then it just didn't deliver. Feels like a wasted opportunity. And there's no diversity whatsoever. There's more female nudity than male nudity, of course, because the nude male body is so offensive and just too much to take for some people I guess. I don't know what simpletons sat there clutching their pearls calling this porn or soft porn, but it is most definitely not. Some of these episodes don't even have nudity! People need to grow up. It's obviously an Adult show about adults doing adult things like having affairs, engaging in bondage, etc... It's also definitely geared towards women. The sex scenes are shot so erratic, dimly lit, and foggy that sometimes you can't even tell what's going on.

Look, I gave "Red Shoe Diaries" a shot because everyone kept talking about how "erotic" and "artistic" it was. What a joke. This isn't a remake of anything specific, but it definitely feels like a cheap knockoff of better anthology shows.

The whole premise is ridiculous - some guy reading diary entries from women about their sexual encounters while brooding dramatically. David Duchovny's narration is so pretentious it's almost funny. He delivers every line like he's reciting Shakespeare instead of introducing what's basically cable TV porn.

The stories themselves are incredibly formulaic. Woman meets mysterious stranger, they have some supposedly steamy encounter, then there's always some tragic twist or melodramatic ending. The acting is wooden, the dialogue is laughable, and the "erotic" scenes feel more awkward than sexy.

What really bugged me was how it tried to dress itself up as sophisticated adult entertainment when it's just exploitation with better lighting. The female characters have zero depth beyond being objects of desire, and every story follows the same boring pattern.

Is it worth watching? Only if you're really bored and curious about 90s cable television at its most ridiculous. Otherwise, skip it completely. There are way better shows that actually respect their audience's intelligence.