The Lair

Sure, some of the actors have just graduated from porn and aren't ready for even B movies. Sure, the special effects are low budget. Sure, the writing is kind of risible and there's a sex scene in every episode that defines "gratuitous". NEVERTHELESS, I care about these characters far far more than I ever did for the whiners in the US version of "Queer as Folk". Peter Stickles is probably the most fragile looking bad guy ever and Dylan Vox picked up the face that Bette Midler left on the operating table and I love them for it! I can't wait to see what happens to Thom, Damian, Collin and especially Sheriff Trout next! Bring on season four!

Here! TV's second gay supernatural soap opera. The first was the truly dreadful and boring "Dante's Cove". This one is about an exclusive club called the Lair. You have to be invited in. It seems it's a cover for a group of young attractive gay vampires. They go out, invite hunky attractive guys in and drain them dry. Investigative reporter Thom (David Moretti) finds out something is going on when his jealous boyfriend Jonathan (Jesse Cutlip) goes there and is found comatose later on. Also it seems Thom is the reincarnation of the head vampires (Peter Stickles) long-lost love. There's also a subplot about a straight woman trying to leave her abusive lover.

As you can see this pretty silly and familiar plot wise. I THINK this is supposed to be campy because some of the lines are just beyond ridiculous. Also, like all other soap operas, these people were not hired for acting ability. They were hired on how good-looking and in good shape they were too. Every guy has a nude scene (back views only) and there's plenty of guy on guy sex scenes. Most of the cast can't act (Cutlip especially is terrible) but Moretti, Stickles and old porn star Colton Ford are OK. The frequent sex scenes keep things enjoyable and, unlike "Dante's Cove",this moves fairly quickly. Be warned, this doesn't stint on blood and violence. It's not TOO graphic but it's there. No great shakes but a fun, enjoyable gay vampire soap opera. The prime audience for this is gay men and women. I give it a 7.

What IS it about low-budget gay entertainment??? It may be true that real talent doesn't always come cheap but surely - SURELY - there must be SOME actors out there, willing to "play gay" (whether they ARE gay or not), who have actual honest-to-goodness talent. Unfortunately, none of those actors are involved with "The Lair", a vampires-are-among-us series created for a gay audience. Utilizing the same nudity and sexually-charged situations that made "Queer As Folk" such a big hit, "The Lair" may initially draw in viewers simply because of that; what KEPT "QAF" popular, though, was its storytelling AND the fact that the performances were solid, creating characters you could actually care about or want to continue seeing. Not so with "The Lair", which truly values style over substance: most of the men presented here were chosen strictly for their looks. The summary of the show is that a newspaper reporter is investigating a series of strange deaths of unidentified men dumped in various spots; his investigation leads him to a gay sex club called (of course) The Lair, which is really owned and operated by vampires. (This is in no way a spoiler as this is clearly spelled out in the first few minutes of the first episode.) Naturally, this means the viewer is offered lots of men in soft-core situations. For those who aren't too demanding, the show may provide some entertainment. But I personally find this show's soft-core aspect dull and lifeless; everyone is young, trim, muscular, blah blah blah. It's all just so cookie-cutter! Don't get me wrong: I like looking at men as much as the next person but...I happen to like variety. All shapes, colors, and sizes. Apparently, though, only young white men of a particular style inhabit the world of vampires and "The Lair". I give it a rating of two only for the flesh shown, though even that hardly salvages it. That the show is directed by Fred Olen Ray doesn't help; he's directed countless exploitation flicks, made cheaply and poorly, for a seriously undemanding audience. Until now, his canon seems to have been created primarily for straight men (lots of T-and-A). This ranks (and I do mean "rank") right down there with them all! The show is boring, lifeless, rather UNsexy. The acting runs the gamut from wooden to melodramatic; the writing is simple-minded and seems to be there only to get from one sex scene to the next. It also seems to have been created under the guise that gay people are so starved for gay-themed entertainment that they'll watch anything put before them. Watch this show if you must but I say if you're going to watch guys going out it, why not just get some real porn and have at it?

I went into this series expecting it to be almost the same as the series "Dante's Cove". I was let down by most of the performing in the series and the writing of this series. It was not a good series over all. I was expecting something because it was a planned spin-off of "Dante's Cove".

"Dante's Cove" is intriguing and keeps the suspense going and has you guessing until the end. Unfortunately, "The Lair" does not provide this as much. "The Lair" only had two redeeming things about it the acting of Dylan Vox and Beverly Lynne. There was a few places were Beverly could have done a lot better, but overall they were the only two that were watchable in this series to me. I am not saying that the other actors might not turn in good work in other places, but I did not like most of them in this particular series.

The ending of this particular series also had me scratching my head. It needs to be explained if they are going to do another season of this show. I won't spoil it, but overall I am disappointed by what I thought would be a great show. If it comes back it need to have better writing on the cast and a story that we can care about. Sex is NOT that important for a show. Context and story are.

"The Lair", for anyone who doesn't already know, is a spin-off series from Here!TV's "Dante's Cove", and follows it the footsteps of that series in that it's a supernaturally-themed gay soap-opera. In most other respects, it's a different thing entirely.

I enjoyed "The Lair" quite a bit. While it suffers from all those things that typically plague new shows (the actors are still finding their characters, and so are the writers, for that matter) - especially new, short-season shows - it's well-produced, and feels well-directed as well. Some of the actors' performances are quite good, and I would say that all the core character performances are superb, which is unusual for a new show. The characters of Thom, Damien, and Colin are strong, motivated, and well-acted, and the supporting cast does a good job as well.

Although the show is a gay soap spin-off of "DC", and contains a "Gentlemen's Club" as a major location, it is actually less nudity-saturated than its sire. Perhaps that's due to "DC's" island beach location, while "The Lair" has a somewhat more urban feel about it (although it's ostensibly set on an island as well.) The nudity in this show feels more "natural" (that is to say, more plot-supported and less random) than that in "DC", and is only on rare occasion a distraction from the show's main action. There is sex (gay) and a lot of it (remember the "Gentlemen's Club") but it feels natural to the plot line and the location, and is generally well-acted (a major thing, in my opinion, if you want "hot" instead of "huh" in your sex scenes.) I'll give one ding in that there are scenes of group sex where the guys are soft (though the camera doesn't dwell on that part of the anatomy - this isn't hard-core porn, after all) and it feels off. Maybe there's a rule about showing hard guys on non-porn, but it seems to me that for a couple of seconds of airtime, it greatly help with suspension of disbelief - after all, I'm supposed to believe these guys are ENJOYING this. Either that, or edit more tightly so it's not obvious on a casual (that is, I'm not freeze-framing to hunt for it) viewing.

Overall, I really enjoyed the show. I think it got off to a stronger start than "DC" and am really enjoying the mix of interesting characters, skin/sex, and of course the "John Doe Murders" plot line running as the main frame the show lives on. I think this one has legs, and will give us all a good run.