Femme Fatales: Sesso e crimini

This might sound nuts to you, but with no Mad Men on TV this summer, my favorite television show right now is a little late night guilty pleasure called Femme Fatales. I know, I'm shocked too. But after seeing a few commercials on Cinemax after a movie I was watching, I thought I'd hit the record button on my DVR and check it out when I was really, really bored when my girlfriend wasn't around. Last night, I ended up starting the first one and watched all three ofthe first episodes and I didn't just like it, I loved it. There's a lot sex but the stories are so interesting and completely different from anything else on TV that I wondered if I was crazy so I actually sat down and showed a few minutes to my girlfriend and I ended up watching all three again with her who liked it as much as I did. The acting across the board was great. I really liked the lead in the premiere and in the second one, the guy I loved in Niptuck was in it and he was great. I almost spit out my soda when he started quoting lines from White Heat which is probably when I realized there was something a tad subversive about this show which I thought was just some late night stroke show and turned out to be something else entirely. So far, none of the three episodes I watched had anything to do with each other which kept me surprised since I didn't know what to expect. And in last night's episode there was girl that I thought was one of the most stunning women I ever saw on TV, the blonde who kills her husband. This is not the kind of show I would have expected to like or even watch but I will definitely be watching from now on and if you happen to be reading this and don't know if it is for you, I would say give it a chance because it's a pretty smart, hip, fairly subversive little show. Who knew?

5.9/10? What were those viewers thinking? I think most IMDB users don't use their brains when rating a movie/tv show. It was a good show: a show of pornography and storytelling. It served the purpose of sexually arousing viewers, with some good stories. I loved the episode with a haunted house and the episodes where women sought revenge on men who hurt them. Big kudos to those actresses too. Good acting. Sorry but I couldn't stand those bosoms with silicones. I love all things natural. Also I loved how some stories connected to each other. You will see some faces that show up in multiple different places in different episodes. Great erotic tv series.

Well mostly not "cute" that is. Maybe a little QT (the cover art of the Box Sets indicating that this is "Sin City meets Tarantino"), but not a lot either. What it is though, is erotic short stories, with strong female leads. You may not always like where they are leading to, but most of them are very satisfying nonetheless (in more than one way as you can imagine).

Not every short story does the trick, but even the weaker ones have something that is at least worthwhile. Some are more predictable than others and some have more sex than others. Some of them are even connected (characters popping up at different episodes making it a fun watch). Give the show a try. Curious to see if there is a third season with even more guest appearances (second season had Eric Roberts, Vivica A. Fox and others)

Femme Fatales is a truly great anthology series and I'm not sure why it's not getting all the love it deserves. I've never seen an anthology show done quite this well before since The Twilight Zone...and that includes The Outer Limits, new and old. If you can imagine a sexy version of the Twilight Zone mashing up different genres with a sultry host and cool characters, then you have some idea of the show "Femme Fatales." There are great special appearances by cult stars such as, Agnus Scrimm & Paul Mazursky, to name some of my favorites. The other thing that deserves a shout-out is the cast. The acting is terrific and the "femme fatales" usually aren't only smoldering, but they're also really good actresses as well. Femme Fatales is way more edgy and entertaining than previous stabs at doing anthologies in the last few years, like Masters of Horror and Fear Itself, which I wanted to love, but kinda blew. For example, "Behind Locked Doors" is a woman in prison romp reminiscing 70's exploitation and grindhouse. "Something Like Murder" is an old school sexy noir. "Haunted" is a straight up horror episode in the realm of Paranormal State type shows. "Help Me Rhonda" is a home invasion thriller and a sort of prequel to "Behind Locked Doors" which I've never seen done in anthology before where episodes actually connect to each other even though they're different stories. "Speed Date" is a hilarious action comedy. "Girls Gone Dead" is a sex charged revenge episode. Seeing how they tackled all the different genres this season, I can't wait to see what they do with season 2. The one thing I've come to expect with "Femme Fatales," is expect the unexpected.

I was pleasantly shocked when I saw this show. I expected the usual late night fare, but instead both of the first two episodes of Femme Fatales featured fun, fast-paced stories, recognizable actors, really nice production values, and great entertainment value, along with a heavy dose of sex and nudity. Unlike a previous reviewer, I think adding more sex would just ruin the pacing and make this just another late night show. As it is, it's a big step up into the big leagues of real programming for Cinemax. If this is indicative of what's coming from Cinemax in the future, I'll start watching the channel regularly. For now, I'll definitely be watching more of Femme Fatales.