Dark Shadows Meets Gay Porn! DANTE'S COVE THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON

Dante's Cove The Complete First Season Created by Michael Costanza

"I know what's been *getting into him*...that boy!"  The Evil Stepfather.

One of the biggest challenges for the fledgling here! Network was a lack of programming.  As one of the first Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgendered Cable Networks, they broke ground reaching an audience desperate for outside validation.  But there was not a great catalog of material that is gay themed and gay friendly to work with.

So they made a lot of their own.  One of the first series was Dante's Cove.  How to describe this show...If Dark Shadows had a bastard lovechild with Soft Core Gay Porn, that would be Dante's Cove.

Once upon a time there was a little community called Dante's Cove.  In it lived a family of Witches, Sadia Neville (Diane Davisson) and her daughter Grace (Tracy Scoggins.)  Grace is getting to that certain age when the ticking of her biological clock is like the thunder of cannon-fire, and she finds the attentions of a certain young man, Ambrosius Vallin (William Gregory Lee) most flattering.  Momma does not approve of the match, but Grace is headstrong.

Of course, Ambrosius is gay, and when Grace catches him with the butler (Earl McDougle) buttling away, she is furious.  Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, unless it is a witch scorned.  Poor Raymond the Butler dies of the Evil Eye, but Ambrosius is locked up in the cellar, immortal, undying, and aged until a young man should kiss him.

Now, run the clock forward from 1840 to 2005.  Kevin Archer (Gregory Michael) is suffocating at living at home in the closet with his mom and Stepfather.  He longs to come out, and live with his boyfriend Toby (Charlie David) in Dante's Cove.  Well, be careful what you wish for because a blow up at home has the youth relocating.

The Dante Hotel where Toby lives has a checkered history.  Originally the Vallin home, it is reported to be haunted.  It is inhabited by a colourful rogue's gallery of young men and women who are all marked by three things, beauty, high libido, and a penchant for members of their own gender.  Kevin is beset by visions that draw him eventually to the cellar where he finds an old man in chains.  He frees the old geezer only to be rewarded with a pruney double lip lock, and Ambrosius is free of the curse, restored to his youth, and in lust with his rescuer, Kevin.  Apparently he was able to pick up a good deal of mystical lore while chained away for a century and a half.

What follows is a complex welter of converging storylines, shifting allegiances, casual dalliances, and deepening mystery.  A good third (or the good third) of the show is devoted to soft core making out.  There is a whole lot of nudity here, and prime stuff.  Male Frontal Nudity (Yay Butlers!) Male Rear Nudity.  Lots and lots of Male Rear Nudity.  Lesbian love scenes.  Topless sunbathing. Passionate affairs, casual sex, and quick tricks, with a square dance of changing partners.  Lots of Male Rear Nudity.  Did I mention that already?

Anyhoo...the other two thirds of the show...half is soap opera; mysterious medical dramas, catty remarks, hurt feelings, gossip, innuendo.  The last is the mystic angle; the war between Grace and Ambrosius, the mysterious homeless lady in 1840's tatters, the standard trappings of witchcraft, and a pair of ghostly children who haunt Toby, and seem to by his guardian angels.

Like I said, this is not high art; it's something between a soap opera and shore leave night at the Blue Oyster Bar.  The acting is somewhere between a Jeff Stryker Video and Dynasty.  It ain't great, but then again, who cares? Toby and Kevin sell the show, which is good because the villains, Grace and Ambrosius are way beyond over the top.

It's a lot of campy fun, and there is something for everyone, gay, lesbian, and straight sexiness.

This review, like Ambrosius Vallin, is Lean-N-Mean.  It weighs in at a highly appropriate 666 words.  It is also entered into the Wicked Hallows Write Off for it's spooky content, and into the Texas-Sweden write off; ‘cause Tracy Scoggins is from Dickinson, TX. 


Gay Movies:

La Mission***Burnt Money***8: The Mormon Propo$ition***In The Flesh***The Sensei***The 24th Day***Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon***ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction***East Side Story***Dorian Blues***Creatures From the Pink Lagoon***Satyricon***Ice Men***Richard O'Briens Rocky Horror Tribute Show***Prom Queen***The Kids are All Right***Between Love and Goodbye***The Mudge Boy***That Man: Peter Berlin***A Single Man***Almost Normal***Outing Riley***Outrage!***Law of Desire***Love is the Devil***Cowboy Junction***Horror in the Wind***Bedrooms and Hallways***Cut Sleeve Boys***Big Eden***For A Lost Soldier***Midnight Cowboy***Redwoods***The Massuer***Boy Culture***Breakfast With Scot***The Fluffer***Flesh***Little Ashes***L.I.E. ***Dorian Gray***9 Dead Gay Guys***Shank***I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry***Beautiful Boxer***Bangkok Love Story***Schoolboy Crush***Shelter***Back Soon***Dog Tags***Theft***The Mulligans***The Velvet Goldmine***Swashbuckler***Smoke Signals
***C'Thulhu***Milk***The Picture of Dorian Gray***Brideshead Revisited***Notes on a Scandal***RocknRolla***Mamma Mia!
***Priscillia: Queen of the Desert***The History Boys***Brokeback Mountain***The Broken Hearts Club*** Yaji and Kita: Midnight Pilgrims ***Surge of Power ***In & Out ***Mambo Italiano ***Touch of Pink ***To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar ***Wolves of Kromer ***Rocky Horror Picture Show ***Taboo ***Deathtrap 


Gay Themed Series:

Spartacus: Blood and Sand
Dante's Cove
Hex
Carnivale Season One
Carnivale Season Two
Rome Season One
Rome Season Two
True Blood
True Blood: Season Two
The Book of Daniel: The Complete Series
Torchwood: Children of Earth
Torchwood: Season One


Gay Animation:

Pirate's Booty***Sensitive Pornograph***Loveless: The Complete Series***Loveless: Hope on the Run***Loveless: Soul of Chains***Loveless: Lost and Found***Embracing Love: A Cicada in Winter***Embracing Love: Cherished Spring ***Stonewall & Riot***Drawn Together Movie: The Movie***Drawn Together: Season 2***Drawn Together: Season 3

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