Femme Fatales S1

Nothing about the Cinemax After Dark series "Femme Fatales" will win any awards, but the show was meant to be a decidedly guilty pleasure. As such, it has some merit. Designed as an anthology series, each thirty minute episode (more like 24 minutes actually) features a new story line inspired by pulp fiction, graphic novels, and/or detective noir. Each of the fourteen programs is headlined by a tough female lead and showcases plenty of nudity and simulated sexual situations. Needless to say, the show may not have universal appeal. But if you're in the target demographic and like to see scantily clad beauties behaving badly, some of the stories can certainly be appealing (especially for their camp factor). If you are old enough to remember "The Hitchhiker," this plays to some of the same sensibilities and even has a similarly enigmatic host (Tanit Phoenix steps into that role and introduces each lurid episode). And like many of its anthology predecessors, "Femme Fatales" is somewhat erratic in quality. Some stories were great fun, some merely drab, and some straddle the middle ground.

The fourteen episodes are:
1) The White Flowers: Two bank robbers on the lam meet their match as a femme fatale comes between them.
2) Something Like Murder: A classic tale of murder for hire and its double crossing aftermath with a lesbian twist.
3 and 4) Behind Locked Doors: This two-parter is a wacky prison drama about an actress who finds herself behind bars and uses her craft to manipulate the system.
5) Speed Date: A computer nerd looking for love online pairs up with a deadly killer he meets through his dating profile.
6) Bad Medicine: A nurse's evening goes from bad to worse as she becomes involved in a hostage situation.
7) Girls Gone Dead: Sorority girls attempt to earn some extra money by doing a risque video, but all is not what it seems.
8) Till Death Do Us Part: Another bachelorette party classic featuring a dead stripper and a bride-to-be with no memory.
9) Help Me, Rhonda: A home invasion piece where mobsters confront the wife of a man they're looking for.
10) The Clinic: A poor medical prognosis leads a man and his girlfriend to Mexico for a rather unorthodox treatment.
11) Haunted: A paranormal reality broadcast leads a psychic into dangerous territory at the site of a notorious murder.
12) Angels & Demons: Hunting a serial murderer, two detectives find much more than they bargain for.
13 and 14) Visions: A mentalist commits murder and the line between visions and reality starts to get blurry in the two-part finale.

The set has three discs, the first two with seven episodes each. The third disc has an insane amount of extras. If you love the show, it's a wealth of extra material including audio commentaries (every episode), deleted or alternate scenes, several making of featurettes, bloopers, music tracks, and a Comic-Con presentation.

I won't say that "Femme Fatales" is great television, let's be honest. But it does do exactly what it sets out to do. Cheesy and oftentimes amateurish (especially much of the acting), the show was particularly entertaining to me on the crazier episodes. The best shows had a committed over-the-top quality that provided plenty of laughs amidst the intrigue. You'll miss that lunacy when the stories play it too safe or conventional! Somewhat uneven overall, I think many will still find "Femme Fatales" a lot of fun. Silly maybe, but fun too. KGHarris, 2/13.

Pay cable channels have long been the province of the soft-core sex series. These anthologies can take several different formats and settings, but what's universal about them is that each episode delivers the audience at least a single bout of vigorous, no-holds-barred, end-of-the-world type intercourse between only the best-looking people. In short order, these would-be underwear models get hot'n'heavy as soon as the opening credits have been accommodated, and, unfortunately, there's very little substance behind the program's stories.

This is where FEMME FATALES has tried and has for the most part achieved something a bit different. They're offering up sex with a twist. Its producers have delivered a slightly stronger narrative than that of traditional sex series - even a few recurring characters - pushing the envelope a bit from `what's possible' to `what's probable' in its make believe world where deception and double-cross are daily dangers.

(NOTE: the following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and characters. If you're the kind of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I'd encourage you to skip down to the last two paragraphs for my final assessment. If, however, you're accepting of modest hints at `things to come,' then read on ...)

For those of you not in the know, a femme fatale is defined as "a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations." And - though it should go without saying, but I'll say it anyone - a femme fatale is usually a stunner. A looker. A real dame with an attitude, gams that go all the way up, and a rack you can see coming from a mile away. She's the complete package, and she's not afraid to tell you so again and again and again. It's simply part of her allure.

And they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that's truly the case, then the writers for FEMME FATALES should probably be found guilty of stalking. There's very little truly original to their individual stories, many of them shamelessly lifted from films which have already plumbed this territory. At one point, I suspected they had late one night scoured a video store's catalogue of film noir titles, selected their favorites, and then mutually agreed, "we can do this better, through in some TnA, and shorten the screen time from two hours to 24 minutes each!" What's disappointing about that is that, in most cases, the actual sex does feel gratuitous to the yarn they're trying to spin; in other words, getting heavy in the sheets only serves the purpose of reminding the audience "this is pay cable, so we're allowed to show you plenty of boobs." In rare cases were the copulation central to the story; rather, it only served the ratings ... not that there's anything wrong with that!

However, one of the more surprising developments to the program is that FEMME FATALES' writers appear to know how to throw the audience something a bit more inspiring that they probably didn't see coming. It won't be evident in the first episode (and maybe not the second or the third), but at some point it'll dawn on you - the viewer - that they've strung together an intricate web: some of these minor characters return in subsequent episodes where they take center stage. It's a stroke of genius to introduce Camille (played by the fetching Ana Alexander) as a secondary character in "Behind Locked Doors" as a perfunctory women's prison inmate (with a heart of gold!) only to have her become the prime focus in "Help Me, Rhonda," where we're treated to what really happened that caused her to end up in jail. In fact, I found this formula so interesting that I would rather the showrunners had employed it consistently in each and every episode, but that wasn't meant to be.

Like other pay cable shows have done, FATALES employs a central narrator - HBO's TALES FROM THE CRYPT had the Cryptkeeper, and FATALES has Lilith (Tanit Phoenix), a lean, mean sexy machine who usually appears in two sequences, one to help set-up the story and another to deliver its moral. FATALES even tinkers with this just a bit by having Lilith appear in a handful of additional scenes within the story where she's helping to push the tale forward or even pulling strings to make it a bit more exciting. And why not? She's much better looking than the Cryptkeeper, she doesn't have his annoying shrill laugh, and her boobs are vastly more eye-catching. Why not make use of those assets, eh? (Besides, come the season finale, the audiences discover that Lilith may've had more to do with these stories than was originally thought!)

FEMME FATALES: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON is produced by Four Amigos and Radioactive Fishtank. DVD distribution is being handled through Entertainment One (EOne). As for the technical specifications, no expense has been shared in delivered some excellent production quality television; it all looks and sounds very impressive. Furthermore - for true aficionados of the program - there's a shocking wealth of special features: each episode includes a commentary track with the cast and crew; deleted and alternate scenes; several production featurettes; a special director's cut episode; the show's 2011 Comic-Con panel; bloopers; music tracks; photo galleries; and even more. Seriously, they've served up everything AND the kitchen sink. The only thing missing is soap for the long, cold shower enthusiasts might need to come down from their sensual `high.'

RECOMMENDED. The femme fatales of FEMME FATALES might be more than a bit predictable - the stories they're given have been seen before, but it's a sure bet that their breasts haven't! Still, the writers find a way to tweak the overall narrative of the program by re-introducing secondary characters into bigger stories later on, making the world come to surprising life (but not a lot of depth). You're likely to tune in for the sex but stay for the afterglow because revenge is a dish best served cold (and with an audience). Modestly charming and an easy way to pass thirty minutes, FEMME FATALES is worth a single glance if for no other reason than the fact that, in the end, it tried to do something a bit different and succeeds on its own merits.

In the interests of fairness, I'm pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Entertainment One (EOne) provided me with an advance DVD screener of FEMME FATALES: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON by request for the expressed purposes of completing this review.

Whether or not the femme fatales series is your cup of tea, there is no denying this is a great dvd. Tons of special features,
deleted scenes, behind the scenes, interviews, and commentary on all the episodes by the series creators and sometimes even the hot chicks ("femme fatales") themselves! Looking forward to season 2!