Dante's Cove~~A Gay DS~~Out on DVD

[David]

Last year, Here TV, a gay pay per view network, aired a miniseries called Dante's Cove, which the network described as a cross between Buffy, Queer as Folk and Dark Shadows!

It proved so popular with Here viewers that a full season is now in production, and the first season is out on DVD, which I just got.

I'll post my thoughts on it after I watch it.
Anyone else here see it?

David
 

[Gerard]

I've never heard of it, but I did find a website about it (and about the first season coming out on DVD).  By watching the available trailers on the site, it does have a very Dark-Shadowish quality about it (an updated one, that is, that almost teases about what a well-done, updated, stylish remake of DS could be like).

http://www.dantescove.com/

Gerard

[Gothick]

Haven't seen it yet, but the curiosity factor has it high on my list of stuff to see.  The reviews I have seen emphasize that it is not at all well scripted, and apart from one or two exceptions most of the "acting" is strictly of the casting couch variety... I gather there is a fair amount of "explicit" material that ranges from guy-on-guy to girl-on-girl and, believe it or not, girl-on-guy.
Given that this is the US, I would guess that the "explicit" stuff goes no further than softcore--i.e. there will be no hard-ons or "money shots" on camera.

A friend who saw it found it mostly rather bland, insipid, uninspired and lacking in excitement.  The "first season" lasts 3 episodes.  I am surprised that they are making more of it.

I do find it amusing that the plot seems to revolve around [spoiler]a Witch in the 18th century who discovers her husband cheating on her with one of the stable boys and curses him to walk the earth forever as a vampire... seems like a rather droll variant upon a tale we all know well here.[/spoiler]

Sounds as if the best way to view it is with a coupon as a cheap rental!

G.

[David]

Did someone at DS Boards post the term "hard on"?
How shocking, LOL!

Seriously though, I've watched the first episode of Dante.
The acting is REALLY bad, but the cast is REALLY hot!
Lots of nudity, and yes, gay, lesbian & straight sex scenes, graphic but soft core.

Dynasty's Tracy Scoggins plays Grace, a witch who curses the man she loves when he rejects her~~for another man!
A gay twist on the Barnbas/Josette/Angelique story!!!
There are other DS elements in it.

Scoggins plays her role with a British accent she cannot sustain!
The rest of the cast sounds like valley girls/boys.

It is beautifully shot, sexy, the basic storylines are spooky, but the acting REALLY SUCKS!!!!!!!!!

Still, it works as a guilty pleasure.
I'll keep watching.

I dd hear that in season 2, Thea Gill, who played one of the lesbians on Queer as Folk, joins the cast as a witchly nemesis to Scoggns.
Gill is a fine actress who should bring things up a notch.

David

[Gerard]

It's very interesting, to me, to read the negative reviews of the show, taken in the context of the network airing it billing it as a cross between Dark Shadows and Queer As Folk (with Buffy thrown in).  I say that because I'm one of the few people who absolutely loathed Queer As Folk.  Friends raved about it, and I finally got to see it, Season One and a bit more at least, on DVD, and I found the stories predictable and trite, the acting amateurish and the writing uninspired.  I heard it got better as seasons went on, but I never went beyond what I saw, so maybe I'm not being totally fair in my negative criticism of it.

One of my best friends, same age as me, and I have gotten into huge battles.  He considers QAF to be pure art, one of the best shows ever on TV, while he simply can't stomach DS.  I, on the other hand, naturally worship the ground DS was made on (and its flaws are what also made it so good), and my views of QAF are now known.  I just sent him an e-mail asking him if he ever heard of Dante's Cove, telling him that it seems to be a Queer as Dark Folk Shadows.  I told him we should rent the DVD's and both short-circuit while watching them.

Gerard

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Anyone who might have missed it may want to check out this past topic:

Of Possible Interest

which has several links to online articles comparing the series to DS.

[David]

I'm halfway thru the second episode.

Does Ambrosius Vallin sound at all like Barnabas Collins?
Because that's the name of Dante's cursed anti-hero.
He's a Succubus, the same creature Angelique was in 1970PT.
Like Barnabas, Valiin must adapt to a new century, having been cursed back in 1840 (is that year another DS reference?)

William Gregory Lee, who plays Vallin,  is a bit better an actor than his Dante's Cove co-stars, very sexy & GQ looking, though he doesn't even come close to Frid's thunderous, Shakespeare inspired performance.
I don't think Lee could ever play King Richard, as Frid has, but he's good enough for Dante's Cove, and probably for something like Passions.

Watching Vallin slurp the insides of his male co~stars mouths is somthing we'll never see Frid do, LOL,
but it's erotic as hell on Dante, even with the bad acting!

David

[Mysterious Benefactor]

He's a Succubus, the same creature Angelique was in 1970PT.

Do they actually refer to him as a Succubus on the show? If so, how odd because it's always been my understanding that the male version is called an Incubus. But then, maybe an Incubus is only supposed to attack women? And, well, being a gay show and having him attack men... But that's rather stupid if that IS the reason they're referring to him as the female demon rather than the male equivalent.  :-

[David]

They don't actually say the words, but it's pretty obvious that's what he is.
He gets his youth & stregnth from all the deep mouth
kissing!

Did they actually say Succubus on DS in 1970PT?
I can't recall, gotta take another look.

David

[David]

The two disc set includes a 30 minute behind the scenes featurette on disc one.
In interviews, Tracy Scoggins compares Dante's Cove to Dark Shadows.

Interestingly, in the interviews, Scoggins shows a dramatic inensity missing from her performance as Grace.
Wonder why such an odd disparity?

David

[Gothick]

Just to give the traditional definitions:

An Incubus is a male demon.  He may attack either men or women.  If you are a gay male you could be fodder for an Incubus because his nature is to attack an individual through the medium of her/his sexual desire.  In the ancient world, when these things were originally mooted, people did not have the notion of anyone being exclusively heterosexual or homosexual--I'll skip the lengthy historical discussion about this.

A succubus is a female demon.  There was a fun portrayal of a succubus in the second season of the series Poltergeist: the Legacy--a show that had a very DS feel to it at times, and I recommend it.

Angelique, in PT 1970, was not a succubus, and she was never described as such.  She was [spoiler]an energy vampire, one of the living dead, but instead of draining her victims of blood, thanks to the "weird science" experiments of her stepfather, Mad Scientist Tim Stokes, she was able to absorb their life force in a long, deadly kiss (with LOTS of tongue).[/spoiler]

Just to be clear on the definitions.  According to lore, incubus and succubus are demons.  I haven't seen Dante's Cove but it sounds as if the character is meant to be an undead human living under a witch's curse--just like Barnabas Collins.

Best, G.

[David]

The final episode had a high volume of horror  content.
Though the acting never got better, the show managed
to be genuinely creepy.
No one time tripped, but there were a few flashbacks
to 1840 to give Grace & Ambrosius a back story.
Sets & costumes were quite good.

The series appears to have been shot in Puerto Rico, the island locations were gorgeous!

The cliffhanger "ending" was an obviou set~up to season 2, which I think was always the plan.

Dante's Cove tells a good story, so it's a shame about the atrocious acting.
Hopefully things will improve in season 2.

David