Welcome to Dante’s Cove — the dirtiest show I’ve seen on television, maybe ever. Everything is on display here, from the bodies of the very attractive actors right through to the cheap sets and bad production design. Dante’s Cove is Passions, but with LGBT themes.
Dante’s Cove is set at a hotel in a small coastal town where the long-term residents are confronted by decades old supernatural forces that interfere with their relationships, both romantic and physical. What defines this show is that the series’ protagonists are all primarily gay or lesbian characters. Furthermore, the sex scenes are really about as graphic as it gets on free-to-air broadcast television. It’s hot. It’s steamy. And it’s oh so very tacky.
I recall the first time that I watched Dante’s Cove. I’d fallen asleep on the couch. Waking up to find two comely lasses becoming much better acquainted with another, my first thought was “what the heck was I watching when I fell asleep?”. This was followed quickly by the realisation that I had stumbled onto something that was set to have viewers talking for years to come.
While the show is exceedingly entertaining in that way that only an uber pervy supernatural soap opera can be, the real enjoyment for me has been in seeing just how long it will be until there’s a morally driven outrage regarding the show. The fact that Dante’s Cove is still on the air can only be attributed to the late-night timeslot of the show hidden away on Channel 9’s digital multi-channel Go! This is exactly the sort of show that generates hours of ill-informed talkback radio discussion that decries the continual falling standards in modern society. Ultimately, Dante’s Cove is just one over-hyped moral panic away from being yanked off the airwaves.
In 1992, then-Channel 9 Owner Kerry Packer famously called his network to demand that Australia’s Naughtiest Home Videos was pulled off the air midway through. One can only wonder what he would think of this.
Watch it while you can.
The details: Episode three of season three airs tonight on the Go! channel. Dante’s Cove is on Monday nights at 10:30pm (for now).
While on series good or bad or indifferent.
I emailed the ABC before Christmas asking why they had not bought the series “Lewis” featuring Kevin Whately which followed the conclusion of the top rated , “Morse” starring the late John Thaw. I also queried how come one of the free to air commercial channels had shown, off and on, some episodes of Morse but never the entire 40 plus episodes?
As of today, I have not had the courtesy of a reply, apart from a standard thankyou for your message, do not respond we will reply in about 4 weeks, that was 6 weeks ago.So emailed again that I would pass on my enquirey to the head man Scottie and try my luck with him…. silence still prevails. Incidently such is the popularity of the now promoted Inspector Lewis, it is being shown in some 20 countries wordwide, including all Public Broadcasting Channels in the States, since 2002. Not good enough for Aunty though, leave it to the commercial boys to chop 20 mins out of each episode to allow for ads, and they wonder why illegal downloading from P2P sites is so prevelant.