All the Ladies Love Corcoran: Copper Premieres on BBC America Finally.

There's a lot of sex on this show. It's as simple as that.

BBC America has always had to compete with The States in terms of risque programming. Let's face it, next to shows like Mad Men (2007 - ), Hung (2009 - 2011), Queer as Folk (2000 - 2005), and reality fluff like Strange Sex and Jersey Shore, The BBC might as well be filmed in a convent. But they hit a home run last night with a Hell on Wheels type show about the reformation period in the United States called Copper (2012 - ). Cast with mostly unknowns...and Franka Potente from The Bourne Films and Run Lola Run (1999) fame, this is quite a gritty period drama. Most of it takes place in a brothel, so that should give you some sense of what goes down, no pun intended. A tough-as-nails reformed cop with a heart of gold who is brought from Ireland to keep peace in the Five Points struggles to maintain his integrity while having lots and lots of period corset sex with his madame girlfriend. 

I had no idea prostitutes had showers in their brothels back in the 1860's.

Also, I just have to add, I love how prostitutes from the 1800's are always portrayed as cleaner than say a contemporary prostitute...ok that sounded wrong; modern-day prostitute. Contemporary prostitute sounds like part of a master's thesis, moving on! 

But seriously, I'm sure they didn't have quite as many teeth as Franka Potente, and she still somehow manages to look like she just came straight to set from a Beverly Hills spa, ready to whore it up with the tortured, filthy, but sexy as balls Irishman. Yeah where's that set, sign me up, I'll bring the coffee, I'll gofur, I don't care. 

Corcoran's weapon of choice.

It looks like BBC America has finally started to catch up sex-wise and riding that psychotic horse to its burning stable (bad analogy, I know) but I was thinking 'burning loins' and that's where that came from. Again, off track. 

In the pilot we learn, that Copper (a.k.a Kevin Corcoran) played by super-super-super hot actor Tom Weston-Jones (who? I know, I don't know either) has a past. He's in the big apple (not sure they called it that in 1860 but whateves) searching for the man who killed his wife and daughter, or something like that, I was REALLY distracted by all the sex. Therefore, he's got this soft spot, you know, when a little girl gets brutally murdered and her corpse defiled...yes that kind of thing is on the show too. I realized I might not be selling this all that well any more, but I will say this, it's aesthetically pleasing and has plenty of potential, and it's only been one episode. So if BBC America is on your cable box, then perhaps you can start getting your jollies from a channel other than AMC. Hope you like it!

Below, the promo.

Spotlight On: Sam Fuller

First shot of The Naked Kiss (1964), pretty memorable, no?

I've decided to spend this weekend chilling out on my couch slowly dying along with macaroni and cheese. I was bored and channel surfing when TCM (my usual saving grace) started broadcasting a bona fide Sam Fuller marathon. I've seen most of his work more than once, but I could not pass this up. Usually when one watches Sam Fuller, there should be a whiskey on the rocks in one hand and an American Spirit in the other, wearing nothing but a bra and a cheap string of pearls. Well even though this paints a pretty picture, I brewed some chamomile and put it over ice, and threw on my favorite comfy fleece shorts and pulled out my pedicure set. 

Original poster for the film

By the time I was on my favorite film of his; The Naked Kiss (1964), I knew I had to spotlight him, and I was remice to realize I'd actually not blogged about him up until this point. Wikipedia describes Fuller as known for 'low-budget genre films and controversial themes'. I couldn't have said it better myself, and though all of his films are jewels in a rather dull world of studio cinema of the late-50's/early 60's, the best by far is The Naked Kiss (1964). Let me just tell you the premise really quick. A prostitute moves to a small town where no one knows her and becomes a pediatric nurse for special needs children. She meets a millionaire/small-town hero and falls in love with him, everything seems idyllic as she plans her upcoming wedding until she learns he's a notorious pedophile who preys on the very children she takes care of, so she kills him with the heel of her shoe.

Now if you've been asking yourself how the effing hell this film was ever made back during the Haze code and strict social and moral hypocrisies that Hollywood adhered to in the 60's, the answer is Fuller funded it completely on his own. At that point he was seasoned enough not to take any shit from the studio hierarchy, and successful enough so that he could live in a tiny one-bedroom shack if it meant he could make the films he wanted to make without the executives' choke hold firmly around his neck.

Of course, this also meant that no big name hotshots would work with him, so he had to resort to casting B-movie actors as his principals but it worked towards his advantage because everyone was appropriately melodramatic and campy to give Fuller his proper place in cult-film immortality. 

Back to The Naked Kiss, it was a sequel off of Fuller's previously successful film on the foreign and cult film circuit; Shock Corridor (1963) which is featured in literally every single documentary about the French New Wave, considering how much they all adored Fuller and his repertoire. Warhol himself was said to take a considerable of inspiration as a filmmaker from Fuller. If Warhol was king of underground cult-cinema, Fuller was his above-ground mainstream counterpart. 

The man, Sam Fuller.

After that we didn't hear much of the social recluse who smoked like a chimney drank like a famished water buffalo and abused everyone around him until he died and Criterion bought all of his material for their collection and he became en vogue again. For someone who didn't live through those times to see just the level of shit he was able to get away with, is fascinating, and definitely gives credence to the term 'independent film'.

There are things in The Naked Kiss people would be too chicken shit to include in a film today, that's how contraversial Fuller was, and also how prophetic. He basically realized that pop-culture was never going to get there on it's own, so he decided to give it a little push. And that little push turned out to be one of the most profound American film legacies that ever existed. Why I didn't write any academic papers about him is beyond me. 

Below, some of the most memorable scenes from The Naked Kiss to give you a better idea of the depravity and decadence of his work. 

Meet the Cast of Showtime's Gigolos.

Let's get this straight. I'm not here to judge. Some of these high-priced male escorts run the gambit between the charmingly handsome to the ridiculously sleazy. But whatever else they may be, they are very interesting and always entertaining. Showtime's new show about the cream of the crop gigolos that are part of the Cowboys 4 Angels escort service in Las Vegas is all kinds of things: gross, hilarious, filthy, delicious, graphic, kinky, depraved, awesome, and completely original. This isn't your momma's prostitution retrospective with Diane Sawyer empathetically interviewing street walkers and following them on their daily rounds in the gloomy industrial streets of small town USA. This is Vegas baby, complete with bling, limo's, lip gloss, tanning beds, and everything else it takes to make a bonafied 1000$ per hour gigolo. It's been three episodes into the series, with the latest premiering on April 22nd, 2011, and already we've seen cock cages, 4-ways, teacher clients, lots of unmentionable tattoos. Not to mention that the clientele is just as interesting and curious as the gigolos themselves .Now meet the 5 ladykillers that make up the show. 

Nick Hawk

27, 6'1 with hazel eyes, this guy though pretty is probably the densest in the bunch. And can't help exhibiting early signs of ultimate douche-baggery. His short time goals include breaking a sweat six days a week.very ambitious.

Jimmy Dior

My personal favorite. Also 27, and no nothing has been photoshopped here, he is actually this gorgeous. Usually I don't go for the pretty boy type, but he's also sweet and a hell of a professional. I want.

Vin Armani

I really don't get what it is with these guys and picking last names after designers that just don't fit their first names, but I guess creativity is not their strong suite. He's the newest addition to the Cowboys4Angels family, and the tallest at 6'4. By the second episode he had full-on earned his keep. So to speak. 

Steven Gannt

This one is another fave. A gentle soul who is whoring to support his 5 year old son. Sounds cliche I know. But he's a sweetheart. He's cried already twice on the show. And for me that's somehow endearing.

Brace (No Last Name)

Ugh. I don't even know really what to say here. Easily past 45, this bleach blonde, fake tanned, ed hardy wearing man-child is an example of everything not to order when picking up the phone and dialing Cowboys4Angels, unless you want to be covered in spray tan residue. He's currently working on an anti-aging supplement line so he can mercifully retire from the business. Well good luck with that.