sex

Over the span of Hung's first few episodes, Ray Drecker utters a lot of depressing one-liners. Things like "everything's falling apart" and "I used to be a big deal" are common phrases for him. However, as the title of the show suggests, Ray Drecker (played by The Punisher's Thomas Jane) has at least one thing to be very happy about.

The new HBO dramedy is set in Detroit against the backdrop of a financially ruined automotive industry skyline, and as the world crumbles around him, Ray is forced to re-evaluate his life while everything he cares about slowly slips away. It's unsettling and sad, but in some ways, fortuitous ... at least for HBO anyway. Considering the current economic crisis many Americans are experiencing, a lot of people are going to relate to this show. Just probably not to the big penis part.

Real World Cancun? Seems like they're running out of places to go. They should have just made it Spring Break 2009 or something. Anyway, it's the 22nd season of the show, and while I'm way beyond the age where I should find this show interesting, it's always funny to see what type of people they've cast. This one has it all! Bikinis, too much drinking, girls kissing, white sandy beaches, arguing, music, too many uses of the word "respect," and quite possibly the quote of the year ("You're so hot it's retarded!"). Ah, the future of America.

I wasn't a Melrose Place person (my nighttime soap was Knot's Landing), though I did watch that episode where it blew up. Now The CW has a new version of the show, and it's filled with a few characters from the old FOX show and many new faces. Oh, and if you were wondering, there seems to be an abundance of sex, drugs, parties, fast cars, loose women, backstabbing, affairs, and loud music. Here's an extended preview.

Remember last summer, that CBS drama about life in 1976, the music, the fashions, the wife-swapping and key parties? Yes, Swingtown, the daring drama that flirted with controversial subjects, but was essentially a well-produced soap opera in the tradition of Knots Landing?

Well, after months of no news about the show, we learn today that no news is bad news. Swingtown has been cancelled.

CBS president Nina Tassler championed the show, but apparently she couldn't save it. At the press tour presentation she talked lovingly about the drama, even patting the network on the back to taking a risk by broadcasting it. But in the end, the good performances, excellent writing, critical approval and cult following it garnered didn't matter.

(S01E13) The summer's officially over on Swingtown, marked by Tom's Labor Day clambake at the shore, which turned out to also be a key party.

Now that the first season of the show has come to an end, it's clear that while they explored hot topics like open marriage, wife-swapping and group sex, the essence of the show was not titillation or a guide page by page through The Joys of Sex. Swingtown was about the characters, three families and the changing times in 1976.

Questions, questions. Will Tom and Trina keep the baby? The Deckers are the open marriage couple and they've enjoyed the freedom to swing. But how amazing is it that they are the marriage that's in synch! They actually talk things out and share what they're thinking. You can't say that about the Thompsons and Millers.

(S01E10) "All right, let's go fix this family."

Oh, if only it were as simple as a family vacation to repair the damage to the Millers. It's clear by now that something's missing between Bruce and Susan because she can't stop thinking of Roger.

And Laurie is going through teenage rebellion -- I recognize the symptoms -- and Bruce's answer is to threaten her boyfriend and rip the phone cord out of the wall. Of all the characters, Bruce needs the most work for the writers. He's way too predictable.

While the Millers are struggling, so too are the Thompsons. Janet made an appointment with a psychiatrist -- for Roger. The truth is that they both need counseling, as the therapist realized when she spoke with them. Janet is so much a woman of that time, unsure about getting a job because it may emasculate Roger and struggling with the attention she's received -- and enjoyed -- from Tom.

(S01E09) Okay, we're really into swinging tonight. Everybody seems to get into the action, including the kids. Frankly, the summer of '76 is making everyone in Swingtown hot and horny and just a touch too adventurous. It makes for interesting viewing, but I'm not sure how realistic all this is supposed to be. What is the difference between swinging and cheating?

Brad and Sylvia are back. It's yet another dinner party at the Deckers! The writers really have to find other ways to get these people together. Anyway, after Bruce's admission of his overt flirtation with Melinda -- a couple of kisses and a trip to her apartment -- the Millers accept an invitation to the Pendulum Club. That's an erotic cabaret according to Trina, and yes, the Deckers decide to go along at Susan's behest.

(S01E07) "Most valuable lesson: it's all about relationships."

That would seem to be the motto for Swingtown. It is all about relationships. On the marriage front, Tom and Trina's open marriage, which has been the model for marital bliss till now, has hit the rocks. Okay, maybe not the rocks, but there have been some rough waters.

VH1 is calling this the best interview ever; Flavor Flav of the network's hit franchise Flavor of Love talked to Complex Magazine.

And you won't believe what he said. Here's what you never wanted to know about the rapper-turned-reality-superstar:

1. He made another kid eat dog poop. It was revenge for the kid making Flav eat his own booger.

2. His favorite possession is a Coo-Coo clock from Switzerland. It has a little Flav that comes out and screams "Yeah Boy!" when the big hand strikes three.

How much of Swingtown is real and how much is pure fiction? According to Mike Kelley, Swingtown's creator, there are elements in the show that come right from his childhood memories of growing up on the North Shore, a trendy suburb of Chicago. But the sex and the swinging? That's mostly creative license.

So were there really sex parties and swinging in the Kelley home? "You know, it comes from imagination, for the most part."

Inspired by 1976, the era of women's liberation, disco-dancing, the end of the Vietnam War, and sexual freedom thanks to the pill and no AIDS, Kelley balances the fantastic elements with nostalgia.

(S01E05) What does Nadia Comenici, civil liberties, Harry Reems and bowling have in common? They were all woven into this very topical episode of Swingtown, one of the best of this summer series thus far.

The undercurrent of swinging and sex was still there, but the theme of the show was more about choice and control, who makes them and and who has it.

The Millers aren't in synch. In fact, Susan is the first to say it out loud, turning to Trina for guidance. I really like how the women on this show are becoming more real with each episode and less types. Trina is so much more than the wanton from the pilot.
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Ambre Lake has found out about Daisy's chit-chat with TMZ. Outside a Los Angeles club, the herion-chic groupie revealed that she an Bret had slept together. And now, Ambre is talking back via her MySpace blog. You've got to love that MySpace, right?

The Rock of Love 2 winner sets the record straight by asserting that she and Bret are still together. In fact, if they weren't, we would hear about it from her mouth and not Daisy's. Ambre says that Daisy has no involvement in their relationship. She also maintains that she bears no ill will toward Daisy.

And you won't believe what she's saying! The runner-up from Rock of Love 2 chatted with photographers outside a club recently. She talked about Ambre Lake, Bret Michaels and, of course, her awesomely skanky self.

About Ambre, Daisy pretended like the Rock of Love 2 winner didn't even exist. Then she claimed that Ambre and Bret aren't even together. Gasp!

About Bret: Daisy says that she's still not over the has-been rocker. In fact, she's out drowning her sorrows in alcohol. However, she says something mighty interesting at the end of the video. Daisy reveals, not so subtly, that she and the Poison frontman slept together recently. As she puts it, they were hanging out and they weren't talking. Wink, wink.

Check out the video and let me know your thoughts. Here's my favorite line: "Allegedly, I have no clue." I fully plan on making use of that gem sometime in the near future.

[via VH1]

For the past few days, I've been watching VH1's non-stop reruns of their reality show The Pickup Artist, which is just an unmarked white van and fistful of roofies away from being the creepiest show on television. I cannot bring myself to look away, so I watch each episode with my face twisted in an expression that is equal parts horror and malicious amusement. The finale will air tonight and I have already come to accept that I don't have the self-control to avoid watching, despite the fact that every time I tune in, I lose a little more faith in humanity.

I suppose it isn't the fault of the contestants. After all, they're unintentional virgins and their minds are malleable, subject to easy manipulation by anyone who wears eyeliner. That's where the show's host, Mystery, comes in.

(S02E08) [Spoiler Warning!] Please don't read the extended version of this review if you have not yet watched this episode. What a great episode. There were so many threads in this episode, it was great to see how fast and furious old and new facts were being hurled out through the dialogue. Oh, poor Benny. How humiliating. I think it's bad enough for any teenager to have his parents find out that he's having sex-- but it has to be especially bad when those parents think not only is he too young, but what he is doing is also a pretty serious sin.

I love looking at episode titles, and of course, obviously this title comes from The Lord's Prayer (which is pretty funny, because Joseph Smith instructs his followers to pray in a different way, and not to use this prayer), indicating that the Lord's will will be done. And that probably means not Bill's will.