Femme Fatales comes to you direct from Cinemax and their After Dark programming. The series features a plethora of women who are by nature predator or forced to become so in the face of seemingly uncontrollable circumstances bringing out something dark in them. It’s kill or be killed in the seedy world of money, sex, and betrayal.

I jumped into this series without knowing what channel it originated from or what it was about. I assumed it was either Lifetime, a channel that likes to make stories about strong women, or possibly USA. Nothing about the cover gives away what your in for. That being said, as the first episode begins and I find two bank robbers holed up in a hotel room, I make the assumption, due to the film style and noir like settings, that this could be good. Enter two women, a couple of prostitutes, who have been invited over to take the edge off, and suddenly it ain’t nothing but skin.

In this day and age with HBO quickly becoming known for fantastic original programming, but also programming that involves copious amounts of nudity and sexuality, I wasn’t so much shocked by the sex and nudity n this show, but it wasn’t something I was expecting to see. So I head over to the computer and type in the name of the show and Cinemax pops up. Ah, that makes sense now.

If your familiar with Cinemax, let’s face it, most of us know it as Skinemax, you probably already know the station is well known for its after hours programming that features Playboy meets Penthouse type programs. I got my first peek of Marilyn Chambers on that station when I was a kid. So with that knowledge in place I returned to the show.

I’d like to say I went along with Geek Magazine’s quote, “50% Tarantino, 50% Sin City, 100% Cool”, but I can’t. Sure there are some fleeting instances where I was reminded of Sin City, maybe, just maybe, of Tarantino, but overall the show isn’t much but a peep show with bad acting and boring soft core sex scenes. Mind you, if you were to watch this show once a week instead of back to back like I did, you might possibly enjoy it.

The acting found here reminded me of a quote from the film Artificial Intelligence where William Hurt asks one of the lover model robots to replicate the emotion of love and she says something to the effect of, “I make my eyes wider, take deeper breaths and thrust my chest out,” that’s pretty much the extent of what goes on here. Don’t come for Academy Award winning performances. It’s basically just all run off leading up to repetitive sex scenes that would only fool a teenage boy or men with the minds of teenage boys. The show truly could have gone that extra stretch to at least hire more caliber actors and actresses to make the weak stories found here just a tad bit more enjoyable.

It’s not all for naught though. As I irked my way through most of the show I did come across an episode titled Speed Date starring Reginald C. Hayes (Girlfriends) and Daphne Duplaix (One Life To Live) who star as two people who meet under false pretenses through a dating sight and who end up on the run. Daphne, is a former assassin whose boss wants her dead and he thinks Reginald’s character is somehow involved in the plot.

From start to finish this episode was hilarious, action packed, intriguing, even the sex seemed to serve a purpose. Not only was this the only coherent episode in the entirety of the series, I would have liked to see this as a full blown film. Entirely entertaining, but sadly slotted in-between mediocre to garbage episodes that bored me.

Obviously this show was built around an audience. I’m not one of them apparently. If your looking for hot naked women emulating sex and sleepwalking through their roles you’ve come to the right place. If you ever have the opportunity to catch Speed Dating, I highly recommend doing so. Otherwise, you’ll know what you want when it comes to taking or leaving this show.