Exactly how porny is Showtime's new reality show 'Gigolos'?
The half-hour program follows five male escorts as they sleep their way across Las Vegas
- Steven and Vin, from Showtime's 'Gigolos'
Showtime used to be a channel known for their steamy, made-for-TV late-night pornos of gross men and the plastic women who did them. People subscribed to the cable channel for that reason alone. Then Showtime started playing real movies, and before you knew it, Jonathan Rhys Meyers was starring as King Henry VIII in "The Tudors." Well, Showtime is returning to its roots! With its new reality show "Gigolos," premiering Thurs., April 7 at 11pm, the network pumps up your airwaves with graphic sex and wacky scenes of fraternal bonding. Just what my Thursday night was missing!
The show centers around five man-hos in Las Vegas as they please lonely women (and couples, many men simply watch while their wife gets screwed). Vin is the new guy who's half black and half Latino (as he pointed out to me on Twitter). The group was missing out on "black guys," said Nick, so they needed to hire Vin. He's got an odd-shaped head, but he's personable and found himself prostituting because he loves women. "I'm a feminist," he quips in the series opener. Steven is the male hooker with the heart of gold. He has a son from an estranged marriage, so everything he does, including gang bangs and other fetish scenarios, is all for his son. There's something disturbingly off about Steven, his nervous habits and his slightly effeminate mannerisms. His self-hatred for being a gigolo is palpable. The thought of him having sex is mildly uncomfortable, as I believe he might be gay.
All-American Jimmy looks like James Van Der Beek of "Dawson's Creek" fame, and like Steven, acknowledges he is escorting as a means of "survival." Meanwhile, Jimmy's roommate Nick is the affected douche of the century. Out of all the guys, he really has no moral conflict about what he's doing. Sleaze oozes from his pores and out of his giant green spilled-spaghetti tattoo encompassing his entire right side of his body. I'm not sure Nick has a soul at all, just a fuckable vessel body. But most tragic of all is Brace—and not just because his name is Brace.