Customer Reviews

Mistresses, Vol. 1

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This show starts off with a ludicrous and laughable premise. A primetime soap opera about 30's something's on different sides of infidelity. As predictable and ridiculously titillating as it was, I was hooked without realizing it. As a heterosexual black male from NYC, I have to say, the Brits know how to do a drama. This show is definitely worth watching, however I am a bit perturbed at the current 5/6/09 estimated price of 41 dollars for season 1 when its only about 11-15 dollars (through the conversion) for UK viewers (they have season 1 and 2 for about 35 through conversion). If this is what we do when we export our movies and shows to Canada and the UK, then I for one apologize. Seriously, this is an amazing series.

Quickly, without spoiling too much, in the first 15 minutes or so of the first episode we discover that Dependable Trudi is a 9/11 terrorist attack widow; 6 years after loosing her husband she gets a check for 2 million pounds and meets a new guy the same day. Coincidence? The vibrant Siobhan is an attorney who is trying to make partner in her law firm, however she and her husband are attempting to have their first child. Will this interfere with her career plans? Reserved and prim Doctor Kate has found a new love in her life and is happier than she has been in a long time. So why is she keeping him a secret from her friends? The wild and promiscuous (yeah I said it) Jessica is an event planner, who occasionally writes off the hotels for her sex romps as a "Business Expense". Never get serious or take yourself too seriously is her rule of engagement. So what are the rules when someone makes her want more than a casual encounter?

Season 1 is only 6 episodes ( And it ends with a bang!)

The BBC show Mistresses reminded me of how differently women are viewed in Europe and North America. Mistresses is obviously inspired by Sex and the City. In the British show, four women who remain friends through all kinds of hardship and emotional turmoil even share the professions of some of the characters of Sex and the City. The way these shows portray women, however, couldn't be more different.

First, the characters of Mistresses look normal. They dress like regular women, their hair looks regular. Nobody on the BBC show is trying to create an illusion that women walk around the city and even go to work in skimpy shimmery dresses and outrageous heels, all the while keeping every hair on their heads in its place.

The most striking difference, of course, is not the characters' appearance. What really attracts me to the BBC show is that the women in Mistresses aren't pathetic. It's such a relief to see women who can have all the problems in the world but still never come close to being so ridiculously pathetic as the characters of shows such as Sex and the City.

In the American show, beautiful and successful women are ready to humiliate themselves to the extreme to recieve a crumb of affection from any passing loser. Besides being absolutely unrealistic, this image of contemporary womanhood is very offensive. Mistresses, on the other hand, doesn't follow such silly stereotypes. The female characters are surrounded by normal, attractive, realistically-looking men. They follow their hearts and their bodies without repeating the word "relationship" every 15 seconds. When they get together, they don't spend hours figuring out what HE said and did and what it means for the relationship. The characters of Mistresses concentrate on their own feelings and desires.

Watch BBC if you want to be reminded of what feminism is supposed to be about and just how dead it is in the US.

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i love this show i began watching it accidentally, and was totally captivated by it. I recommend this show, its desperate housewives meets sex and the city in one.

I think that the British people who produced and distributed the series "Mistresses, Vol.1" are way to sophisticated for the people in the States who has bowed down to the spit drooling mob, that follows "Sex in The City". The "Mistresses,Vol.1" has an engaging plot. The subject of sex and relationships was handled with intelligence.I did not experience dead spots in the series,the pace is very developed. I wish there is a Mistresses, Vol.2 on region 1 DVD. Your girl will love it. She can see your UNDERSTAND-ABLE side!

I immensely like this sophisticated, British version of Sex & the City and Desperate Housewives. It's not as quickly paced as American TV shows. The pace is slower, the characters are deeper and darker and more credible, but just as likeable. I wished there were more shows like this.

I also liked the lesbian storyline with the beautiful and sexy Anna Torv as a co star.

An outview: Seasons 2 and 3 are unfortunately not as good, but still worth to watch.

Highly recommended.

Mistresses is one of those shows that you can't help but love. It's a little bit soap, a little bit romance, and a little bit comedy. It follows four friends: Katie (Sarah Parish), Trudi (Sharon Small), Jessica (Shelley Conn), and Siobhan (Orla Brady) as they each in their own way, become a mistress -- albeit not always intentionally. Through it all, they remain the best of friends and are there for each other no matter what. What I love most about this DVD is that it includes both the first and second series of show, so you won't have to go out and buy them separately. All in all, I was very pleased with the Misresses Volume 1 DVD.

I love this show I love the story I love the characters in this show mostly Jessica she is a hellcat look out for her. I love this show all that I can say

So "Mistresses Vol. 1" has 12 episodes. The first six episodes are from the first season. The second six episodes are from the second season.

Season 1 (i.e. the first six episodes) are really great. There is so much packed into each episode. It makes you realize how much filler they put into American dramas. While some storylines were more interesting to me than others, the whole thing held my attention.

With a title like "Mistresses" one can easily assume that all the women are mistresses. That's not exactly true. Katie was the mistress of a man who has just died, but for her it wasn't casual. She loved the man and believed that he loved her. Jessica likes casual sex and relishes being a mistress because that means there are no attachments, until she becomes the mistress of someone that she wants to keep all for herself. Siobhan isn't a mistress but rather a cheater. She loves her husband, but when their sex life is lacking, she looks elsewhere to get her sexual needs met. And Trudi also is not a mistress. It is her husband (presumed dead) that she finds out had been deceiving her, both by cheating on her and other lies as well. Season 1 was all high fun and high drama. I recommend these first six episodes without restraint.

But season 2... well, season 2 does not live up to season 1's standards. Basically, all the characters relive their storylines from season 1 but with different love interests. Katie finds herself the mistress of a man she really cares about, just like the set up for season 1. Jessica marries a man with the understanding of an open marriage, but then she finds she doesn't want to share him... just like the realization she came to in season 1. Siobhan still loves her husband but is still dissatisfied with their sex life, so she decides to go outside her marriage to get her needs met... just like she did in season 1. The new man in Trudi's life is not cheating on her, but he has been lying to her about numerous important things... just like her husband had done in season 1.

Granted, it can't be easy to keep a premise like this going. With "Mistresses" as the title, there's got to be a lot of infidelity. It's too bad that they could find different ways to express it though. I found season 2 to be a big let down after how fabulous season 1 was. Another big difference between season 1 and season 2 was the amount of time the women spend together. In season 1, they share a lot of scenes and you get a good sense of how important their friendship is to them. In season 2, they spend very little time together, and when they are together, they're rarely fully honest with each other.

All things considered, season 1 was really great. I'm glad I watched it, and if you like dramas, don't hesitate to give "Mistresses" a try.

This is really 3.5 stars for me but Amazon does not give us half stars to use in our reviews.

How much you like this show is going to depend on how much you like soap operas, whether day or evening fare. It is upscale soap opera, however, which always sweetens the deal. The chief reason I tuned in was because Sharon Small is in it. She played Havers on the Detective Lynley Mysteries and developed a lot of fans on this side of the pond as well as her own side.

There is another recognizable star too. The actress who plays Olivia in the American prime time weekly series FRINGE is also in this UK series. I did not realize she was British until I saw this show.

There is one problem with this series. There are too many characters for only a six episode series. Thus short shrift is given to each story instead of the longer and better study which could have been given the better ones. The best stories are of Small as the 9/11 widow with a two million pound settlement and the woman doctor who had an affair with her dying patient and then helped him die by morphine (euthanasia). She gets involved with his son.

Less convincing are: 1) the female lawyer who has a sterile husband and gets pregnant by another lawyer in her firm and 2) the promiscuous lesbian who is all over the map on commitment issues. Both of these stories had so many variables piled onto them that they became totally unbelievable.

If you wish to see Small in a romance vehicle in which she does not have to share screen time with 3 other women's stories, I recommend you try GLASGOW KISS instead.

I did not like SEX AND THE CITY. However, I have liked DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, although it has now seen its better days. I would say that if you are a huge fan of SEX AND THE CITY, that you will probably also love this show. If you are a huge fan of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, you may not, as this series is a lot gooier and sweeter than DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES.

This is a highly entertaining British soap opera of sorts. Reminds me of the Amercian Sex and the City series. Story lines are fresh and decidely British in nature. If you enjoyed Desperate Housewives or Sex in the City I think you too will enjoy these grown up soap operas. I would not allow anyone under 14 years of age to watch as there is some slight nudity and very adult topics. I rate this a 5 star production. I look forward to the new seasons.