Viewers are in for rude awakening
While you wouldn’t want to watch this new drama set in the porn industry with your parents, it isn’t as explicit as headlines suggested when scheduling was delayed because it was deemed too rude to show before 10pm.
Yes, there is strong language and scenes of a sexual nature, but it’s a kind of soap version of porn, with actress Hayley Squires as Jolene Dollar, an adult film star whose life is derailed when she befriends 19-year-old Amy (Siena Kelly), who is new to the industry.
One minute Jolene is having sex on a seedy film set, the next she is forbidding her teenage daughter Phoebe from watching Dressed To Kill because it is inappropriate.
Moments later, she and her husband are in the bedroom doing a video for a foot fetishist when they are rudely interrupted by a child shouting, ‘I think I’ve got worms again’.
Jolene’s so good at her job she lives in a lavish house and can send her kids to private school.
Adult Material is by Skins writer Lucy Kirkwood and was filmed by a female-led production team and if the first episode is anything to go by, men don’t come out of it very well.
Phil Daniels feels like an obvious caricature as the director of Jolene’s movies and Rupert Everett is comical as a gauche porn mogul called Carroll. The drama is funny in parts, it tackles serious issues like consent and it has a dark, disturbing underbelly.
Definitely not one to watch if you’re after the feelgood factor though.