Review and news hub for movies, music and video games

Show:		7.0
Picture:		7.0
Sound:		7.0
Extras:		6.0
Score:		7.0

Director(s):	Fraser MacDonald
Writer(s):	Lucy Prebble, Julie Gearey, Nicole Taylor
Starring:	Ashley Madekwe • Billie Piper • Iddo Goldberg
Genre:	Television
Website:	http://www.sho.com/site/secretdiary/home.do
Release Date:	June 30, 2009

List Price:	DVD - $29.98
Amazon:

In the interest of honesty, I feel obliged to say that I didn’t think that Secret Diary of a Call Girl was going to be very good. All of the advertisements that I’ve seen for it have suggested that it’s here to pick up where Sex and the City (a show I have never had the slightest interest in watching) left off, and, knowing Showtime, I didn’t think that the whole concept was going to be done very tastefully. And I can admit that I was wrong. This show is actually pretty good, which has a great deal to do with the intelligence and sensitivity of the writing and the charisma of lead Billie Piper.

“Belle” is the professional name of Hannah, a very high-class prostitute working in London. Unlike most media depictions of the world’s oldest profession, Belle is a free agent: she sets her clients, she sets her rules, and she doesn’t bend to the will or bidding of any pimp or madam. After having firmly established the rules of the game in the first season (primarily that she doesn’t allow herself to have any relationships on the side), the second season allows Belle to test her limits a little bit, mainly regarding Alex (Callum Blue), an especially handsome doctor who reciprocates Belle’s feelings for him. Problems also come from Bambi (Ashley Madekwe), another young woman who wishes to enter the ‘business’, and from Ben (Iddo Goldberg), Belle’s ex and confidante who clearly retains feelings for her and is none too happy about her relationship with Alex.

Belle is the lynchpin of the show, and one could probably fill an entire review with the number of things that could go wrong in characterizing her, but Piper safely avoids pretty much all of them. Where she could be vain, she is vulnerable. Where she could be trapped, she is liberated. And where she could be desensitized to the problems that she is causing in other people’s lives, she authentically feels bad about what she is doing, and weighs how to fix it. Piper is obviously attractive (you have to be to pull off the role), but the show never objectifies her, even as she does her best to objectify herself. The storyline involving her breast augmentation surgery serves to remind us how infrequently our female leads are allowed to have anything wrong with them physically.

If the show does have a major fault, it’s that it’s almost too likable. While there is certainly a classier side to prostitution that rarely makes its way onto screens (I mean, there’s got to be, right?), this almost makes it seem too easy. The constant breaking of the fourth wall also serves to make it seem like one long advertisement for being a hooker, with Piper as the paid celebrity endorser. While it’s good to see that she’s not a victim here, it’s also a little unconvincing that this lifestyle doesn’t possess more occupational hazards.

That said, I laughed out loud, something I don’t usually do. In the very first episode, Belle asks Bambi if she got her name due to her doe-eyed look. No, she responds, it was because her mom got shot. I laughed out loud.

DVD Bonus Features

The first disc contains an interview with Billie Piper, where she talks about the show and the way that feminists have responded to the idea of a sexually empowered prostitute. The second disc features a short series of webisodes featuring the characters doing various things like talking about recent tricks or their favorite drink mixes. They’re amusing enough.