Forgotten Television Pride: Dante’s Cove

In 1840, Ambrosius (William Gregory Lee) is caught having sex with his valet, by his fiancé, Grace (Tracy Scoggins), who uses her magical powers to kill the valet and to imprison Ambrosius in a hidden room in the cellar of her home. She curses him with ugliness and old age, and only a kiss from another man can release him.  Grace is the avatar of Tresom, a kind of very powerful witchcraft cult.  In the present, Toby (Charlie David) and Kevin (Gregory Michael) have spent a summer together in Laguna Beach, but Toby is heading back to his home in Dante’s Cove and the two must say goodbye, although Toby attempts to get Kevin to come with him.  Kevin’s mother and stepfather refuse to accept that he is gay and after a particularly brutal fight, Kevin leaves home to join Toby at Dante’s Cove.  Toby and a bunch of other young and gorgeous people all live at the Hotel Dante, including Van (Nadine Heimann), Toby’s best friend.  The Hotel Dante used to be Graces house and after only being there a couple of days, Kevin inadvertently releases Ambrosius who now also has magical powers.  Ambrosius, now calling him self Bro, becomes obsessed with Kevin and plots to split him and Toby while also taking his revenge on Grace, who is still pissed off, even after 150 years, over Bro’s betrayal.  As the series progresses, the different houses of Tresom come into play, as well as a drug called “Saint”.  Not all characters survive the battling Grace and Bro, with many falling as collateral damage. Can the love that Kevin and Toby have survive?  Watch and find out!

Dante’s Cove premiered on the LGBT themed “Here!” network on October 7, 2005, and ran for 3 seasons ending on December 21, 2007.  The first season was shot in Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean and was intended to be three episodes but was re-edited to be two longer than normal episodes.  The second and third seasons moved shooting location to Oahu in Hawaii, filming not far from where the Lost television show was filming and the cast and crew of both shows use to socialize together.  The change in local and shooting schedule caused some issues for some of the season 1 actors, particularly Stephen Amell who played Adam; he was replaced by Jon Fleming for the rest of the series.  The similar “Here!” television show, The Lair was supposed to be a direct spinoff of the series, with the sex club being in Dante’s Cove, but the obvious connections were later dropped, but some characters do appear in both series and the drug “Saint” which plays a big part in Dante’s Cove, is mentioned on The Lair.

I remember watching this show when it first came out and it was just a lot of fun. Much of the fun comes from watching Tracy Scoggins who is perfect as Grace the over-the-top Tresom witch with a chip on her shoulder after being jilted by Ambrosius.  The acting may not be Oscar worthy, but it is good enough to create connections with the audience and you do begin to empathize with many of the characters.  The show considers itself a LGBT Horror Soap Opera, and there is plenty of relationship drama and simulated sex especially in the first episode, which makes it almost feel like soft core porn with plenty of full-frontal male nudity and an equal amount of boobage.  The writing is corny and campy and many of the performances feel forced, but the show itself has a kind of charm and charisma and the plot was actually intricate and interesting.   There is quite a mythology that gets created around Tresom which is fascinating.  A fourth season was announced, but was never put into production, which is a shame, I would have liked to have seen where they went with it. Fans of the soap Dark Shadows will find this show fun. The relationship between Grace and Ambrosius draws parallels with the Angelique/Barnabas dynamic of Dark Shadows.