It's amazing what you learn when you surf the movie channels late at night. From A Prisão (known as Bare Behind Bars where I come from) I learned that there is a women's prison in Brazil where all the inmates and prison staff are moderately young and attractive, with the exception of the cook, who isn't. I learned that although their mouths speak Portuguese, what comes out is hilariously bad dialogue with an American accent. I learned that the only clothing the prisoners have is a shift which buttons up so badly that you might as not wear it, so they don't, and the staff often take their uniforms off too - so as to make the prisoners less self-conscious, I'm guessing. I learned that the inmates and staff are aggressively vigorous and prodigious lesbians to the last soul, although they will happily embrace heterosexuality if a suitably greasy, sweaty, sleazy man gets within grabbable distance. And I learned that prison is so boring that having a hearty and soapy group bop in the shower is a darn good time for all concerned.
This preposterous prison "drama" is an astonishing offering for unencrypted UK TV. The first two thirds is, frankly hysterical, both metaphorically and literally. I don't think I have ever seen a film on TV which is so overflowing with full frontal nudity, not to mention vast quantities of (mostly lesbian) sex, not all of which, perhaps, is simulated. The prison sequences are also interspersed with a fair amount of sadism, some sexual and some not so, but all of which is so lurid and overstated as to be laughable. As a straight drama, or even as sexploitation, it is almost unwatchable: as comedy, it is bearable.
Then we hit the last third, which beats Hamlet for body count and tragedy, and which isn't really funny on any level.
Oh, and don't expect anything approaching decent acting. Nudity yes, acting no.
This preposterous prison "drama" is an astonishing offering for unencrypted UK TV. The first two thirds is, frankly hysterical, both metaphorically and literally. I don't think I have ever seen a film on TV which is so overflowing with full frontal nudity, not to mention vast quantities of (mostly lesbian) sex, not all of which, perhaps, is simulated. The prison sequences are also interspersed with a fair amount of sadism, some sexual and some not so, but all of which is so lurid and overstated as to be laughable. As a straight drama, or even as sexploitation, it is almost unwatchable: as comedy, it is bearable.
Then we hit the last third, which beats Hamlet for body count and tragedy, and which isn't really funny on any level.
Oh, and don't expect anything approaching decent acting. Nudity yes, acting no.