A female sex therapist who works with her brother in law tries to deal with her feelings for him; they also try to help their clients with their problems, while the female sex therapist also worries that her husband is connected with the murder of a patient.

CRITIQUE

Strictly Confidential was a 2006 British TV series that only lasted one season; it is made up of 6 hour-long episodes (on two DVDs), focusing on a pair of sex therapists, their clients, and their own tangled lives, with a murder mystery thrown in for good measure.  The result is uneven; tonally it is all over the place, lurching from comedy to serious drama, while at times it veers into over-the-top soap opera.  Still, there is something that soon becomes addicting about it, and though it isn’t great, it is entertaining enough to merit a look from fans of this kind of thing.

The main character here is Linda (Suranne Jones), an ex-cop turned sex therapist who is married to Richard; his brother is Greg, who is Linda’s partner in the sex therapy business.  Linda desperately wants to have a child, and when Richard turns out to be infertile, they turn to Greg to be a sperm donor, which Greg’s wife isn’t thrilled about.  Linda and Greg also fight their attraction to each other, while Richard is implicated in the death of their client Claudie, who was found hanging in a hotel room.  Complicating things further is the fact that the death is being investigated by Angie, who Linda was in a lesbian relationship with before leaving her for Richard; Angie still carries a torch for Linda.

All of this happens in the first episode or two, and things just get more complex from there, all building to sixth episode revelations that get a little wild and strain belief a bit.  Still, series creator Kay Mellor takes a lot of the weight off all these plotlines by intercutting them with the adventures of Linda and Greg’s patients, couples who are going through various sexual problems, from sexual addiction to transvestism to a woman who loves her vibrator.  Many of these subplots have a comic feel, and though a lot of them generally work well, it still makes for a somewhat-uneven stew when dropped into a tale with everything else going on.

Because this is British, there is a fair amount of nudity, though not as much as one might expect given the subject matter; it might be enough to get an R rating, but barely.  Mellor has fun with the specter of listening to people talking about their sexual problems, while the running storylines about Linda, the brothers, and the mystery of Claudie’s death help tie it all together.  The result is oddly fun, though a bit messy as well, and not for everyone.

THE VIDEO

Strictly Confidential is presented in 16x9 anamorphic widescreen.  The picture quality is okay, though never particularly sharp.

THE AUDIO

Strictly Confidential is presented in Dolby Digital.  Dialogue, music and sound effects come through clear.  There are no subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

There is a 47-minute Behind the Scenes documentary that was made for British TV; it even has the commercial breaks still in it.  It is solid of its kind, interviewing cast and crew and providing a lot of production footage.

FINAL THOUGHT

Though eye-rolling at times, this series is also often entertaining and oddly engrossing, though you might hate yourself for actually getting caught up in it.