THRILLS (also known as “Thrills Magazine”) was a half-hour softcore TV series that aired for 13 episodes on Cinemax and related channels back in 2001. Lauren Hays starred as Felicia, the owner end editor of THRILLS, a magazine devoted to covering stories about sex and erotica. Each episode would have Felicia assigning one of her writers to cover a certain story and then we’d watch it unfold.

SEX AND SWEAT was the third episode of the show. Written by Alon Kaplan and directed by Madison Monroe (who also directed THE SEDUCTION OF MAXINE and LOVE GAMES), it opens with Felicia and a woman named Clarissa (Angela West aka Angel West) getting into a small sauna, each wearing nothing but towels, after a hard work out. When Clarrisa takes her towel off, revealing her completely nude body underneath, Felicia is clearly impressed. And quickly her towel comes off, revealing her nude body as well, and the ladies French kiss, then Felicia licks Clarissa’s breasts and then each take turn going down on each other. Some random dude enters the show just as the woman are finished, and the leave him there saying “maybe next time.” The scene only lasts about 2 and a half minutes, but it’s extremely hot. And this was the standard format of the show, each episode would open with a brief sex scene before going to the opening credits sequence, and then beginning the main plot of that episode.

This plot is that Felicia assigns a writer named Will (played by Chris Prince) to do a story on physical fitness, and how that relates to sexual health. Dan looks up his old friend Maggie, who is a famous personal trainer, and she agrees to be interviewed for his story, but only on the condition that Dan agrees to let her train him and get him into shape, which he reluctantly accepts. Maggie is played by Angela Nichols, known as Angela Davies at the time (pictured above). I’ve written about her before, appearing in the film Sex, Secrets, and Betrayals and as host of the softcore TV series The Best Sex Ever, which I’ve reviewed HERE and HERE. If you’re a fan of hers, as I am, then you’ll be pretty happy with this episode, as she gets fully nude several times, and there are other scenes where she’s shown working out in skimpy outfits, as the camera slowly pans over her body.

Dan’s training begins with Maggie making him strip nude for her, so she can rate his body and see what needs to be improved. Then we get segments of her making him do pushups, and sit ups, running and lifting weights. During these segments, there’s mutual flirting, but it’s revealed that they never took things further since Maggie didn’t want to risk losing their friendship. Dan asks about her most famous former client, whom Maggie says was a pro football player named Tak, and in a flashback scene we see her and Tak having hot sex in and next to her pool. This scene is notable since Tak is play by and Asian actor named Chino Jesus, and we don’t get many “interracial” scenes with White women and Men of Color in these softcore films.

Jill Sharp plays Jodi, another client of Maggie’s, and Dan observes one of their training sessions, which involves the two doing a lot of seductive stretching together, in their skimpy outfits. When sparks fly between Jill and Dan, Maggie gets jealous and starts to realize her own feelings for Dan, which she can no longer deny. She finally talks to him about it and they have give in to each other and have sex, which we see in two hot sex scenes, one in the gym on some exercise equipment, and then another in bed which involves the uses of whipped cream and syrup.

THE ULTIMATE COMPANION was the 5th episode of the series, also written by Kaplan but directed by Lucas Riley. Jason Schnuit plays Dan, a writer for Thrills Magazine. The episode opens with him interviewing a female scientist (played by Nicki Dolan aka Greta Dolan aka Mary Shannon) in her laboratory. She tests some new aphrodisiac that she’s developed on herself and immediately becomes sexually aroused, taking over her clothes and letting her hair down and throwing herself at Dan as they have while passionate sex in the lab. After the opening credits, Dan is at the Thrills office telling some other guys what happened, and saying that the FDA wouldn’t approve the aphrodisiac because it’s too strong, but they don’t believe his story. Later, after an editor meeting, Felicia gives Dan his new assignment. She introduces him to Christy 9000, an artificially intelligent android, who just so happens to look like a sexy blonde woman (played by Kimber Lynn aka Lony Lynn aka Kimberlee Castaic aka Kim Maddox), designed to be the perfect “pleasure companion.” Lauren gives Christy to Dan to take home for the weekend to see how well she works.

After getting back to Dan’s place, Christy performs a sex strip tease for him, and relates how she’s been programmed with the knowledge of thousands of Kama Sutra positions. Despite her making it clear that she’s well to obey his every command, Dan is initially reluctant to take advantage of the situation, not even after Christy changes into a naughty nurses outfit and tries to role play with him. Later in Dan’s bedroom, she strips again and starts kissing him, but before it can go any further, her battery runs low and she has to plug herself into a wall socket to recharge all night. Dan goes to sleep. The next morning, fully recharged, Christy strips to nothing but a pair of black panties, and goes into Dan’s room and climbs into bed with him and begins rubbing her body against his, and then masturbates, but Dan doesn’t wake up.

Dan has a couple of roommates, a man named Tyler (Uri Kolokol) and a woman named Adriana (Teana Kai aka Teanna Kai aka Teanara Kai). Tyler just freaks out when he finds out Christy is an android, and doesn’t really have anything to do with the plot, I’m not even sure why he’s included. Adriana was initially supposed to be away for the weekend with her boyfriend, but comes back early because they broke up. Christy senses that Adriana is stressed out, so Dan tells her to go give Adriana a massage. Christy does so, while Adriana is in a bubble bath, but after Christy reveals what she really is to her, Adriana gets turned on and soon Christy is naked and in the tub with Adriana for a hot lesbian sex session.

Afterward Adriana brags about what happened to Dan, celebrating the fact that Christy could make her tongue vibrate. Adriana asks why Dan has taken advantage of Christy’s sexual programming, but Dan says it just feels too weird to him, because Christy is “too perfect.” Christy overhears this. So, later, when they’re alone again, Christy tell’s Dan that she’s deleted all sexual knowledge from her system, and then she and Dan goes to his bedroom and finally have sex (where she still seems to know quite a bit, performing oral sex on him and then getting on top). Alls well that ends well (with a surprise twist – NO SPOILERS).

Both episodes are very good, with hot sex scenes and better than average acting from the various cast-members. CHACEBOOK rating: FIVE STARS

The two UNRATED episodes are currently available on a single DVD via iOFFER