In May 2012, 9 months after season 1 ended, Cinemax brought Femme Fatales back for a second season, with this opening episode written by Rick Copp and directed by Robert Meyer Burnett.

Tanit Phoenix returns as Lilith, the series host, and explains the premise of this episode. Six C-list celebrities are filming a reality TV series called The Hot House, where they are locked in a house, with no contact from the outside world, as cameras record them 24/7. The celebrities are Tina Hendricks (Tiffany Tynes), daughter of movie studio owner, Lucky Starr (Tobi Rodriguez), winner of an American Idol-ish TV series whose subsequent debut album flopped), Roger Reynolds (Joseph Slaughter), the former star of a Bachelor-ish dating show, Bebe (Gigi Feshold) a socialite with a history of alcohol problems, a man known only as “Pecs” (Joel Rush), a personal trainer for celebrities, and Angel Tomlin (Scheana Shay), a young actress who dreams of winning an Oscar before she’s 30, but so far only has small roles in direct-to-DVD films.

Several of the cast of previous connections to each other. Tina and Lucky used to date, but after his album flopped Lucky leaked a sex tape they made, to make money. Roger had proposed to two women on his dating show, but when it was over he dumped them both and got engaged to Tina, until she caught him cheating on her with Bebe. And Angel had previously hired Pecs to be her trainer and they also had an affair, which is something he’s known for doing with many of his female clients. Naturally, all of these entanglements cause a lot of tension in the house as they’re all stuck together.

The trouble in this episode begins when one of the cast members is found dead. I don’t want to say who, or give too many more details, for fear of spoilers. The rest of the cast freak out and try to shout for the people in the control room outside who are supposed to be monitoring them on the camera. But they get no answer and are still locked inside the house. And then one by one more cast members turn up dead, as everyone turns on each other until there’s only one survivor left, and find out who is behind the murders.

Along the way, there are a couple of sex scenes (again, can’t say who, as that would spoil things), in addition to the flashbacks we see in the opening, and they’re all hot. The cast plays their parts pretty well, and it’s a clever suspenseful mystery right up to the end. This new season starts off on a high note. Chacebook rating: FIVE STARS

Jason Majercik is selling this UNRATED 4-disc DVD set of Femme Fatale season 2 for $29.99. Email him at quinn_nash@hotmail.com for his softcore inventory list.