The first season of Lingerie was a big enough hit that a little over a year later Cinemax brought it back for a second season. Jennifer Korbin, Michael Murray Scratch, Denise Kobar, Erin Brown, Lana Tailor, Geoff Stevens, and Jonathan Steen all return as their characters Lacey, Jason, Marilyn, Stephanie, Vanessa, Jeffrey, and Russ, but the role of Cody was recast by Marcus Colby. Noelle DuBois, who had a minor role as a waitress named Nicole in one episode last season, returns with a larger supporting role this season, Inna Ivanova, who appeared as a model named Taylor in a couple of episodes last season makes a few appearances this season, as well

But the biggest casting news is the addition of Amber Smith, who plays Giovanna, a high-powered fashion designer and rival to Lacey.

Christopher Warre Smets returns to direct this episode, which is written by Doug Miller.  It’s not clear exactly how much time has passed since the season 1 finale, but Lacey is now famous enough that we see someone ask her for her autograph in the opening scene, as she’s sitting in a bar reading a newspaper article about her fashion line. She and Jason are still happily together, he’s still traveling as a photographer, he meets her at the bar after coming back from his latest assignment, and they do some playful roleplaying before going back to her place to have sex.

Later at the studio, Jeffery informs her that some big client has just placed a huge order for some lingerie that would be big business for him, but Lacey worries that she doesn’t have the money to fill the order, and Marilyn suggests taking out a bank loan.

So right way I’m thinking, here we go again. The main storyline for Lacey last season was that she was broke, and it was all about her trying to earn money to keep her business alive, and now even after she’s supposedly wildly successful we’re back to a story about her needing money? It feels repetitive, hopefully, it won’t play out that way as the season progresses.

Vanessa now has a job as an actress on a new TV series called Station 19 Homicide, a police drama. She’s filming the first episode, where she accidentally punches her co-star, Hugh Jackson (Michael Slade), for real instead of faking it. During a break in filming, Vanessa sneaks into her dressing room with Joan (Vanessa Lai Fox), an actress with a small supporting role in that episode, and they have sex. Hugh happens to overhear them and covers for them when the director comes by looking for Vanessa. Afterward, Hugh cautions Vanessa about doing something like at work on her first day on the job. It’s too reckless.

Cody is still with Stephanie, but she doesn’t like that lately he’s been acting too cocky, due to the fame he’s gotten from participating in Lacey’s fashion show. There’s a brief incident where he meets some aspiring model named Veronica (Dee Coulter) who asks him to introduce her to Lacey, it seems like the show could possibly be setting something up between them, which could draw a wedge between him and Stephanie, but we’ll see. They still have a hot sex scene.

The thing is, it’s not like Matt Fitzgerald was a fantastic actor, but Marcus Colby is nowhere near as good in this role. I didn’t feel the same chemistry with Erin Brown, and his dialog scenes were unconvincing.

Giovanna’s introduction is when she and Richard (Richard Roy Sutton), a modeling agent (who is also her lover), are having lunch in a diner. Richard brings up Lacey, thinking she could be serious competition for Lacey, but Giovanna dismisses the idea. to prove her serious instincts, Giovanna bets Richard that she could take Nicole, and turn her into a successful lingerie model. She gives Nicole her card, and talking to Taylor, Nicole decides to go to Giovanna’s studio to take her up on her offer. And that’s how the episode ends.

The four sex scenes are hot, especially Lana Tailor’s lesbian scene and the Amber Smith scene, but that was always the one thing the show did best in season 1. Unfortunately, the same story flaws and weak acting by most of the cast continues here. So this season starts off with the same overall Chacebook rating of THREE STARS that the first season got.

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