Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

iachimo-1 The writing is intermittently brilliant; so is the acting, directing and concept. HBO has been flirting for years with stuff so real it's uncomfortable to watch, and this is an advancement of that experiment. Unfortunately, it's so "slice-of-life" that things frequently take a LOOONG time to happen. Ally Walker is the class of the field among the actors; her work is subtle, transparent and totally unforced. I'm not hooked on this series, but I am interested, and it's rich food for thought and conversation between my wife and I about how we view love, sex and their relationship to each other at different moments in our lives. Jane Alexander is a wonderful glue that holds the stories together, and gives me hope that we can keep finding our way to love as we ripen.

Rolo Tomasi Rolo comments for Tell Me You Love Me series (2007) Lots of things that bore me to death.The LookAll the colors are washed out and bland, bland, bland.There is no contrast. We never see any striking colors. Everything is bland gray and brown. Horribly visually boring! The composition is beyond boring with just an inept, TV-beginning-director look to it.The CharactersBoring, boring, boring. Milk wash characters. Daytime soap opera has more interesting characters. And better stories. (Next point.) Boring StoriesWhat are the stories? A bunch of self-absorbed boring people who the producers and writers think will actually interest us, the audience.I will only tune in occasionally in the future to watch this wreck of a program.Pseudo Sex ScenesOh come on. The producers and writers and HBO actually think that they can save this whole alleged series by throwing in Cinemax fako sex scenes scattered here and there as a déclassé way to cheesily and blatantly try to attract an audience for a series with the most visually boring (colors, composition, editing, movement within the frame, viewer visual interest and excitement - it is missing all of these) presentation I have ever seen in my life.Even daytime soaps and teen homemade camcorder films generally present a product more interesting than this bland, spoiled milk of a would be sexual potboiler.Note to the producers and directors and cinematographers and directors: Learn how to color, light, compose, create movement, edit and make a much more visually interesting product.Note to the producers and writers: Learn how to write characters that are real, that the audience actually thinks might be more than a boring, night-time, weak-soap-opera imitation.Do you really think that tossing in a weak and pathetic pseudo sex scene at the end of an episode, with lots of moaning and groaning but nothing actually going on because the audience doesn't give a fleep about the non-characters, will actually save one of the most non-visually, non-feast full series I have ever seen, with some of the most bland and boring characters in existence, who are as apparently self-absorbed as the producers, writers, directors and the broadcaster, HBO? I have more to say, but it is late, and I actually have much more interesting things to do right now.I will come back to this review, time permitting, and add to it as required.I will come back rarely to this boring car wreck of an alleged series just to watch occasionally in slow motion, non-fascination as this sloth-moving, visually-bland and self-absorbed, but non-involving-to-the-viewer, HBO bore crashes to a well deserved, plodding demise.Stay tuned for future non-developments.

MisterWhiplash I really did want to try to get into Tell Me You Love Me. It seemed like the answer to many a false-noted romantic drama on TV, certainly for soap operas. If anything though it's the total 180 of a soap- it's meant to be too realistic, but without a sense of humor to it that a weepy melodrama might dish out every now and again. In the bulk of the series I've seen so far (of the first season) I can't remember even chuckling once- yes, even with the one guy and his sometimes dipping into, color us shocked, middle aged masturbation- and while there's attempts made to get deeper into the psychology of the characters it's hard to ever really care about what any of them do. Scenes From a Marriage it definitely is not, as it examines three off-shoots of a therapists clients: a girl who sleeps around a lot on her boyfriends (and, apparently, has it sort of unwritten-as-law that every episode shows her having sex); a cold career woman wants a baby, the man tries and deep down doesn't, and just as they're about to break up wham it's finally a bun in the oven; a typical married couple with kids deal with their sexual hang-ups. And, after a while, we notice the old therapist and her love affair too.It all weaves in and out together in each episode, hand-held like it's Cassavetes revived as a zombie, and after a while when the characters talk it...turns...dull. It's not even that the actors are all that bad (actually, Michelle Borth is, aside from the obvious which she's good at), and once in a while a really striking dramatic scene will stand out when emotions finally flare up. And of course subtlety can be a writer or an actor's best friend at times, but this goes into overkill, and for the sake of characters that are closed-off, shrill, sexually frustrated *well-off* suburbanites. All this said, the series does provide some of the most graphic but lucid sex scenes ever filmed, not just for premium cable TV. Instead of the high gloss of a Cinemax skin-flick ala Passion Cove, or a gynecological lesson by way of Ron Jeremy, it's real bodies copulating like real bodies, where the line between what is faked or what is real heat and penetration is blurred, and it gives Bertolucci a run for his money in the no-punches-pulled style of film-making. So those scenes, scattered as they are episode to episode (and yes, you pervs, they are worth watching for those alone), are up to the hype.But the rest of the series, in a way, doesn't really call out as something that will last that long. It makes its mark, but the writers and directors don't have anything new to put onto the table with relationship crises and whatnot. There aren't any real revelatory statements that are made that haven't been made thousands of times before, from Shakespeare onward. But if naturalistic acting, VERY naturalistic acting, is your thing, have at it. Personally, I can't help but think the satire in a work like Knocked Up has at least a bit more truth and complexity coinciding with the sense of humor about it than with Tell Me You Love Me.

tegmm this show is really just about sex. really not relationships, or anything else, just sex. Jamie is having problems with her boyfriend. he intends to cheat on her, but she sticks with him for another episode because they have great sex. what a great female role model. and Carolyn and Palek are so messed up. she only wants a baby and doesn't even seem to notice that Palek is in the room. i don't even think she loves him. Jane Alexander is the most famous person in the cast but is given nothing to do. May is the therapist but a really bad one. she can clearly see that her patients are not telling her the truth but Downs't ask them to be honest with her or themselves. however, Allie Walker and To DeKay are the saving grace of the show. her facial expressions alone merit an Emmy. their interaction is so wonderful and heartbreakingly real. i stick with the show for them. if only the show could just be about this couple, tell me you love me would be a much more fascinating show.