Dennis Hof, owner/proprietor of the Moonlight Bunny Ranch—a legal brothel in Carson City, NV—parlayed regular appearances on TV's The Howard Stern Show into two HBO documentaries before getting the pay-cable network to produce this reality show, which attempts (with middling success) to portray the Ranch's “working girls” and routine “clients” as the sort of lovable characters you'd find in a sitcom. Indeed, as depicted in the series, Hof's establishment seems to be a clean, safe venue for the fulfillment of adult fantasies, many of which are presented in fairly racy—but not overtly pornographic—detail. Hof appears regularly, as does the ranch's “madame,” Suzette, while the “girls” include such porn-star luminaries as Deja Chan and Sunset Thomas (who enjoys a special relationship with the Ranch's owner). In typical reality-show fashion, each episode drifts along without much regard for pace or continuity: the prostitutes tackle their labors with gusto, but—not surprisingly—there's also a fair amount of down time characterized by banal chatter. Ranch clients range from average folks to downright weird fetishists with bizarre sexual tastes, with the latter mainly played for laughs to make the brothel seem as non-threatening as humanly possible. In fact, the intermittently entertaining Cathouse could almost qualify as a series of lengthy commercials for Hof's establishment. Presenting all 17 episodes from the 2005-07 first and second seasons, DVD extras here include the 40-minute song-and-dance special “Cathouse: The Musical.” Optional. (E. Hulse)
Cathouse: The Series
HBO, 4 discs, 510 min., TV-MA, DVD: $29.98 Volume 24, Issue 1
Cathouse: The Series
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