Old Dogs & New Tricks: Complete Seasons 1 & 2

Created by Leon Acord, this web-aired series focuses on four gay men in West Hollywood. Fifty-year-old talent agent Nathan Adler (Acord) narrates the sexual travails of his friends Brad King (Curt Bonnem), Alan “Muscles” Carter (Jeffrey Patrick Olson), and Ross Stein (David Pevsner). Although Alan works as a personal trainer, it's hard to determine how former pop star Brad and former TV star Ross make a living, aside from past royalties (Brad, who has modeled his look after Billy Idol, also speaks in a faux British accent). Except for Ross, who has been with Neal (Doug Spearman) for 10 years, all of the characters are single. Much as in Sex and the City, the men often get together to dish about their dates and fears of aging. Brad is the adventurous one, while Alan is saving himself for Mr. Right (whom he finds in a sports reporter). In the second season, Nathan dates a 25-year-old client with whom he has little in common, but his efforts to resist Damian (Ryland Shelton) prove futile. As he tells his assistant (Amanda Abel), “He's broke, he has issues, and he's way out of my league.” Neal also gives Ross the go-ahead to see other people, so he hooks up with a fan, but his heart isn't really in it. Old Dogs & New Tricks features plenty of sex talk (but no actual nudity), and if the humor can be hit-and-miss, the storylines are consistently entertaining. Compiling all 15 episodes from the 2011-13 first and second seasons, DVD extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette, and a gag reel. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)