Developed by two of the minds behind prime-time soap "Falcon's Crest," the show stars Barbara Alyn Woods ("One Tree Hill") as Eve, the owner of Eden, a resort where the rich can get everything they want; especially sex. While Eve struggles to maintain control of Eden thanks to troubles caused by her late husband, there are other subplots at work. Ian (Christoph M. Ohrt, who reminds me of Tom ("Mr. Show") Kenny, preventing any chance of taking him seriously) gets wrapped up in his infidelities, leading to softcore sex scene follows softcore sex scene, while a dive instructor courts two best friends. And that's just in the first episode, although it is almost 100 minutes long. As the show progresses, backstabbing becomes the norm, and business affairs are just as important to the story as the sexual ones.

The show moves along at a glacial pace, with the drawn-out and melodramatic scenes existing seemingly only to transition between sex scenes. Any attempt at trying to create a real story is sabotaged quickly by the need to show some skin. Anyone thinking this is a nudity-fest beware though, as you never see anything other than bare butts and exposed breasts. The softcore sex itself is laughably bad, and more fake than anything you see in even the worst porn. Only the regular acting might be worse than that seen in bed.

By the time the plot winds its way to an ending in episode six, which runs over two hours, it's hard to even care what happens. 11 hours is a bit much for even the best miniseries. This is nearly the exact opposite of that ideal. By means of comparison, consider that Stephen King's "The Stand" clocked in at just over six hours. This bit of fluff has five more hours of 5-minute fantasy sex scenes and meaningless confrontations, which makes for a weak way to waste your life. The ending, which, in a fit of insane optimism, was left open-ended, isn't the way you should reward someone who slogged through such a moronic marathon. It definitely runs neck-and-neck with "Soap" for the worst payoff to a large time investment.

The DVDs
Image Entertainment released the entire series on three DVDs, packaged in a slipcased, three-tray digipack. Despite the front cover indicating 26 episodes, there are just six, two per DVD. The packaging is covered with pictures of the beautiful people of Eden, while chapter stops for each disc are listed under each tray. The main menus are full-screen and animated, while the scene-selection screens are static with stills. The one special feature is on the third disc.

The Quality
The video quality on these episodes is just not good, as colors seem off, ghosting occurs in dark scenes and grain and dirt is evident all over. There are also a good amount of compression artifacts evident. The fuzzy quality of the full-frame video may be appropriate for Playboy's usual soft-focus style, but it just doesn't work for a show like this. The audio, in Stereo Surround 2.0 is decent, but nothing to write home about. There's only two real audio elements, dialogue and music, and the track mixes them well.

The Extras
There is just one extra with this series, a photo gallery that's included on the third DVD. There are 21 non-full-frame stills, featuring a mix of portraits and location shots, with just one nude among them.

The Bottom Line
I'm not certain who the audience for this show is. It's certainly not the guys who might be interested in all the bare breasts, because the soap opera elements will make them give up on the show in a big hurry. And it's unlikely that the women who might like the soap opera plot (which misses the traditional machine gun pacing) will care much about the added nudity. Therefore, it's no surprise that the show came and went, like the characters that populate it. I might recommend it to people who want some T&A with their suds, as the show's intertwining plot lines and melodramatic (read: awful) dialogue should appeal to the kinkier daytime TV crowd. But if you're looking for boobs and sex, keep moving. There's stuff more your speed elsewhere.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.