Showtime announces "Polyamory" TV series
The Showtime premium cable network has (finally) issued a press release and posted trailers announcing its reality series "Polyamory: Married and Dating." Among the people the series will feature are poly-community organizer and tantra teacher Kamala Devi, her husband Michael McClure, and their extended pod. Seven half-hour segments will air Thursdays from July 12 through August 23.
The trailer above is the short one (15 seconds). Here's the long one (65 seconds):
(These embeds don't work outside the U.S., but this YouTube version does.)
Damn, this is looking pretty good. I hope the show lives up to the promos. I've waited years for this.
The press release:
Showtime Presents "Polyamory: Married and Dating" on July 12th at 11PM ET/PT
The seven-episode series comes from producer BermanBraun.
Exploratory Docu-Series Dives Deep Into the Alternative World of Polyamorous Relationships
The new SHOWTIME docu-series, POLYAMORY: MARRIED AND DATING, exploring alternative relationship structures, premieres on Thursday, July 12th at 11 PM ET/PT. Polyamory or "poly" as it is often referred to, is practiced by couples who believe that they can also have deep, committed, long-term and loving relationships with people other than their spouses. Unlike polygamy, polyamory is not based on any religious tenets nor does it involve multiple spouses. Produced by BermanBraun, this series of seven episodes presents the various ways in which poly practitioners approach non-monogamy.
POLYAMORY: MARRIED AND DATING features Lindsey and Anthony, Los Angeles-based grad students who have been married for four years. In the premiere episode, the duo is reconnecting with their primary girlfriend of the past two years, Vanessa, who desperately wants a formalized commitment from her polyamorous triad. Further down the coast in San Diego, Kamala Devi and Michael have been married for 10 years and are the proud parents of a four-year-old son. The couple currently identifies 12 other lovers — some they share and some they don't. Devoted to expanding their family, they are inviting two of their lovers, married couple Jen and Tahl, to move in with them.
The series is created by Natalia Garcia and Janice Stango for BermanBraun. Gail Berman, Lloyd Braun, Eugene Stein, Garcia and Stango serve as executive producers.
Also from Showtime: "This explicit look at modern-day polyamory follows characters grappling with the emotional and sexual drama of sharing their hearts, as well as their beds."
Each episode will rerun several times each week; see schedule (click on All Airings).
The show now has an official website. Not much there yet.
"Advisories: adult language, adult content, nudity, strong sexual content."
For more see my post last week about the series and its people.
Kamala is a director in the Tantra Theater collective in San Diego ("our mission is to combine ritual and performance to transmute sexual guilt, shame and fear into art, healing and liberation"). Below is a graphic for its next performance, "Tantra Theater Does Polyamory! Managing Multiple Relationships" happening July 6 and 7. Michael and Kamala are the ones on the lower right.
Kamala posts today:
Working with the director, Natalia Garcia, was a rich learning experience for me. She is a spiritually minded woman of vision, who is committed to women's liberation and conflict resolution. The polyamorous community is blessed to have an ally in Hollywood who is not afraid of sex, nor obsessed by it either.
Yes. This is a sexually explicit, adult content show. The sex scenes (of which there are many), tastefully and truthfully depict long term relationships making love in various combinations. We artfully show and frankly discuss lesbian sex, threesomes, foursomes and more!...
The San Diego Cast will be hosting a party to watch the World Premiere at Harbin Hot Springs at 10pm on July 12th. We will be the keynote speakers at the World Polyamory Conference on July 13 & 14. We look forward to seeing you there. Details about the World Poly Conference.
We will also be throwing a San Diego Premiere party at Victory Theater Downtown San Diego on July 27th [changed to this from the 28th –Ed.] and will have a Q & A afterwards with Director Natalia, Lindsey and Anthony and Vanessa, and the San Diego family! Details about our Polyamory: Married and Dating Premiere Party in San Diego will be posted here.
Finally, come see our live stage play in downtown San Diego! Even though we are not yet famous, we will be sharing about Polyamory by delving into issues of jealousy, safe sex, motherhood with multiple partners and other taboos. For discount tickets click here.
Thanks for all your love and support through this amazing project!
All my love,
Kamala Devi and Family.
www.KamalaDevi.com
More stuff: on Starcasm.net, PHOTOS: Meet the swinging stars of Showtime's "Polyamory: Married and Dating".
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Labels: Kamala Devi, polyamory, Showtime Season 1, TV
20 Comments:
So will the 7 episodes follow two families? Or will there be others?
This is wonderful. Thank you, Allen for your tremendous support. This is the most exciting event in my life and I know it's going to make a huge impact on the love lives of many. xoxo
When I see this sort of thing (and I'm seeing it more and more these days) I'm increasingly convinced that our culture will be accepting polyamory as a perfectly reasonable option a lot sooner than people have predicted. It'll be a tipping point sort of thing - nothing, nothing, nothing, then it'll just sort of happen.
This looks truly awesome! It is great to see something like this come to fruition in such a wonderful way. I remember Natalia looking for subjects a while back, and we were all understandably (I think) concerned about how it would be handled. Looks like this time it'll be great!
Congratulations Kamala, Michael, and family, on this amazing contribution to the poly and tantra communities, and to the lives of all the individuals you will touch.
Shame we can't view the trailers.
I am ever so excited to see the programme but nit picking I know, I am a little vexed that they titled it 'married and dating' it is so couple focused and make it look like the only way to do Polyamory is a primary couple and and many secondary type relationships.
Am I the only person who is nervous about how 'reality TV' and exploitative the trailers felt? And how the first quotation was taken out of context so that a particular type of poly was stated as the definition of poly?
Perhaps the show itself will portray polyamory less as a niche lifestyle and more as a broad description of many types of relationships, but something tells me that a sensational portrayal will be more profitable for the network. :/
Natja, I know what you mean about the couple-centric view, but there's at least one committed triad profiled on the show as well. I like the fact that they're not trying to portray poly as being ONLY committed triads, for instance, or ONLY about being a married couple looking for their Unicorn "to complete their relationship." I think they're doing a pretty good job of bridging the gap between what mainstream society is primed to understand--e.g., a dyadic relationship with extra members-- and the true reality of polyamory -- which of course comes in a staggering diversity of forms.)
colinsandel said...
"Am I the only person who is nervous about how 'reality TV' and exploitative the trailers felt?"
No, that was the first thing that struck me as well. It seems sensationalist and downright exploitative as "all about the sex" at first glance to me too. I keep thinking back to the Poly MTV episode from a year ago that was all drama and no genuine content. I was hopeful that Showtime (being a pay for network) would be better than that, but I'm not feeling very hopeful after seeing the previews.
:-(
Still, it's entirely possible the preview is going that route but the show won't. We'll have to wait and see. I'm just not sharing Alan's excitement for the series at this point, more dread.
> Shame we can't view the trailers.
Ta-dah! The embeds don't work outside the U.S., but this YouTube does:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gORoIA4FnQw
> It seems sensationalist and downright
> exploitative as "all about the sex"
> at first glance to me too.
There is definitely going to be sex in this. One of the folks in the show says the film crew had as many as 10 cameras going in the house at once, and yes, people chose to have sex on camera. Quite a bit, in the context of three months of their lives together. They believe that it's an important part of what they do together and important to show well. I'm hoping this will come off in the realistic, sex-positive way they intend....
TV that shows sex as a good, happy thing as part of people's lives is what we want, right?
Well yeah, it's Showtime, they'd probably not do it at all if sex wasn't in there at least a little. And the promos will definitely focus on that more than a full episode of course! They want to get you hooked in...
My only hesitation is that while it looks like they are celebrating female bisexuality quite a bit here (a good thing!), the men however appear to be all 100% hetero, which is rare in any poly community. (Though it is more the norm among swingers.) Even when they're sitting on the couch or hugging or whatever, they make special effort to throw the women in the middle and keep the guys as far apart as possible. Anyone else notice that? I'd expect a little better from the network that gave use Queer as Folk ya know?
Sorry, but I find this offensive. "We're just like every other family, but we have 10 lovers." I am poly, and there is no way that I could pay proper attention to my children with 10 other people to pay attention to. We have more than two adults in our family, but we sure as hell don't have 10, and we DO NOT have a revolving door of relationships while our kids are growing up. There is also no way that I would want to strip down and have sex on television. I think this kind of sensationalism does nothing to help the poly community. It does nothing to help our mainstream culture (which is pretty conservative) accept poly as a viable relationship configuration. I don't think poly will be accepted until poly folk are able to be less centered on themselves and their relationships, and more centered on how their relationships benefit their families and society as a whole. Those benefits are there, if we'd just focus on them.
@Amy
Personally I want my close personal relationships to be about my feelings for the other person, and theirs for me. My only reason to be close to someone is for the sake of our mutual desire to be close. If other people benefit, that's cool, but without the mutual desire with that person I'm not interested.
@Ficus - Yes, you and your desires are important. No, that's not all that matters. Thanks for proving my point.
Thanks for the You tube link Alan, humm, I can see why some are concerned, but hopefully it will come across less like an orgy on screen, though I feel Amy's point above is a little too black and white. Most people do not enter into relationships to benefit society. Polyamorists are no different. Much as I do believe Polyamory to be beneficial of course.
Thanks Alan!
Does anyone know if we can watch this on Showtime in Canada? I've got people coming over for a watch-and-cuddle tonight and need to make sure. :)
I guess we can still cuddle regardless.
I'm a happily married man in a triad with two women and I was cringing during the introduction that screamed group sex, not polyamory. I realize sex sells, but this cast from Cali certainly isn't representative of this segment of society. It seems to miss any concept of commitment or exclusivity as characters freely go out and pick up more partners. Living this alternative lifestyle means you are polyamorous, not promiscuous. Who cares what kind of crusader for the cause this poser Kamala is. She appears to have a sex drive that makes her inconsiderate and selfish. Did anybody notice the romper room/swinger's pad in that house?
Unfortunately this show looks headed towards doing this topic a disservice by failing to differentiate between the poly and swinger communities. I suppose the rest of us with otherwise dull lives just don't make for good ratings.
Hetero? Really?
Well, Anonymous on July 1, if those guys really look hetero to you then slap my A** and call me Sally. Those are some of the gayest dudes I have seen on TV since Gomer Pile. Sorry Anonymous, like everything else on TV, it's not real...
Just saw this post today. Have not seen any of the episodes only the two trailers. In a community as diverse as the poly lifestyle I think it is difficult to paint the whole of the community accurately even in a mini-series AND have something that MANY outside it would want to watch and find both educational and interesting.
A format that would likely serve the community best and provide a balanced representation would be more of a "science of human relationships" style with a third person voiceover narrative and personal interviews screen style.
Coming from the swing lifestyle community into the poly lifestyle community I agree that a discussion of the full range of human sexuality and relationships would be ideal in order to provide contrast and differentiation, however, the lines can and do often blur.
To borrow a line from the Austism community and apply it modified to the poly community to which I think many would fundamentally with ...
If you have met/seen ONE poly relationship group you have met ONE poly relationship group, and that's all you can say.
Don't have cable, so have come late to this discussion. How is polyamory different from many of the alternative lifestyles of the early '70s -- group marriage (ala the "Harrad Experiment"), open marriage, etc.?
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