Show Me Yours (2004-2005) is practically the Canadian Sex and the City. Like Sex and the City, Show Me Yours is one of my favorite shows. Like Sex and the City, it talks about sex realistically while portraying incredibly hot yet graphic sex. However, it isn’t the sex that makes me love Show Me yours, but the underlying relationships.
Show Me Yours follows emotionally conservative sexual therapist, Dr. Kate Langford (Rachael Crawford). Preferring academic research to actual therapy, she garners a book deal with publisher, Toni (Alberta Watson), and temporarily suspends her practice. While attending her best friend’s wedding she meets the best man, Dr. Benjamin Chase (Adam Harrington), a gregarious biologist who specializes in animal mating habits. After watching the two enact a he said-she said about male-female sexual practices, Toni decides they should collaborate on Kate’s book project to create competing he said-she said case studies while interviewing live test subjects.
The show’s sexual vignettes are the most creative, adorable and all out fun bits of the show. Each week a test subject recalls his/her most memorable sexual experience while reliving it a la Sex, Lies and Videotape. I LOVED watching the maitre’d bang the heck out of the French chef while Kate and Ben analyze her proclivities. Although the pilot was a bit rape-y, watching a wedding guest ask Kate about her BDSM sexual fantasies while a hot stranger chases her into an elevator was both disturbing and fun. Despite the clear boob flashing (yes, Canada, your women have nipples, I get it), the sexual encounters shed light on the feelings the two analysts share for each other. Kate and Ben are two abnormally attractive academics (hotter than any academics I’ve ever met). But, Kate has a live-in boyfriend, and Ben, despite his womanizing ways, fears having a partner who cheats. As the test subjects learn about themselves through the sessions, Kate and Ben use their subjects’ newfound awareness to learn more about their relationship with each other.
I enjoy Show Me Yours, because sex means something in this world. In season one, we rarely see the leads have sex. In one episode Kate calls herself and Ben sexual observers, which they are. But, when they do have sex with a partner, there’s always a reason and there are always consequences. There’s an underlying theme throughout the show about marrying your sexual fantasy where the production staff went crazy creating numerous quirky Freudian dreams Kate and Ben have about each other.
For a show that focuses on sex 127%, Show Me Yours is surprisingly smart, witty and fun. I watched it primarily for the bits where Kate and Ben analyze their subjects and each other in a very Spencer Tracey-Katherine Hepburn way. What surprises me is that each half hour actually felt like an hour because it was so packed with multiple storylines from the subjects to Ben and Kate to their friends and lovers. I love that Rachael Crawford, a woman of African descent, was listed as the lead actress before Adam, which is always a rarity. I also love that the writers provided her with an array of multi-racial men without calling attention to it or her race. Her dating habits looked like my own and her actions were what I would’ve done (except I would’ve taken naughty pictures of Ben to use as my screensaver).
The two leads have an incredible natural chemistry. And, they’re so hot, you would literally pay to watch them have sex.If you’re wondering, yes, you’ve seen both leads before. Rachael currently stars on SyFy’s Alphas as Jeannie Harken while Adam starred in CW’s The Secret Circle as Ethan Conant. In between, Rachael guest-starred for six episodes on NBC’s The Firm re-boot, Suits, Being Erica and CSI: Miami while Adam guested on Drop Dead Diva, The Mob Doctor, and Castle. Alberta Watson (Madeline, Le Femme Nikita) rocked as the sensual editor during season one. However, even if season two featured Sasha Roiz (Grimm) as the new publisher, DO NOT watch it. It lacked the chemistry, writing, intelligence, focus, whimsy, dialogue, and plotting that made season one enjoyable. Trust me. It morphed into a one-dimensional version of Sex and the City, where the show focused more on the characters and their sex lives and less on the Freudian quirkiness without the emotional depth or consequences.
However, if you’re interested another smart, intelligent show that talks honestly about sex with warm leads, similar to Sex and the City, then do check out Show Me Yours on Hulu.
Clacked by An Nicholson 
on Aug 31, 2012 @ 14:48 EST5EDT
