Tell Me You Love Me - The Complete First Season | 
 enlarge | Actors: Michelle Borth, Tim Dekay, Adam Scott, David Selby, Sonya Walger
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $39.98
Buy New: $18.79
You Save: $21.19 (53%)
New (49) Used (18) from $13.99
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 4833
Format: Box Set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 4
Running Time: 60 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.8
MPN: HBOD35866D
UPC: 883929003457
EAN: 0883929003457
ASIN: B000VTHYAE
Theatrical Release Date: October 2007
Release Date: February 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Brand New! Factory Sealed!
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Product Description
Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 01/06/2009
Amazon.com
This 10-episode first season of HBO's drama, Tell Me You Love Me, is a semi-sexy romp into the world of coupledom, though in total it casts a depressed glow on the possibility of long-term connection. In it, three couples plus their endearing shared therapist, May (Jane Alexander), feud over various issues arisen due to marriage, aging, differing sexual desires, and sheer boredom. Episodes rotate couples' scenarios and are spliced with scenes showing each seeking refuge in May's office. The youngest pair, sous chef Jaime (Michelle Borth) and her fiance Hugo (Luke Ferrell Kirby), break their engagement over feared infidelity, while Jaime lands pretty boy Nick (Ian Somerhalder) to temporarily ease her pain over the broken commitment. Thirty-somethings, Pawlik (Adam Scott) and Carolyn (Sonya Walger), struggle to get pregnant. As their situation escalates they detest what they recognize in each other as parental traits they've both worked so hard to avoid. The most riveting and mature situation develops as Dave (Tim DeKay) and Katie (Ally Parker) realize that after 13 years of marriage and kids they're incapable of having sex. DeKay and Parker make an eerily convincing acting team, mirroring oodles of couples who lack passion but don't know how to fix it. Dave and Katie most successfully ask the core question of whether or not marriage can truly work. Here, sex and love are separated into two distinct categories. Failed intimacy abounds as emotional overload and stress sets in for each team of lovers. The first several episodes set up the dilemmas and are rife with fighting and despair; midway through, relief comes as Dave and Katie take their therapist's advice and have some nights alone with no kids. Similarly, Jaime gives Hugo a break after he nearly overdoses. Episodes nine and ten are the juiciest, as one begins to wonder who will stay split up and who will weather the desperation. Carolyn reconsiders her anxiety-inducing job, while we see Katie and Dave still crumbling under tension as they remodel their already-perfect house yet again. Throughout, sex scenes amongst the two sexually active couples provide some respite from the bickering, though they mostly illustrate how sex serves as both sanctuary and escape. Tell Me You Love Me shows marriage as an uphill battle, though seemingly this means to inspire viewers to assess their own relationships for preservation. --Trinie Dalton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
I really loved this show October 8, 2008
Stacey L. Toth (Pennsylvania USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I totally identified with Katie and to a lesser extent Jamie. Actually I found a bit of myself in most of the characters. Unfortunately since it was cancelled it is an incomplete series and I doubt I'll ever watch it again, much less buy it.
 Tell me you love me DVD October 4, 2008
Manya Chapovsky (PA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Tell Me You Love Me - The Complete First Season
Excellent!!!!
 Tell Me That You Loathe Me September 23, 2008
Harvey M. Canter (tarzana, ca United States)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
(NOTE: SOME SPOILERS BELOW--TREAD LIGHTLY!)
I have to admit that, as a clinician myself, I'll watch most anything that has a mental health angle in it. Typically, they never get the therapy (or the therapist) done right, at least for more than a fleeting moment. This show is no exception. The premise is interesting: several couples is a mid-size metropolis are seeing the same shrink, and we see them both during therapy and in their 'real' lives. The shrink, too, has her own life outside the office, and we (the audience) are a busy fly on many walls as we follow them all around each episode. We hear the outlines of their problems in therapy, and we go deeper when we are with them outside, comparing the two evolving versions & seeing where the truth comes up a little short, and where they are copping out. In one sense, we are used to this device as it was used religiously (and very effectively) in the Sopranos. So we see a bit of the sociopathy of everyday life, to coin a phrase; or, maybe just an honest look at the flaws of human characters.
You can see where this mid-western novella is going to go--it's a small town and their paths are going to cross, eventually, and realize they are all therapy sibs. But, we only got a hint of that by the end of season one. Too bad--I thought there were going to be some pyrotechnics when all those fuses started to catch.....but....oh well! I guess the producers were pretty confident about getting a second go round.
Along the way, we flies are witness to the most raw, naturalistic sex scenes that I have ever seen on TV/cable. That is not to say it is sexy stuff--it is pretty unpolished & non-stylized. You see all the anatomy, somewhat obliquely and in natural low light conditions, but nothing is left to the imagination. The only thing I was wondering was, are those prosthetic phalli or the real thing? And the sex scenes tend to drag on, and there is no pretense here to make the trysts hot, sexy, kinky--they are just pretty run of the mill, daily grind kind of stuff. Some highlights you ask? Well, we get to see the husband in the sexless marriage treat himself to some solo satisfaction--and boy was I sorry I watched that scene! And, for the geriatric set--there is included a pretty raw scene with Jane Alexander and her husband getting it on in a recliner. There was one reviewer who said how great she looked in this scene--well, I would say that with her clothes on she is indeed a classy, elegant grand dame. But, nude and vigorously humping? Please, this was not sexy and not entertaining. Good commercial for Viagara, but that is about it. In fact, whenever there is a sex scene one feels as if it is very private and this is the time to go fix a sandwich or shut off the sprinklers, rather than do so at the commercial. It is a rather interesting artistic achievement, to say the least.
Here is the BIG problem with this show, as I see it: none of the characters are likeable. None. Not one. Their stories are somewhat interesting, but you cannot develop a liking for any of the people. Most of them are professional class, and they are all whiners, wimps, phonies, narcissists, sex-addicts, or anhedonic icebergs. Or some combination of the above. They are SO bland and/or neurotic that you don't want to spend an hour a week with them, not a one of them. Oh, and don't you be looking for any persons of color in this show--unless you count different hair colors as evidence of diversity. It's all Oscar Meyer on Wonder Bread with mayo on a paper plate. A plain, white paper plate.... There is no diversity among the characters, between the character, or within the characters. Imagine 'All in the Family' and every character is an insipid, vacuous version of Archie Bunker. Guys like us we had it made....
Even in the Sopranos, you could develop a liking for those greedy psychopathic killers and their various sycophantic partners--THAT was part of the incredible achievement of that show. To make you forget that these Jersey guys with the SUVs who are wolfing down franks at a bbq are stone-cold killers, and they are just regular folks with mortgages, PTA meetings, mid-life crises, etc. And--you identify just a little with the lure of the larceny and of getting away with it....But here? You wouldn't want to share a cup of joe with any of these people. This to me is the main crisis, as a viewer.
Another main weakness, ironically, is the whole therapy device. I thought Jane Alexander was earnest in the anchoring central role as the therapist, but she was stuck with some of the lamest therapist dialogue yet concocted for a TV show. And, we are dropping in at the moment when her big book is being released, so we are led to believe she is really some kind of expert, but I found her verbal interventions wordy, trite, unrealistic, patronizing, and untherapeutic. But, she was earnest and sincere, for what that is worth: the cases move along more or less disastrously for each of the couples. Nice work! This tendency to romantic decline includes Jane's own marriage, imperiled by the mid-season revelation of a past affair, which threatens to resume when her ex-lover just happens to turn up in this ever-shrinking cesspool of a town.
So, while I stuck it out for the entire season, I was ready to bail about a third of the way through, but my gal and I were committed to seeing it through. Probably the most interesting aspect was that the producers attached about 5-6 minutes onto the end of each episode that featured real life couples who were watching and commenting on the show's progress and how it sort-of mirrored their own struggles. Now, these people WERE very likeable and interesting, more so than the actual cast. That was another problem with the show, as far as I was concerned. And, similarly, the show did spark good discussions between my partner and I. So, in the end, it was a case of life imitating life that was imitating art that bore no resemblance at all to life, at least any life you would want to be living.
Well, I guess maybe see it for yourself and decide, but if you are not into it by the 3rd show, it ain't getting any better!
Rare Intelligence on Television July 18, 2008
Turtlemagic (Berkeley, CA USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I wish, sometimes, that the general populace of this United States were not so screwed up when it comes to sex. However, this is not the case and as a result of this slack-jawed, priggish mindset, the rest of us are robbed of one of the most intelligent, insightful programs this viewer has seen in some time.
Cynthia Mort has depicted a laser focused and thoughtful portrayal of intimacy in "Tell Me You Love Me". She has stripped the inner workings of an intimate, sexual relationship bare with four couples in different stages of their lives. The effect is at once disturbing, hilarious, frightful, and hopeful as these adjectives are really the bones of any relationship. This is a series every person involved in an intimate, sexual relationship should watch more than once.
The cast is brilliant, if not to mention, courageous. Michelle Borth (who knew she was more than just a femme du jour?) and Luke Kirby portray the "new loves" preparing for their wedding day. Sonya Walger (Mort shows her genius in recognizing this woman's talent) and Adam Scott play a childless couple struggling for a baby. Ally Walker, of "Profiler" fame (too long away from the view of the masses) and Tim DeKay of "Carnivale" are the married-for-years-with-kids scenario. Jane Alexander (formidable!) and David Selby (a far cry from "Dark Shadows'" Quentin Collins) play and older, mature couple. All of these actors bring precise candor to their portrayals provoking intense reactions from the watcher.
As you find yourself muttering under your breath, "You bitch!" or "You bastard!" you ultimately realize that you would be the ultimate hypocrite to even attempt to choose sides.
And, yes, they all have sex. It would be silly to present a discourse on intimacy in sexual relationships without the act of sex. So, get over it and watch this show!
Tell Me You Love Me July 5, 2008
Jennifer Woodford (Mount Vernon, OH USA)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
I absolutely love this series... I bought it to rewatch the season before season two comes out... I'm not sure when that is. But I'm in love with the series.
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