I am sure nobody thinks for a minute that the kind of world that is portrayed in the Australian television series, Love Bytes, does not exist out there. This TV show brings to light the reality of today's disposable relationship and the trials and tribulations that go with pursuing the ultimate in companionship. The series is more or less a series of short stories of a half hour in length each. Each episode shows a very different situation that, while seeming to be the stuff of pure fantasy, is a graphic portrayal of reality in today's sexually curious society. I have seen the first two episodes of this series titled 'Trust Up' and 'Cocktales'. The first episode shows the struggle a young woman deals with when she discovers the man she has met at a local nightclub and spent the night with is actually the same man that her male gay best friend met and has been sleeping with from a gay chat line. This realisation tests her ability to come to terms with the hurt and the internal struggle of her conscience trying to decide whether to tell her friend or not. Eventually she does, however, far from seeming overly upset, her friend keeps coming with reasons and excuses why he should still see this man even though it clearly shows that he is bisexual and not gay and in being so, cannot rule out future experimentation. She tries in vein to convince him that this guy, Callum, is only going to hurt him again and when all else fails goes online, posing as a gay chatter and send a message to her best friend to try and convince him to meet up for sex. He declines saying he has met someone and when he tells her (thinking it is a man) to stick with it as he will find someone soon, she decides to say she has and gives him Callum's handle to indicate that he is screwing around still. This seems to be the final straw for him and he leaves Callum. The episode however finishes with her meeting with Callum for a lunch date and even though he swears to her that he will never do it again, him glancing at their male waiter's backside as he walks away still leaves the door open for his continuing experimentation. The second episode was one that I thought was brilliant. The episode begins in a cocktail bar where people are drinking lavishly and enjoying themselves. Appearing at first that the subtexts of three woman are going to be the basis of the episode, all with very different personality types, and all of whom have agreed to meet this 'Larry', who they have found over a dating website, in this bar, it soon centres on just one of them, a nervous yet beautiful girl sitting at the bar. The twist is that you soon realise that their respective dates is the same man, the barman. As they don't know the one their looking for is the barman, he plays all three woman during the evening until it is certain to him that the one he has been plying with alcohol at the bar all night, played by the absolutely gorgeous Natalie Saleeba, is going to be his best chance of a 'positive' outcome at the end of the evening. Thinking she has been stood up by her date, Larry, she agrees to have a drink with the barman at closing time. After spending an enthralling night of passion in bed with her, she wakes up at his apartment in the morning. After getting up, she sees something that indicates to her that his man may the one she was supposed to meet and that he has been playing her. She discovers this by seeing in the apartment block across the street, a dominatrix walking around scantily clad in her apartment and realises quickly that she is the very same dominatrix that her online beau, 'Larry' has been describing to her in their online fantasy sessions. Viewers, however, cannot be certain that she has made this connection. The rest of the episode plays out with the two of them forming a relationship but with her very cunningly openly continuing her online relationship with 'Larry' which gets up the nose of the barman, even though he is the one she is actually communicating with online. She discusses things online with Larry that the barman does with her in bed, yet the barman can't admit this annoys him as he believes she doesn't know that he is Larry. It ends with her finally agreeing after an argument to end the online relationship and to do some of the sexual things with him that she does online with Larry. Sufficed to say this involves her wearing a dominatrix outfit and with him tied to the bed. The next morning, the barman's flatmate finds him still tied to the bed trying to untie himself with a message written in red lipstick on his chest saying, 'You're half the man Larry will ever be'. A perfect end to this episode that demonstrates that while sexual experimentation seems to be a part of everyday life and is not necessarily wrong, it does not mean that feelings and emotions aren't involved. Overall, a great series and hope there are many more episodes to come.
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