Red Shoe Diaries - Safe Sex

 A rainy night in NYC, Joan Severance,  a fashion designer, is offered a ride in a taxi cab by fellow occupant, Stephen Bauer, who flirts with her, even providing his coat to "keep her warm" since her dress was damp and the night cold. Eventually the cab stops at Bauer's apartment complex, and he convinces Severance to come up to his flat. Eventually Bauer is seducing Severance, unable to resist her innermost desires and ready to just take him up on Tuesday and Thursday hookups, agreeing to nothing serious. 

But can these "meetups and fuck" with no relationship talks continue or will real feelings and want for something more develop? When Severance's brother dies and she happens to spend the night, Bauer reiterates his displeasure in breaking the arrangement set up by them both.

Zalman King's Red Shoe Diaries was, to me, a rather corny exercise in why so serious? softer-than-softcore Showtime Channel "entertainment". Rarely was I ever actually aroused as a teenager watching any of the episodes during the series lengthy run on the premium cable channel often playing late at night or early in the morning. I was always fascinated by Duchovny's limited involvement, often at the beginning and end of each episode, the series made right around the time The X-Files started in the early 90s. Duchovny's Jake was often plucking from his mailbox letters from women discussing their sexual experiences in response to an add in the paper as a result of his own sad story regarding the suicide of his fiance, overwhelmed by her sexual escapades written in a diary.

As far as Safe Sex goes, this is the chance to Severance fully nude, head-to-toe as Bauer slides off her dress once he adds a necklace when her eyes are closed. Another scene has Severance without a top on while on a floor in Bauer's apartment as he approaches to sit her up in his lap for a brief fuck. She even dons a leather dominatrix outfit and wig while Bauer dresses like a narcotics detective on USA's Silk Stockings. While the story is as minuscule as they come for this kind of series, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that Severance was incredibly sexy despite being saddled with a character a bit too easily persuaded to just embark on nothing more than two-days-a-week shags. And Severance commits, to her credit, with nude scenes while Bauer is not equally tasked to bare himself as naked as she does.