Adult Material

The show starts out as a raunchy-esque comedy but quickly evolves into something wonderful and inspiring. Great acting and writing.

I came across (pun intended) this series as another entry on the Guardian's top TV of 2020 list. It's a mini-series, of just four parts, with incredible performances, if perhaps one that suffers a little from too much going on.

Seasoned adult film star Jolene Dollar (Hayley Squires) meets new girl Amy (Siena Kelly) on her first day on a shoot. Against her nagging concerns, Jolene leaves the set once she has finished her scenes, after which something happens with Amy that has a profound affect on her mental state. Her guilt, and the reaction that Amy has at an industry party, lead Jolene on a crusade against producer Carroll Quinn (Rupert Everett). Ostracised from working, and with her life falling apart, dark moments from her past continue to destroy her present.

IMDB classifies "Adult Material" as a comedy drama - which is fair, because there are funny moments in it. That doesn't, though, come close to explaining the depths of grim stories and behaviour that make up the cultures of abuse, in one form or another, that the show goes into. There is very little in the way of titillation, the opening scenes establish that shooting the films are much like any other job, chatting about your weekend plans, waiting around. From there issues of rape, both in and out of relationships, alcoholism, drug abuse, revenge porn and prostitution are explored. I wonder if perhaps it hits a little too many of them a little too shallowly for it's own good sometimes. I also think that the character of Amy has a little too much going on, or it doesn't perhaps explain her well enough. I'm still not sure know if she's calculating, damaged or genuinely psychopathic. (Perhaps she's just all three).

You cannot argue with the performances though. The quality of Rupert Everett, Phil Daniels and Kerry Godliman have been on show for years, in everything they've done. Alex Jarrett is great, as Jolene's oldest daughter, who has a lot to go through herself. But Hayley Squires is revelatory. (Another reason, if there wasn't enough already, for anticipating Ben Wheatley's new horror film "In The Earth").

Longtime porn star "Hailey" surprises viewers with this raw account of how the adult film industry turns lives upside down. When Hailey, also known as "Jo Jo", experiences a violation of a new performer's consent on-set, she takes it upon herself to guide the mentor the new performer -- only to find that she doesn't know this deceptive, new, young performer at all. In this ultimately harrowing account of her personal life, Hailey must choose between her online persona "Jo Jo" and the privacy of her own family.

Viewers will find the provocative, raw, and emotional dialogue intriguing, questioning what sexual connections mean today in a world dominated by social media, plastic, and beauty filters. Those with experience or knowledge of what happens on pornographic sets may find the script relatable and especially poignant through the juxtaposed dialogue off-set during shoots within the first episode.

Altogether, the raw, provocative, and poignant account of Hailey "Jo Jo"'s descent from stardom to numbness showcases our growing need for validation and companionship above intimacy and sexual connection. Adult Material asks the tough questions of what it means today to live as an openly sexual being, consent, ageism, and most importantly, what connection even means in today's digital age.

Summary

Brief English miniseries that addresses with intelligence, sobriety and sensitivity the current small porn industry from the gaze of one of its stars, through the crisis that sooner or later the dark areas of that apparently friendly business will generate in the balance between his life pro like Jolene Dollar and the real Hayley Burrows.

Review:

Hayley Burrows is a woman who reasonably reconciles her work as a star of a small porn production company (with the stage name Jolene Dollar) with the role of her mother (she has a teenage daughter and a child) and her wife. But the debut of a young porn actress in the production company where she works will become the seed of a personal crisis.

The entire beginning of the series scripted by Lucy Kirkwood paints, even with a comedy tone, that idyllic balance between the two worlds of Hayley, that of the porn celebrity and the domestic one, with a husband (Joe Dempsey, the blacksmith of Game of Thrones) who acts as the community manager of the diva's individual porn ventures.

But the appearance of the young Amy (Siena Kelly) in a film will trigger a series of rethinking for Hayley about personal and work issues that she until now had kept in a territory between denial and unconsciousness.

What happens to Amy puts questions that have to do with consent, abuse and health in the mirror, unleashing a deep crisis in the protagonist, an awareness about the cracks and shadows of the apparently friendly work environment of the small porn producer (and not so independent) led by the flamboyant Carroll (Rupert Everett).

Haley suffers a kind of deconstruction of her character Jolene of hers that will have profound repercussions on her personal life and will illuminate her own personal history with a new light. She will contribute to unleash the crisis the meeting with a deputy (great role and performance of Kerry Godliman, whom we already saw in After Life).

Hayley Squires, in a remarkable performance, is the one who puts the body and traces the incredible physical and emotional journey between Jolene, the porn doll with stilettos and not so young anymore, and the Hayley who, from her domestic placidity, suffers the unraveling of his personal life.

In short, Adult Material soberly addresses the current small porn industry from the point of view of one of its stars and the crisis that sooner or later generates its dark areas.

Lead actress....what a performance. Director....original. Edited...like it's 2023. Why is this not understood, celebrated. " I may destroy you" bold, brave...this....well the other side of the mirror. Bravo to all involved.