TV on DVD: "Mistresses: Volume One"

Mistresses isn't quite a relationship drama, although it does focus on the romantic--and often illicit--entanglements affecting four female friends. Rather, it's something more akin to a thriller: sleek and seductive with a hint of menace.

The first volume of British drama series Mistresses, which encapsulates the series' two season run earlier this year on BBC America, is available today for sale as a four-disc set. It tells the story of four very different women who find themselves dealing with complicated and complex relationships as they juggle the dual specters of career and personal fulfillment.

But don't let the title put you off from enjoying this complex and provocative series. Yes, the twelve episodes contain more than a heaping dose of sex and scandal but there's also a perilous throughline that runs beneath the surface, giving Mistresses the feel of a noir thriller that asks questions about coincidence, fate, and manipulation.

Brilliant physician Katie (Blackpool's Sarah Parish) falls for a married patient with a terminal illness and mercy kills him... only to come face to face with his twenty-something son Sam (The Tudors' Max Brown) who knows that his father was having an affair and wants to unmask his father's lover. And, against her better judgment, Katie soon finds herself increasingly drawn to Sam sexually, despite their vast age difference and the burning secret Katie strives to conceal from him.

Kindly Trudi (The Inspector Lynley Mysteries' Sharon Small), widowed after 9/11, keeps receiving strange phone calls that she believes could be her missing husband, whose body was never recovered. When she receives a £1 million check from the 9/11 fund, she also happens to get asked out by divorced dad Richard (The Office's Patrick Baladi). Is this the start of a new era for Trudi? Could be. Or are the two incidences related? Trudi questions whether her relationship with Richard is built on truth or something far more nefarious.

Ambitious attorney Siobhan (Shark's Orla Brady) discovers that her sex life with her husband Hari (Spooks' Raza Jaffrey) has been transformed into a never-ending effort to produce a child. Despite being in love with Hari, she quickly finds herself drawn into a series of sexual escapades with her co-worker Dominic (Sensitive Skin's Adam Rayner). She learns that Hari is infertile but then she becomes pregnant... with Dominic's child. Can she tell her husband the truth? Or will she keep this fact to herself?

Sexually irrepressible Jessica (Party Animals' Shelley Conn) works as a party planner. She's involved in a mindless affair with her married boss Simon (Adam Astill) and is satisfied with her life as the other woman... until she's assigned to plan a wedding for a lesbian couple, Alex (Fringe's Anna Torv) and Lisa. Thrown together with Alex, Jessica feels an instant connection with her, though Jessica is thrown by her attraction to another woman. But she's tempted to give into the spark between them and throw caution to the wind.

Ultimately, Mistresses: Volume 1 is compelling, dark viewing and the perfect addition to the DVD library of any fan of British television, relationship series, or indeed haunting thrilers.



Mistresses: Volume One is available today on DVD with a suggested retail price of $59.98. Or pick it up in the Televisionary store for just $44.99.