Sex House

At first glance, Sex House is about what you'd expect from the premise of The Onion's take on reality television. It's a funny, clever series that riffs on The Real World and its many, many descendants, creating a reality series about a few people in a house - the titular "Sex House" - who are filmed in the hopes of having lots and lots of sex (and, not incidentally, helping the ratings). And in the early going, that's what the series is - well, except for the fact that it seems horribly planned, chaotically structured, and remarkably sex-free. And all of that provides a lot of laughs, but there's an undercurrent of darkness hiding not far beneath the surface...and when it comes out, Sex House gets funnier, sharper, and more than a bit nightmarish and horrific. Sex House could have been a slight, entertaining joke about reality TV and its traditions, but instead, it ends up as a strong, brutal critique of the genre and its trappings - not just the network executives, not just those willing to do anything for a shot at fame, but also the fakery that seeps into every premise and the deception that belies most of the footage we're seeing. But more than that, Sex House is twisted and hilarious, and it's willing to go places that you'd never expect to keep you wondering just what the hell you've started watching. You can watch the entire series online; it's only ten episodes, each about 6-7 minutes apiece, so the whole thing won't take you much more than an hour to get through. But what you'll get is one of the most exhilaratingly weird and entertaining things I've seen all year - it's sharp, funny, intelligent, strangely profound, surprisingly unsettling, and just generally brilliant - to say nothing of being a trenchant, biting piece of satire that has a lot to say about television and the realities of "reality" TV. It's a true must-watch.                                                    - Josh Mauthe

---