Created by noted erotic director Zalman King (9 1/2 Weeks, Wild Orchid, and Two Moon Junction) Red Shoe Diaries was specifically made for adult audience and aired on Showtime late night. When the show debuted back in 1992, lavishly lit sex scenes and more than the occasional dirty word was something new, even for cable audiences. Red Shoe Diaries was an anthology series framed around Jake Winters (David Duchovny), whose story had been told in Red Shoe Diaries: The Movie, the vehicle that ended up serving as a pilot for the series. Here, He’s taken out personal ads encouraging women to write and tell him of their sexual exploits. The letters he receives serve as the basis of each of the episodes.

To be blunt, Red Shoe Diaries is soft core porn. Populated with B-list actors, and a couple of names that would join the Hollywood A-list just a few short years after their appearance, Season one is probably the best of the five to check out. Zalman King was a master at lighting and photography; setting a mood so you didn’t feel like you were watching soft core porn. Perhaps that’s why so many up-and-coming actors felt okay doing a nude scene in one of his projects. It was going to be tastefully done, and that makes it art. Right?

Season One consists of thirteen half hour episodes spread out over two DVDs. Notable names that pop up include Steven Bauer (Scarface), Joan Severance (Bird on a Wire), Denise Crosby (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Richard Tyson (Two Moon Junction), Annabelle Gurwitch (Guiding Light), Matt LeBlanc (Friends), Maryam d’Abo (The Living Daylights), Sheryl Lee (Twin Peaks), and Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club); a pretty impressive list for a shoe that doesn’t hide its soft core intentions.

Most of the storylines are pretty thin and exist for no other reason than to set up a soft core sex scene. Though keeping in mind that this was filmed in the early nineties, the fashions and stylistic choices on display are often cause for chuckles rather than feelings of desire. Nonetheless, Red Shoe Diaries does deserve credit for telling the stories from a female perspective. One of the season’s major themes is dominance and control, or more specifically, giving over of control to a sexual partner. Coming at that from a female perspective was definitely rare in early 1990’s America.

In the end, Red Shoe Diaries isn’t deep, and it’s not great art. However, the series had a pretty big fan base back in the day, and I’m sure some of those folks are very happy to see the show making its DVD debut.

Framed at 1.33:1, the image is rather soft, though a lot of it comes from the soft lighting that is used throughout the series. Color reproduction is fine, but never particularly vibrant. Skin tones look decent, though black levels somewhat gray. Detail is nothing special; just about what you would expect from a standard definition release of this age.

The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix gets the job done and nothing more. Dialogue is a little bit flat and the score doesn’t have any real punch. There are no issues with hiss or distortion.

There are no subtitles available.

Extras include a nice featurette which has Zalman King talking about the genesis of the series. There is also a look at the guest stars over the years, which includes a montage of all of them in the scenes. We also get to see a vintage on-set discussion with David Duchovny talking candidly about his early career and pre-fame days as a wannabe basketball player and Calvin Klein model.