I have to agree with the thesnowleopard that Bliss takes itself a bit too seriously. I've seen a few episodes on Oxygen Network here in the US. One episode I can recall, "The Marvellon" features a younger lesbian who seduces an older one......who was a bit repressed and had a harpy girlfriend. Then there is the famous farmhand episode, where rancher's wife turns adulteress while her boring or uptight husband is in the hospital. Another episode features a woman (ignored by her busy husband and henceforth feeling the blues) who sleeps with the man who comes to tune her piano. It seems going by the episodes I've seen that Bliss is a bit formulaic. 1. Woman strolls around in a funk due to loneliness or crappy man in her life. 2. Funk is broken by hot sexual encounter. 3. Conclusion. Couple glow in aftermath of tryst. Sometimes show ends on high note. Often ends on ambivalent note as woman has to go back to her boring or loveless life. All in all not quite depressing, but something of a bleak show. It usually begins on a dour note.

I stumbled upon this series by accident while channel surfing. As the Oxygen Network plays it on late Sunday nights, I don't always get the opportunity to watch. The series is entertaining, even though there are times it strains credibility. Most of the stories are shallow, in spite of the occasional attempts at character development, and they're not that hard to predict. Though the series is supposed to be for a female audience, men will certainly enjoy it. The episode regarding a lesbian historical boutique owner and her butch younger girlfriend entertained me, but I don't know if straight women would enjoy such a thing. On the whole, "Bliss" is a fun time-filler for hard-up insomniacs.Probably the best episode is "Six Days", in which the beautiful yet authentic Anna (Michelle Duquet), an unhappily married farmer's wife is left alone on the farm after her annoying bore of a husband Jake (Paul Stewart) suffers an accident that temporarily incapacitates him. So she finds someone to help her keep up the farm while he recovers. Of course, Mike (Callum Keith Rennie), the man who volunteers to work for her, is nice-looking and virile. And it's obvious what they'll do once they've been alone for a few days. Yet the story works just the same. We see the alienated wife and the loner farm hand connect as people, not just genders or bodies. It's clear that both are not trusting people. He has moved from place to place since leaving home, while she's never been out of her hometown even though she's never liked living there, yet they're both drawn to each other for the same reasons. So when they smile and laugh together, there's a real sense of release and fulfillment. It's almost as much about the effects of loneliness as it as about sex. The actors get much of the credit, yet they work with the story. The only weakness of the story is, why did Anna marry Jake in the first place, not only because he's so much older than her, but because he's such an exasperating personality? But in the end, it doesn't matter.

I watch this show on Fridays on Showcase Canada and my favorite episode is "Leaper" in which Julie, a writer hit writers block and calls up a friend and ends up hanging up on the person. She later goes out and runs into a homeless person and Julie gives her some money and the woman attacks Julie. Later, at a café Julie recovers from her writer's block and someone makes moves on her, Julie sees the homeless person again and the person runs away and kills herself. Julie's admirer,whose name is Diane or Dionne takes Julie to her apartment and then Diane starts to really show that she is interested in Julie and then Julie and Diane end up having sex. Julie wakes up the next day and spots something very familiar, a candy wristband and Diane approaches Julie and confesses to knowing the homeless person, Julie is standing there dumbfounded and wearing only her thong, quickly gets dressed and flees.

I thought the story was okay. It didn't really thrill me. This woman goes into a hotel to get help because the taxi drove away with her bag and briefcase. She slowly realizes the hotel is a pick up place for men and women. The good looking British man makes a move on her, and for some reason, she follows him into a hotel room. They have hot sex. The stranger pays the woman some money and they have a weekly "date" in the same hotel. To the woman's surprise, she meets this man in her office, he is actually a client of her firm! They meet again and the man tells her that he's actually in love with his wife, but just that he needs something more, such as a sexual forbidden thrill on the side. He wants to leave the relationship with this woman, but the woman stops him. She said she will "pay" for his services from now on. As the story ends, the audience knows that this man and this woman are going to continue meeting at the hotel.Can a woman and a man just have casual sex without feeling anything else for the relationship? According to the show, yes, they can. Do we really believe that? I don't know. It's a nice fantasy. It's even nicer when the handsome British man is played by Peter Wingfield! Never thought he'd look so damn good in the nude! Mr. Wingfield, if you ever read this, you have nothing to be ashamed of, your body is terrific and your sex scenes add alot to a rather threadbare story.Anyone who is a Peter Wingfield hardcore fan will really like this episode. This is the most sensual Peter Wingfield I've ever seen!I give the story a "C" and all the actors an "A".