Dante's Cove

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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"Dante's Cove equals one part Buffy, one part soap opera...and about five parts soft-core gay porn."

Dante's Cove is an American LGBT-oriented horror/supernatural show, which originally aired on 'here!', a premium gay-oriented network. Primarily a soap opera meets horror setup, the show follows young gay men Kevin and Toby, who are trying to continue a relationship while a combination of dark, supernatural forces and the mundane realities of relationships seek to break them up.

While Season 1 takes itself far too seriously, the show seemed to have a makeover for Season 2, which has a lot more fun with the stories and characters (a possible promotion from "low camp" to "high camp").

Most famous for possibly defining the trope Everybody Has Lots of Sex. The first ten minutes of the first episode is nothing but a montage of gay sex.

The show debuted in 2005, and Season 4 began production in 2009.

Nothing at all to do with The Divine Comedy, Dantes Inferno, or Word of Dante.

Tropes used in Dante's Cove include:
  • All Gays Are Promiscuous
  • And Starring: As of Season 3, three actors get this treatment: while most are still just listed by name, the last three are "and Jensen Atwood", "Gregory Michael as Kevin" and "Special guest star Thea Gill as Diana Childs".
  • Anyone Can Die: And most of them do. Cory, Michelle (twice), Van, Marco, most of the islands population, Diana, technically Adam and Toby. By the end of the third season, only three of the main cast members are still technically alive; Ambrosius, Grace, and Kevin. Well, technically, Adam and Toby are trapped in an alternate dimension.
  • Anything That Moves: Griff.

Griff: I find one or two every day. There's a lot of Miss Rights. And Mister Rights. You know me, I love 'em all.

Ambrosius: Where are we going to find another virgin?! This is Dante's Cove, for Christ's sake!

  • Large Ham: Not one actor/actress on the show can act except for the actress portraying Grace, who seems to be having a lot of fun with the role.
    • Thea Gill as Diana is a possible exception; she's a generally capable actress who hams it up spectacularly for the Season 3 finale.
  • Lipstick Lesbian: Several, but particularly Michelle and Diana.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Ambrosius, whose love for and desire to control Kevin provides most of the conflict. Later, Kevin for Toby, after Ambrosius makes Kevin his love slave and Toby moves on to the previously Unlucky Childhood Friend Adam.
  • Love Triangle: Ambrosius is in love with Kevin and wants to make him his sex slave. Kevin is seeing Toby, who is torn between Kevin and childhod friend Adam, who has been secretly pining after him, and who first discovered his sexual orientation recently when he slept with (who else?) Ambrosius. Furthermore, Grace has been in love with Ambrosius ever since they were intended to be married two centuries ago, but eventually falls for Griff, who had slept with Ambrosius in the past. Adam also has a brief fling with Trevor in an attempt to get over Toby.
    • Also, Michelle was seeing Van, but magic made her lose her memory and Van refused to have anything more to do with her. In the aftermath, she sleeps with Brit, who begins seeing Elena.
  • Male Frontal Nudity: At least Once an Episode.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Ambrosius.
  • Manipulative Bitch: Diana.
  • The Other Darrin: Has occurred with the characters of Adam (Jon Fleming, replacing Stephen Amell) and Michelle (Jill Bennett, replacing Erin Cummings). In both cases, the new actors re-filmed key scenes from the previous season for use in the show's opening recap.
  • "Previously On..."
  • Really 700 Years Old: Ambrosius, Diana and Grace.
  • Romantic False Lead: Ambrosius for Kevin and Toby. As of Season 3, Kevin becomes this for Toby and Adam, too.
  • Sex Montage: A couple of times, most famously in the very first episode.
  • Sex Slave: See "Victim Falls For Rapist". Essentially the whole avatar/aspirant dynamic involves the aspirant becoming this for the avatar.
  • Shower of Love: Kevin and Toby, and then later, Kevin and Ambrosius. The latter scene was used in the Season 3 opening credits.
  • The Unfettered: Diana.
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: Adam, for Toby. Later becomes the Victorious Childhood Friend.
  • Victim Falls For Rapist: Ambrosius makes Kevin his unwilling Sex Slave because he "loves" him. Kevin eventually falls for Ambrosius, too.
  • Virgin Power: Grace has been saving herself for this purpose for 200 years. When she finally succumbs to sex with Griffin, she finds out only days later that a virgin is needed to defeat the Shadows.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: Most of the male cast, but especially Adam. Even Lampshaded by Grace once.

Grace: Aren't you with that other one now? The one that says "dude" and appears not to own a shirt?

  • Wham! Episode: The Third Season finale is a Wham-and-a-half. Michelle sacrifices herself to destroy the shadows, which in the process destroy Diana; most of, if not all, the islands inhabitants are dead; Adam and Toby are stolen to another dimension; Grace is revealed to have become pregnant from Griff and Kevin finally goes back to Ambrosius. Weren't expecting that from Dante's Cove, were you now?
  • Where Everybody Knows Your Flame: Ambrosius's bar, H 2 Eau. Also, 'The Lair', which is little more than a club of naked, greasy men having sex with each other.