TV Show

As several people have commented on the visuality of some of my stories, and I came across this snippet from a far longer story. I thought this was too good to be left on the cutting room floor and decided to polish it up a bit and publish.

The plot of the original story is not important here, as this story simply describes a woman about to watch the finale of her favourite TV show. She recalls the opening sequence from the pilots, the original cliffhanger ending, and then parts of the last episode.

In doing so, it allows me to play around with describing the shots and actions of the characters, without getting tied down to too much dialogue. Because this describes a TV show, the nudity and sex is only implied, not some HBO style raunchy.

The italicised text is the woman in her bedroom, and the other text is the description of the TV show.

Slipping into bed in anticipation of the last ever episode of my current favourite TV show. A glass of chilled white wine sat next to me on my nightstand. The fresh clean sheets and my favourite silk nightie that felt so good against my skin.

Turning on the TV and going through the motions to select the program. I recall what I'd read online about this episode.

The studio had told the show's makers it would not be renewed for a second season. However, fans had kicked up a fuss and started an internet petition to bring the show back. The studio refused, but relented enough to commission an extra wrap-up episode. I, for one, was very pleased. I'd been hooked on the show from the pilot.

It had opened with a long shot down a hotel corridor. A lift bell pings and a young woman steps out. The camera quickly zooms in to encompass only her head and shoulders. She's stunningly beautiful, with perfectly applied makeup. Her lipstick was a brilliant red and glossy, the eyeshadow containing shades of purple. Her hair is a golden blonde, and hangs down straight, stopping just above the shoulders.

The camera starts to slowly zoom out, showing her skin-tight sparkly red dress, with a tiny matching clutch purse on a chain over one shoulder. The dress shows a lot of cleavage and most of her very long legs. Her shoes add inches to her height and exacerbate her natural slim build.

The zooming stops once she's entirely in the frame, and she looks to the lift as a man joins her. She looks barely out of her teens, while he has to be at least sixty. Balding, overweight and looking flushed, he puts his arm around her waist and then slips it down to grope her bottom.

The pair walks towards the camera, and it pulls back to keep the pair in frame. It's obvious she's a hooker with her John. In the blurred background, two large men step from the lift and follow the pair, implying they are his bodyguards.

The camera cuts to a tracking shot from behind the couple, following as they approach a pair of double doors at the end of the corridor. She pushes both doors wide open and enters a palatial hotel room. The camera follows her, taking in the boldly decorated room in reds and purples. An enormous bed dominates the space, and she walks to the centre of the room. As she slowly spins around to take it all in, the camera tracks around in a circle, keeping her face in shot as the room blurs by.

Turning back to the door, she walks back towards it. The camera retreated before her, exiting the room and passing between the bodyguards on the threshold. She shakes her head slowly at them, closing the doors in their faces. They seem to have expected that, and take up positions with their backs to the doors.

The scene cuts back inside the room to reveal the man pouring himself a drink. And holding up an empty glass in question to the woman as she stalks past him. She shakes her head and examines something. Then turns on the radio. After switching channels a couple of times, she gets the opening bars of a tango.

She gestures that the man should sit on the bed, and she dances. It's slow and sensuous, making the most of her sexy body and long legs.

The image of her dancing shrinks, so it only fills the left half of the screen, leaving the right half black. Then a close-up image of a very handsome young man's head and shoulders fades in. He's dancing to the same music. The camera pulls back to reveal he's dancing in a perfectly fitted tuxedo with a mature woman. There are evident signs of plastic surgery on her face, but she's wearing an expensive dress and dripping with diamonds. With the context from the other half of the screen, you automatically think gigolo.

The split on the screen slides to the left, leaving the gigolo image filling it. The camera pulls back more to reveal the pair dancing in a large room. There is a large fireplace and a baby grand piano, obviously someone's luxury mansion.

Cutting back to the hotel, as the hooker peels her dress off and over her head. Revealing skimpy underwear and a body that exceeds even what the skin-tight dress had promised. The scene quickly cuts through a series of images of her dancing. Mostly showing off her figure and her flexibility.

Ending with an over the shoulder shot from the man on the bed. The camera shows her standing in front of him and leaning towards him with her breasts threatening to fall from her bra. She turns her back and runs one hand down her thigh, bends over with her legs slightly parted. Her underwear exposes most of her bum and you can see it disappearing between her legs.

Cutting back to the mansion, the pair are now standing in front of the fireplace; she has her back to his chest and is rocking side to side to the music. The camera traverses completely around the pair as the gigolo feeds her chocolate-dipped strawberries and sips of champagne. He tilts her head to one side to plant butterfly kisses on the side of her neck.

Cutting back to the hotel room, we see a wide shot of the bottom of the bed. The hooker is standing in front of the man, with her back to the camera, reaching back to remove her bra. Holding it casually off to one side, and drops it on the floor.

The camera zooms in and traverses around to the side of the bed. The side of her breast appears, but before too much is shown, she lifts her arms and pushes him onto his back. Cutting to a POV image from his perspective, showing her head and shoulders, but stopping on the upper slope of her breasts.

"Are you ready?" She asks and the camera wobbles in a yes. Her hands appear in the shot and she tears open a small packet and pops something into her mouth. You can see her tongue moving around until she opens her mouth in an 'O' with a condom, filling it in contrast with her brilliant red lipstick.

She leans forward, and out of shot, and the show's opening titles appear on the screen.

Then it comes back. We see the mature woman exiting her bathroom, wearing an ankle-length cream satin nightgown. She moves to sit at her vanity dresser and starts removing her earrings.

"I had a good time tonight." She says, speaking into the mirror and looking directly at the camera. The gigolo walks into shot, still fully clothed in his tuxedo.

"The night isn't finished yet." He replies by removing her necklace and casually dropping it into her jewellery box.

Taking her hand, the image tracks the pair as he leads her to bed. Lifting the covers up for her, as she slips inside, then pulls back as he walks away. Revealing a look of disappointment on her face. However, he pauses at the foot of the bed and slips his jacket off, letting it fall to the floor. Turning his back to the camera and towards the bed, he dropped to his knees and lifted up the covers at the bottom of the bed. He insinuates, snake-like, under the covers. The camera tracks his movement, and then up the bed to show just her head and shoulders above the covers.

The woman gasps and then says.

"Oh, I'm so glad I chose you."

The scene cuts back to the hotel, with the same wide shot from the bottom of the bed. The woman is now naked and straddling the man in the middle of the bed. A scrunched up sheet, strategically covering just the lowest part of her bum. She's slowly rocking gently back and forth. The camera traverses forwards and up over her shoulder, tilting down, revealing the look of a blissful grin on the old man's face.

Cutting back to the bedroom, to see the woman gasps and then sigh contentedly. The camera pulls back as the gigolo emerges from under the covers next to her.

"I'm glad I listened to my friend's recommendation." She says and leans over to kiss him on the cheek.

"There is an envelope with a tip next to the door." With that, she rolls over with her back to him, obviously a dismissal.

The camera pulls back more, as he slips from the bed, and retrieves his jacket. Cuts to him standing next to the door as he picks up the envelope and checks the contents with a glance. Looking back towards the woman, a quick cut shows that the woman is already apparently asleep. Back to the man, he flicks off the light, then closes the door behind him, leaving the screen black.

Fading in, we see the room in the mansion the pair had been dancing in earlier. He slips through the door, and he's pulling rubber gloves. The camera tracks him as he walks behind the desk. Touching the corner of a painting, it swings away from the wall on hinges, revealing a safe. The image zooms in as he leans in to attempt to open it.

Back to the hotel room, we're looking down from above the naked pair on the bed. The hooker is lying on top of the man, her head to the top of the frame, and her hips and buttocks are rapidly thrusting on top of him.

Slowly the image traverses in an arc from above the bed, down towards her backside, but slowly zooms in so as to not show anything lower than mid buttocks.

She suddenly throws her head and shoulders back, sitting upright on the man. Her face pointing at the camera, her eyes closed and her mouth open in supposed ecstasy.

Cutting back to the mansion, as the safe lock clicks, and the gigolo pulls it open. The camera cuts to a view of him from inside the safe. He pulls out his phone and snaps a few photos of the contents.

In the hotel, we see a POV from the man's perspective, of the woman's face hot and flushed.

"How was that?" She asks, and it switches to an over her shoulder shot of his face, looking exhausted but satiated. He nods happily and closes his eyes, switching back to her face, as her expression fades to boredom as soon as he is not looking.

Cutting back to the view from inside the safe, the gigolo pulls out a jewellery box and opens it to reveal a ruby necklace and earrings; he closes the box and puts it back. Then pulls out several bundles of money, holds them in one hand to riffle through them with the thumb of the other. He returns them to the safe, but after a brief hesitation, he slips one into his jacket pocket.

Finally, he pulls a thick ledger from the bottom of the safe and flicks it open. He grins and shuts the safe, leaving the screen black.

It fades back in showing the hooker gathering her discarded clothing. She picked up her John's jacket to hang it over the back of a chair. Carefully, stealing his phone while her back is to him.

The scene changes to the brightly lit hotel bathroom. We see a close-up of her hands plugging in a cable between his phone and hers. Her phone lights up with a message saying 'data coping' and she dresses. The screen fades out and back in again to reveal the hooker is now dressed and fixing her makeup. The screen of her phone flashes and she quickly unplugs it, slipping the cable and her phone into her purse, and returns to the main room.

Pausing, and using the chair to steady herself as she adjusts the straps on her shows, she expertly slips his phone back to his jacket pocket.

The scene changes to a view of the hotel corridor, pointing towards the bodyguards standing at the door. The doors open to reveal the hooker, her John sitting up in bed smoking a cigarette, blurred in the background. One bodyguard holds up a hand to stop her. His partner checks her bag as the first frisks her. Not that the dress can conceal anything.

She endures it with bad grace and scowls as he squeezes her bum. Then holds out her hand. The bodyguard pulls an envelope from his jacket and hands it over.

As she walks towards the camera, it pulls back, travelling to keep her in the frame, from mid-calf up, and the screen gradually fades to black.

The screen fades back into a near-identical scene. The same woman in the same dress, but this time she's walking down a brightly lit corridor and flanked by two policewomen.

Her image moves to the left of the screen as a duplicate scene of the gigolo slides in to take up the right. He is also walking down a nearly identical brightly lit corridor and flanked by two policemen.

She removes her clutch purse from her shoulder and fiddles with it. He pulls open his jacket and opens a concealed pocket, removing something. She pulls something from the purse and ‌the chain is attached to that and not the purse.

Hooking the chain over her head as the man hooks what he took from his pocket into the outer chest pocket of his suit. Both remove their hands at the same time as the police on either side of the pair veer off.

You can now clearly see the objects each is now wearing are police shields.

The image changes to a wide static shot with an office door at the centre. From either side of the screen, the undercover hooker and undercover gigolo approach the door and stop. The looks on their faces show obvious dislike.

It cuts to a closer shot of her looking at the door as if waiting for him to open it. Then to him looking at the door, instead of opening it for her, he barges through, leaving her to follow.

It's a great opening sequence for an otherwise fairly ordinary detective show.

In the office, their captain informs them they have both been working on the same case and he expects them to be partners from now on. Their special skill sets complement each other, but the look on their faces shows neither wants to work with the other.

He's a former child actor whose mother was killed as an innocent bystander to a drive-by shooting. He's an impetuous loner who barely follows the rules.

She was a model whose younger sister was murdered after witnessing something she shouldn't. The gangsters responsible had got away with it after evidence went missing from police custody. She's an obsessive-compulsive who constantly has to remind the actor of police procedures at crime scenes. In addition, has to turn a blind eye as he occasionally pockets something like a pair of sunglasses from a dead man. Or an expensive bottle of wine at a crime scene.

The series starts with them thinking the other is a frivolous waste of space, but grudgingly they grow to respect the others' skills. He is good with locks and safe cracking, learned on set between scenes in movies. She is gifted with computers, and both have skills with makeup and costumes. As neither looked like a cop, so they could get into places other cops could not.

What set the show above similar shows, apart from the cinematography. Was the writers somehow shoehorned in a scene, in every episode, where one or the other of the main characters were naked. But the strategic placement of props and careful camera positioning or tracking, you almost, but not quite, saw the naughty bits. In addition, the male lead was nude at least as often as the woman.

As the series progressed, the pair hid their growing attraction to each other, with the usual 'will they or won't they' vibe.

At the start of the last episode, it looks like the pair are finally going to hook up. However, she's been secretly keeping track of her sister's killers, hoping to find evidence to finally get justice for her sister. She discovers evidence her partner might be a lot more of a dirty cop than she assumed from his simple light finger thefts from crime scenes.

He might even have been the one to remove the evidence from police storage that might have convicted them otherwise.

Feeling betrayed, she uses her computer to track his car and finds it parked less than a block away from the gangster's house.

The scene cuts to her standing in the shadows of an alley. Ahead is her partner's car. He appears, hurrying in the rain, with a clear plastic bag that looks like it contains money. He stops at his car to find his keys.

Cutting to a closer shot, the model walks into view with her revolver pointed at his head.

"Why?" she demands, and he turns slowly to face her.

"It's not what it looks like." He replies and tries to reassure her. But, throughout their relationship, he teased her was that good an actor she'd never know when he was lying.

They argue before he shakes his head and steps up to her with her gun an inch from his face. He slowly grips her gun hand and pushes it under his chin.

"If you cannot find a way to trust me for another 12 hours, you should just shoot me."

The camera cuts to a view from slightly above his head, looking at his partner and the look of conflicted anguish on her face. The sound of her cocking her gun, and then the episode, ends.

A frustrating way to end the show and understandably the reason insisted on closure.

So now, as the wrap-up episode starts, we see a of the previous storyline and a replay of the last scene. After we hear the gun cocking, we see the camera cutting back and forth between close-ups of the faces of the two characters. His look of pleading, her torn between justice and love.

The camera cuts from behind the model, and she turns and hurries off. The tears in her eyes are obvious despite the rain and the screen fades to black.

It fades back in with a helicopter shot looking in at the windows of her luxury apartment. The scene shows her lying on her couch, an empty bottle lying on its side on the table. The camera traverses into the room as she sits up, her hair a mess and her mascara run from her crying.

She gets up, revealing she's in a short t-shirt and a thong. Her breasts are covered, but her nipples are obvious, walking away from her bum exposed to the camera.

Getting a glass of water, she turns on the TV. Picking up her phone, we get a close-up as she scrolls through her address book and selects her police captain.

With the phone ringing, she notices the news and sees the gangster's house she knows so well, with police cars and flashing lights outside. As the man she knows either murdered her sister or order it, is led out in handcuffs. He screams to the reporters he's been set up and those responsible will pay.

She kills the unanswered call to her captain as she reads the caption on the TV saying a tip-off led to a raid and preliminary reports. Claiming there is evidence of drugs, prostitution, armed robbery and several murders.

Realising this was what her partner was doing, getting close enough to bypass the law. He does not answer his phone, so she rushes to her partner's apartment to find it ransacked already. However, there is no sign of a struggle or blood.

Most of the episode comprises a cat-and-mouse chase as the actor narrowly escapes killers and the model uses her knowledge of him to track him down.

Just as it looks like he's cornered and about to die, she appears in her sports car and carries him away.

She's angry with him and demands to know why. He admits he did it because he loves her, and he was prepared to sacrifice his career and current life to get her justice for her sister she deserves.

She nearly crashes the car at this declaration and insists, over his protestations, that she goes with him. With the two of them looking out for each other, they'd stand a far better chance of survival.

After a driving montage, the car pulls up in a motel parking lot after dark. Entering the room, we see the actor is dirty and covered in scratches from his pursuit and narrow escapes. He heads straight to the bathroom and calls back. He needs a shower but promises not to use all the hot water.