By ScarletScribe

Secret Diary of a Call Girl
Season 1
Starring Billie Piper, Iddo Goldberg
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release Date: January 6, 2009

If you’re a dedicated geek with a penchant for overseas sci-fi, then you’re more than familiar with Billie Piper, the one-time U.K. pop singer who co-starred in the BBC’s relaunching of Doctor Who. If that’s the case, do away with your image of Piper as a flirty, adventurous companion to the Doctor and get ready for Piper as a flirty, adventurous, companion to anyone who can afford her.

As the lead in Showtime’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Piper plays Hannah, your average well-to-do London girl whose nights working as a “legal secretary” conceal a seedier truth: she’s a high-class, high-priced hooker named Belle. But that’s not much of a secret considering the title. In fact, the eight short episodes (about 23 minutes each) that comprise this first season collection are less about secrets than they are stand-alone sex stories centered around Hannah’s less-than-shocking confessions. Each of the episodes is fairly formulaic: Hannah talks to friend Ben on the phone, Hannah has a client situation that’s outside the norm, Hannah realizes why things are hard for her, Hannah has sex, Ben and Hannah argue and/or make-up, and Hannah puts something in her mouth (at some point).