As one of the reviews mentioned, the '90s was the peak era for softcore - these days before the terrible implants, the bizarre attempts at "comedy" that suggest they think viewers are idiots, the lack of genuine heat in sex scenes (scenes that often involve interchangeable rutting with one or two awkward poses and canned rutting) and the hardcore porn actors filling roles that used to go to actors that had never been seen in the genre before and were more of a surprise to you (and felt more "real"), it's just not worth watching most of the time.
Erotic Confessions, especially the first few seasons, had genuine sexuality and steam. I remember an episode early on with an Asian- American woman whose boyfriend didn't care about whether she enjoyed sex as long as he got off, and she went to the gym. Amidst some gauzy fantasies (like the whole gym [4-5 people] having an orgy), she met a sweet, Kennedy-looking type of guy. She accidentally walked in on him in the steam room. She - and we - saw him full frontal naked. I'd rarely seen anything like that on these types of softcore shows, which were often loath to show a man below the waist, and if you were lucky, had a few glimpses of his backside from another room. She was embarrassed, he told her it was fine, and then this led to the usual sex scene...one which felt a lot more normal, and as a result genuinely erotic. There were lots of moments like this early on - a maid brought in to clean a kitchen having sex with a frustrated husband, a woman seeing a man pleasure himself (we weren't shown this - even they couldn't go that far) over a phone sex line and joining him, couples being turned on after a strip poker game, on and on. They showcased the genuine embarrassment, giddiness, cringeiness, and joy of sex. People were able to laugh and actually have fun. People actually felt like people, rather than cardboard cutouts.
I wish the show were more readily available today. Then again, considering the crap on now, no wonder it's not.
