The mainstreaming of pornography continues apace. Not only have erotic images achieved new penetration in our homes via the world wide web, thus dulling their shock value, they have become such a non-issue to so many people that they have been deemed worthy of a late-night cable reality series on the order of "The Osbournes". We may now bear witness to the business and romantic travails of porn director Adam Glasser (a.k.a. Seymore Butts) in the Showtime series "Family Business"--and surprisingly, the show isn't as prurient as you'd expect. Unlike the reality series of Anna Nicole Smith and the aforementioned Osbournes, the subjects aren't being held up for ridicule; "Family Business" is less a random collection of foolish behaviour than a systematic investigation of its subject's life and business. Who's to argue if a little naked flesh gets caught around the edges?

Refreshingly nonchalant about the sensational milieu, the show delves into the porn industry at its most casual and humdrum. We meet Adam's mother Lila, who does the books and tries to set her son up on dates; we also meet Cousin Stevie, the gruff distribution manager, who handles some of Adam's duties when he's unavailable. And we see how they work, which is to say with blasé indifference. We watch Adam and Stevie go through auditions: singles and couples come in, undress, have Polaroids taken, and leave--nothing to it. (Stevie does complain that he's stuck photographing the guys, but he's not put out--business is business.) They're fine with it, he's fine with it, the show's fine with it, and so we're fine with it, assuming we don't have any ideological baggage that would keep us from being fine with it (a whole other essay in and of itself).

Little by little, the show pieces together a portrait of someone who's in the business as opposed to someone who is the business--the common approach of both porn detractors and porn defenders. Much of the show is simply the mundania of life: Glasser dotes on his young son, whom he raises by himself, and he searches for love with women who can't see beyond his suspicious line of work. He's been on countless dates (when we first see him, he's reeling through another batch of Internet prospects), but they all seem to have a problem with his occupation, and the show gives us a pair of incredulous women who register horror when he reveals his career in porn. One is game enough to see his workplace--but in the end she can't deal with it, and he is back at square one. The schism between the porn world and the real world remains intact, revealing the distance between how much we've changed and how much we've stayed the same.

Alas, FILM FREAK CENTRAL wasn't provided with the full three-disc set offered by Showtime, so I must base this review on the pilot. I can't tell you if subsequent episodes let the series down, if the novelty wears off, if the principals do indeed sprout devil's horns and shovel innocents into a fiery furnace. But I can tell you that Adam Glasser makes an interesting documentary subject, that the approach is bracingly direct, and that the series has promise--worth at least a rental to see how the saga continues. Interesting that what must have been a sensational pitch ("The life and loves of a porn czar! Revealed at last!") has turned into such an intriguing series--at first glance, at least.

As this review is based on a teaser, I cannot be sure about the sound and image quality of the finished goods. As far as the screener goes, all is well: the fullscreen transfer is both clean and robust, with vivid colours and definition as sharp as you can ask for in a digicam picture. The 2.0 stereo sound is similarly unimpeachable, coming through with full clarity and without any competing noise. (Apparently, the final mix is in 5.1.) Though I'm unable to comment on the extras of the 3-disc set (since the screener contained none), I can report on their existence. There is "comedy commentary" courtesy of the Jay and Tony Show; Lila speaking her mind in "Mother Knows Best" segments; deleted scenes; the theme song, performed by Wonderlick; something called Butt Stevie, described as "Cousin Stevie's native tongue"; a "biographical family tree" called Behind the Butts; a season two preview; family interviews; and various other "highlights." Buyer beware: the promo materials claim that special features are subject to change."-Travis Hoover