It bodes well for a video when a reviewer returns home to find his girlfriend masturbating to it. After all, one of porn's most sought-after Holy Grails is the Vid The Girlfriend Will Like Too. Taboo 17 is just such a vid, and for a variety of reason, although not necessarily those commonly associated with "couples-friendly fare."

First and foremost, there's the atypical porn stud Julian, whose threesome with Sydney Steele and Inari Vachs serves as the tape's high point. Although conventional wisdom dictates that in order to capture female minds and libidos couple smut has to pay homage at the altar of the Relationship-Drive Plot, modern pornographers would do well to take note of the popularity of gay porn among heterosexual women and ponder for a moment the whys and wherefores of said popularity. Could it be the ripply muscles, model-handsome faces and largish dicks found so often amongst the gay porn ranks? Gay porn is populated with guys just like Julian, guys so attractive that most men, gay and straight, are glad they're gay, and who women, for some mysterious reason, enjoy watching have sex.

Then, there's Michael Zen's familiar fetish-themed aesthetic, which informs both the video's visual ambiance and the character o' the sex. Of special note in this regard is master mark Davis and maid Roxanne Hall's pairing, the in-and-out part of which commences only after hall has had a heinie-reddening spanking over Davis' knee. Then there's Caressa Savage and Misty Rain's girl-girler, which erupts after Rain finds Savage bound and trussed in a ponygirl get-up.