The most riveting moments in this sometimes very good line occur when the subby video virgins realize they're in over their heads and react, out of anxiety, fear or even out and out panic, in visceral and very real ways.

The only scene in Vol. 21 that contains such emotion is the closer, in which series perennial Kym Wilde (who's invoked said sinking feelings in many a kink cherry over the history of this line) tops someone named Jac Hammer, who, despite the name, is, in Kym's words, a "100 percent pure dyke" who's supposedly never bottomed to anyone before.

Well, wouldn't you know it? Jac doesn't really take to it very well and in one uncomfortable, tension-filled sequence refuses to get down on her knees to suck Kym's fake phallus. This pisses off the Wilde woman, who, losing her cool, then accidentally nips Jac's face with a flogger. This in turn pisses Jac off, who aborts the scene by walking off camera, muttering, "Cut, cut." It's dramatic stuff, if not all that, well, spankable.

Scene two has a few hot moments as beguiling real-deal Mistress Gemini marks newbie Kat's butt with hands, paddles and floggers. But Kat is too subdued a performer to spark any solid tension and she's not really brought to tears as the box cover hype promises.

The opener, meanwhile, is pretty much a one-note, danger-free scene as Amber Michaels and rookie Summer take turns whacking each other with floggers. Summer is the latest in a series of RedBoard "tops" whose flogging technique is painful to watch, and at one point, while repeatedly hitting Michaels' spine and kidneys, she asks, "You'd never think I was new at this, huh?" Well, now that you mention it honey....