As the episode begins, Jolene Dollar, aka Hayley Burrows, meets up with Carroll Quinn (Rupert Everett). Amy (Siena Kelly) has shut herself in the bathroom and she won’t come out. Inside, a man works on Tom (Julian Ovenden). Jolene learns that Carroll doesn’t want to get authorities involved so Ted is taking care of Tom’s stab wound. He warns Jolene that getting the police involved could result in Amy going to prison for ten years. Despite that warning, Jolene calls for an ambulance and police. Carroll takes more drugs before Tom tells him that this is a backwards country. Jolene manages to convince Amy to let her in the room with her.
Jolene tries to figure out what happened during the shoot. Amy says it was really embarrassing and gross. She begins freaking out when she hears a siren outside. After the intro, Amy is taken away in a police vehicle after Jolene tells her that everything will be okay. Carroll tells Jolene that they shouldn’t tell the authorities anything while Jolene suggests it may have something to do with Amy’s on-set incident. Carroll says Jolene needs to let that go because Dave did everything he asked her. Then, she finds out that Carroll was there. He promises to send her the set of the tape before asking her to back him up. Tom is taken out to an ambulance seconds later.
Jolene gets a call before going to the school where she learns Phoebe (Alex Jarrett) has gotten into trouble. Paulie is really upset but Jolene doesn’t understand the severity of what her daughter has done. She is told that Phoebe violated Paulie’s privacy and the school code. They’re told that Phoebe will have to be suspended but Jolene isn’t worried about Phoebe is done and they’re just waiting on her results. Then, they learn that it will go on Phoebe’s record and it will be relayed to the universities she applies to. Jolene doesn’t want that to happen and says it isn’t fair. Jolene begins arguing with Mrs. Grey (Anna Wilson-Jones) before Phoebe gets up and leaves.
Mrs. Grey believes they’re still children but Jolene doesn’t since she was working when she turned 18. And, she was raising Phoebe by herself when she was 18. Jolene tells her about the benefits of working in the porn industry and she thinks Grey doesn’t like that she gets paid three times her wages and loves what she does. Then, Jolene reminds her that she has been paying the school 15 grand a year for the last six years before revealing Paulie’s dad makes bullets for a living and they named a sports hall after him. When Jolene leaves, she finds her daughter cleaning SLAG off of her pink car. Jolene tells her to get into the car and not let them see them upset. Before they leave, Jolene calls the mean girls virgins.
Jolene tells her daughter why she picked her line of work. Amy calls and interrupts. She is upset and crying so Jolene tries to calm her down. She promises that she’ll be there very soon. Jolene whips the car around before telling her daughter that they’ve charged Amy with ABH. Jolene meets Amy at the police station and asks if she wants her to call her boyfriend. He is in Swansea today so he can view a caravan. The landlord has changed the locks because he smokes a lot of Spice. They’re rushed by a media correspondent with ChewTheBreeze.com moments later. The media correspondent claims Amy has a history of drug and mental instability before her short career in porn. Jolene tells the man that Mr. Quinn is lying about an innocent girl who was perfectly fine before she started working with him.
Then, Jolene goes on about Tom Pain being a dangerous man. She says Carroll doesn’t care as long as he is making money. She flashes him and he tells her that he is a big fan before Jolene and Amy join Phoebe in the pink car. Jolene takes Amy home and Rich (Joe Dempsie) immediately begins asking a lot of questions. Jolene says she can sleep in Izzy’s room bur Rich is worried since she just stabbed someone. They continue talking while Izzy (Anya McKenna-Bruce) learns about Amy’s favorite film which is Cannibal Holocaust. After dinner, Jolene and Rich watch the interview with the guy from Chew the Breeze and Jolene believes she looks mental. They have sex a bit later before Jolene looks over and imagines Tom is there playing with himself.
Rich tells her to stop looking for the camera. She plays along and apologizes. In the morning, Rich tells Jolene that the video has blown up before Phoebe enters and we see that she has an STD in her eye too. She tells Amy about it. Rich and Jolene go outside and contemplate going on Good Morning Britain but Jolene says it is too early. She is asked about several other possibilities and says she consider going on The News Review. She gets dressed moments later and Amy tells her she looks hot. She says she wants to look credible and Amy believes she does. Jolene goes to the studio and prepares for her interview. She films a naughty video while waiting for the interview. Before their interview, MP Stella Maitland and Joshua Ferrars will be interviewed.
Stella Maitland (Kerry Godliman) talks about putting stricter controls on accessing adult material online. She claims that porn is a misrepresentation of what sex is. Joshua (David Reed) refutes that by saying they shouldn’t subject fiction to the same demands as a documentary. Jolene tries to speak up but Stella and Joshua’s argument prevents her from doing that. Stella insults Jolene’s looks before Jolene throws out her own insults. Stella says that porn features too many scenes of degradation, violence, and hatred towards women. Jolene insists that it goes both ways and that men are often kicked in the bollocks. That gets Joshua’s attention before Jolene admits she loves doing that. When Stella talks about the failure to manage consent on set, Jolene says it isn’t a failure and Carroll knew what was going on.
She claims Carroll continues trying to make money while the people he works with try to rob him blind. Stella takes that as the pursuit of profit being in conflict with the policing of content but Jolene doesn’t understand and says you cannot consent to certain things. She goes on to say that porn is an invasion of reality and it isn’t real but Jolene refutes that before breaking down. She says she thought this was going to be bored but it is really boring. She crashes to the ground while trying to leave the set. Things only get worse from there. Abby (Mandeep Dhillon) runs into Stella and tells her that Owen is an idiot and she knew this would happen. The tabloids have found out that he downloaded a bunch of porn via the hotspot using data covered by Stella’s plan.
Stella learns that the media is interested in the hardcore porn her husband paid for with taxpayer money. Abby worries that he has thrown away three years of their work as they try to find a way to remedy the problem. Back at home, Rich tells Jolene that her rant has gone viral. She watches it and realizes how bad things are. Carroll visits and demands to speak to Jolene. He is angry because Jolene’s interview has led to several performers canceling on him. He blames everything on Jolene having one bad date with Tom but she tries to convince Rich that it wasn’t a date. She claims nothing happened before Carroll tells her that Dave is getting the tape. He says it is bad being 35 and she shouldn’t take it out on him but she denies that.
When Carroll leaves, Rich wants to know about the Tom date but Jolene isn’t going to talk about it. Jolene gets her car painted and gets ready for a party. She goes out that night and hangs out with Teddy Bare (Malik Kaddu). He is interested in shooting with her one day but he says it might not be a good idea with everything Jolene has going on right now and he is under pressure from Hazewire. She offers to go to the loos right now and do it but Teddy laughs about that. Back at home, Rich tells her that the Barcelona shoot has been canceled. He wonders if she should just take it back but Jolene doesn’t want to do that. Rich throws out another but Jolene doesn’t want to do it. She tells him that she isn’t an escort.
Meanwhile, Stella and her crew try to find out the best way to deal with her husband’s pornography scandal. Dan (Hugo Bolton) suggests saying Owen has a problem but is getting treatment. Abby and Dan are shocked when Stella confesses that the pornography belongs to her. Dan suggests they say it was used for research but Stella admits they were used for personal purposes. She goes to the boys and tells them about it. She admits she likes watching pornography sometimes. Her honesty backfires. Meanwhile, Amy hangs out with Gabriel and talks to the boy about his costume. He tells her that his mom’s name is Hayley and not Jolene.
She plays with him before revealing her adult name. Amy tells him to look her up on the computer if he doesn’t believe her. Meanwhile, Jolene shows off her purple thong online. While working out, she asks Phoebe if she has spoken to Paulie yet but he won’t contact her back. Jolene recommends apologizing in person. Rich asks Jolene what she wants to do since Izzy and Gabe have sleepovers. She asks him if he’ll do his thing and he agrees to do so. Jolene calls Sabelle (Timmika Ramsay) and says Dave might be her boyfriend but they both know what happened to the girl was wrong. Sabelle claims Jolene likes making everything about her since she wasn’t bothered when she got paid less. Sabelle doesn’t hold back her opinion before Phoebe meets with Paulie.
She apologizes and admits what she did was out of older. As for Paulie, he thought they had something real and he never thought he couldn’t trust her. She wants to know if he would like to go back out after a couple of months but Paulie says no. He says he will be going to Oxford and she’ll go to Liverpool so that will make things difficult. Their conversation ends and Paulie leaves a short time later. Amy goes to the hospital to check on Tom but he doesn’t want to talk to her. Amy apologizes before asking Tom if he is okay. He reveals that the doctors found a tumor on his pancreas when they were fixing him up. It is aggressive but they caught it early so he has a good shot of surviving.
Doctors told him he should be grateful to Amy for stabbing him. He begins crying. Amy brought grapes but he can’t eat them. She eats them for him and holds his hand. Tom says she saved his life. She shuts the curtain and begins playing with him. Jolene goes to Carroll’s place and finds out that a feminist group littered his house with trash. He coughs before they go inside. Carroll goes to bed and Jolene follows so she can apologize to him. Both argue their case. Carroll breaks the news that Hazewire is threatening to cancel his distribution deal since they’re trying to get more mainstream investment. He tells her she needs to take it back or he is going to be screwed otherwise.
She says she needs to see the rest of the tape first but it is gone and Dave can’t find it anywhere. When Carroll pleads with her to take it back, Jolene says she’ll think about it. Later, Rich and Jolene go out to dinner together. Polly cares for the boys. Before they go to bed, Gabriel searches for his mother’s adult name on the Internet and finds out what his mother does for a living. When Jolene returns home, she is attacked by Rich wearing a mask. He pretends to be an intruder and they have sex on the stairs. Rich stops midway through and admits this isn’t his thing. She claims she was enjoying it but Rich doesn’t believe that. He knows she is ticked off and wants to know why but Jolene doesn’t want to talk about it. She says he should get a job but he says he has a job watching her kids.
He reminds her that he works Twitter for her and it is hard to upload the customs, booking, and VAT information. She finally admits that she doesn’t fancy him but he thinks she is being spiteful. She says she doesn’t feel anything when she is with him. Rich goes upstairs and packs his belongings. He tells her that she is fake and doesn’t do anything unless she has an audience. She tells him to leave quicker. It doesn’t take long for him to leave before Amy comes downstairs and comforts Jolene. Amy goes back upstairs before Gabe returns home because he was on a porn site and broke down. She tells Jolene that this isn’t her fault before showing her the dollar with Jolene Dollar written on it. Gabe searches for his father but Rich is already gone.
Jolene checks on Gabe but he grabs Amy instead. Next, Jolene goes to the grocery store and runs into Harriet Nagle (Robin Weaver) who is representing Carroll. She learns that she is going to be sued due to the defamatory statements she made. Harriet recommends blaming it on a drug or alcohol problem. Harriet calls her an attention-seeking liar and says she was faking moral outrage in hopes of furthering her career. Jolene says she gets enough attention and isn’t faking anything. She says she’ll see her in court before getting angry outside. She grabs her phone and tells everyone on Twitter they’ve been talking to Rich for ten years and not her.
She also begins revealing some of the industry’s biggest secrets. Her last post makes it sound like she is retiring and moving on. When she leaves the parking lot, she seems relieved to finally get everything off of her shoulders.
Adult Material Review
Although I think Adult Material could be a lot better, it isn’t bad. It is unique and covers topics that many are afraid to touch. It is interesting to see how Jolene’s career impacts her personal life and hurts her children. I am not sure we’re getting an accurate representation of the porn industry but this version is at least entertaining. I haven’t noticed any awful acting but some of the content makes me cringe.
It is tough to imagine that the industry is this outlandish but it might be. This isn’t much else on television right now and Adult Material is interesting. It is only 4 episodes and the episodes are decent. I don’t think this show will be a waste of time but it likely won’t be memorable either. Still, I’ll stick it out and finish the season. This episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Previous recaps of Adult Material can be found on Reel Mockery.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
