Website Review - Pandora's Dreams of Spanking

Good day to you all, gentle readers, and I hope that the morning finds you fair and hearty; it's goddamn cold here, so I have the fire on high and a hot water bottle stuffed down my back, for comfort.

My wife is on the school run, and afterwards is popping into the junior school she remains a governor of, for it's awards assembly.

And after that she is coming home to "sort me out", as she puts it; I'm tingling with anticipation!

So, in order to occupy my fevered mind for a while, I thought that I would have a stab at my somewhat delayed review of Pandora Blake's Dreams of Spanking paysite.

I should probably explain the delay; there were 2 main reasons. One is that, as a fairly new site, there is limited content to consider, and I was waiting for a few more items to be uploaded. Well, the site has been running for just over a month now, and there is a decent range of material now.

The other reason is a bit more personal. My esteemed colleague Secret Spanko posted a while ago, saying that he would find it difficult to review a site when he had any kind of relationship with it's owners, even if this was just that they commented on his blog.

As you will know if you've been even a slightly keen reader of this blog, I am a huge fan of Pandora's, and she does read these entries, and has, on occasion commented on them.

I am keen to ensure that all of my reviews are as honest and unbiased as possible, and this did give me pause. I don't think that I would be able to produce a negative review of Pandora's work if I tried.

In the end two things swayed me to go ahead; having looked at DoS, I have only minor negative comments to make anyway. Additionally, well, this is a blog, for Christ's sake. They are, by their nature, relective of the opinions and prejudices of their writer. So long as a bias is declared (and mine has been often), readers can consider any comments made through an appropriate filter.

I hope that's clear.

So then, on to the site. DoS is a high end spanking site, very much revelling in Pandora's ambition to
produce high quality fair trade porn; a clear effort has been made to provide any spanking bias with something to enjoy.

There are (at the time of writing) 29 separate downloads available on the site, split into 3 areas; videos, galleries and audio clips.

Membership costs are fairly modest; 5 days for £10, 30 days for £20 and 90 days for £50. The shortest period is ideal for those of us who like to hit a site occasionally, downloading anything new. I confess that I'm not
sure how it works out from an income point of view though.

The site's look is attractive, and it's extremely well organised; downloads are viewable either in date order, from newest to oldest, or by a voluminous set of categories.

It also hosts an extremely thought provoking blog, a mission statement and frequently asked questions.

I must highlight the cast pages,
where each of our stars gives a chatty account of themselves, and from which they can be individually emailed; it's very nice to see this degree of connection between models and the paying customer.

The clips are fairly large, and are offered as both high and low quality downloads in either WMV or MP4 formats. Downloads can take a little while; one of the low quality WMV files is 494 meg long! The file sizes are entirely justified by the length and clarity of the clips.

I've tried all formats, and while there is a visible difference, the low quality downloads are perfectly viewable, with clear images and good sound quality.

Each video clip also has an image gallery which can be viewed shot by shot, or downloaded en mass.

There are also a number of stand alone galleries, which feature some gorgeous shots; one disappointment is that the story based ones do not have accompanying videos. I'd love to see a film of Ms Howard's Little Girl and A Secretarial Fantasy, for instance.

In an unusual touch there are a couple of audio stories, read by Pandora and Thomas; while these were okay they are not my favourite bit of the site.

So, what of the clips themselves? Production values are superb, with really good costuming and authentic looking settings. All videos feature multiple angles, and the performances are uniformly fine.

The scripts are interesting, and widely varying in the sources for their inspiration, from the works of Charles Stross (I wonder if he'd be flattered?)

Shakespeare and the TV show Hustle to the more traditional errant spankee.

Pandora has taken the opportunity to live out some of her fantasies, and this somehow makes the site more intimate. Additionally two of the models are her real life disciplinary partners. One particular clip, Caning Merit Badge, is almost painfully intimate, as we see a real life scene between Pandora and Thomas. It's not one for the fainthearted, and, as it runs for nearly an hour, it can be a little hard going, but it's ultimately rewarding for the way that it pulls you into the mind set and life style of our hosts.

Thomas, who appears in a number of the videos, is the site's revelation; I'm not aware if he has appeared in videos before, but he comes across as very natural, and comfortable in his role. When he scolds there is little of the bombast that I find repellent in many male spankers; he is authentic and effective. Nice job!

It may be a bit early to judge but, at present, if the site has one failing it is Pandora's determination to fulfil everyone's needs. While I enjoy M/F, F/F and F/M, M/M material leaves me cold. I've looked at the male orientated videos on the site, and they embody the same high quality seen elsewhere here, but they're not for me. They just leave me cold.

Now, not liking some scenes is fine, except that at present there aren't all that many scenes available, and, while I can easily skip over anything I don't like (and I'm not a massive fan of caning videos either, in general), it does mean that there is less bang for my buck.

Even with the caveat it is still difficult to criticise Pandora's intentions; spanking should be inclusive and in principal I applaud the concept. It would be interesting though to see how many of the site's subscribers actually enjoy every one of the video clips.

Still, I am sure that Pandora considered all of these issues before launching the site; her potent and challenging blog posts certainly touched on them.

So then, conclusions. Should you subscribe to Dreams of Spanking. I have to say that, with the 5 day option, the answer is a resounding yes. The material, while not yet voluminous, is produced with an attention to detail rarely, if ever, seen within the spanking community. The clips are attractive, and care has been taken to select performers who can actually act.

The image galleries are delightful, and the site navigation is the best around. It is obvious that a massive amount of care and planning went into this launch.

Further, despite my own slight reservations, there is something for everyone; while the clips on Spanking Tube give a flavour of what you see in the full films, they do not really convey the atmosphere and realism the whole experience provides. These are little movies; I have not come across another site where I watch so many clips from start to finish, rather than skimming them to reach the spanking stuff.

All concerned are to be commended for their dedication and ambition; go on then, filter that one through your bias detector!

All the best

Tim