OK guys, this has been a long time coming. I have wanted to talk about this topic for quite a while. My wife and I caught bits of the new HBO drama series ROME while we were out of town. I had not heard much about the show, I don’t have HBO at home, and I had no idea what to expect.
The show is rather cool and I dig on anything set in history, recent or the more ancient. So it seemed the perfect show for me to watch and get into.
But about 15 minutes into the thing, the ugly head of HBO arrives. So let me express my frustration with a question: Why does HBO have to fill their original series with graphic sex, 300 F-bombs, and MORE graphic sex? Is it simply because they can? Is it because they don’t think anyone will watch unless they are shocking people?
Now hear me out, I am sure many of you dig on an occasional sex scene in some movies, and to each his own. But what HBO does feels out of place and disjointed. Its like they are EXTREME PORN. Not because of how graphic it is, but because they REALLY go out of their way to build a story around silly, completely useless and pointless sex scenes.
Can’t they tell a compelling bit of television and NOT include 5 mandatory booty calls? How about giving me some good drama that can stand on its own? It still bugs me at how this stuff is considered “adult” by having this sort of thing in it. “Adult” to me is giving me something smart, well written, expertly crafted, and without cheap shots. What I got instead is basically an orgy in the middle of a Pier 1 Imports store.
I am SURE I would like the Sopranos, and I am SURE I would like Deadwood, but I am SURE these things are full of stuff I don’t want in the house. So some might say, “But Scott, you don’t have to watch it, and besides, its not complete without the sex.” Well I would say to that, would the sex scenes be good without the rest of the show?
I don’t care what people watch and what they get into, my main gripe is I get this feeling that there are some smelly men in suits somewhere smirking at what they can get away with on TV, and counting themselves as avant guard and artistic. Meh…Just because I could tell dirty jokes in high school, did not mean I was neat. It just meant I was yet another pecker kid with stupid things to say.
So answer me this: Would ROME be worse or better without the sex? Would Deadwood be better or worse without the F-bombs? (so very common in the 1800′s it would appear.)
