The sexologist Jenn Gunsaullus told pop culture site Decider in 2018 that these scenes in TV shows should be in service of the characters and storylines: “If there really is no good plotline that’s engaging folks, then, yeah, it’s just going to be like porn.” When a graphic scene is added just to shock or titillate, it lets down the show – and the audience. But it depends what that sex is being used for. There’s nothing inherently wrong with explicit sex on screen – acceptance of a wide range of preferences has been a long time coming. Extreme sex scenes can drum up coverage and viewers in an increasingly crowded market. As the streamers grow, make more original content and jostle for position, they are behind an ever-greater proportion of TV releases. As a cable network, HBO, alongside streaming services, doesn’t have to stick to the same rules on nudity and sexual content as network TV does in the US.
From 2011 until its finale in 2019, HBO’s Game of Thrones churned out rape scenes and plotlines featuring incest and its current prequel series, House of the Dragon, has proved equally barbaric.Įuphoria – which showed porn and statutory rape from its first episode – and The Idol both appeared on HBO, too.
The past decade has seen a normalisation of kink-driven, extreme and violent sex on TV.
