Sex in “Tell Me You Love Me”… So What?
UPDATE: See our most recent Tell Me You Love Me post
HBO’s new series Tell Me You Love Me started off with lots and lots of sex. Lots of it. Fast, panting super humps, maybe even the real thing. At first, all that banging just seemed like a sad attempt to ensure the show would be called “controversial.” And since when is a highly visible handjob controversial?
When it’s attached to a plot, I guess. Which, sadly enough, Tell Me You Love Me seemed to lack. But I stuck with it. And after four episodes, storylines started to emerge within Cynthia Mort’s creation. But here’s the thing: Those storylines are really whiny.
A married couple has no intimacy and plenty of issues. A sex-crazed chick can’t commit. Another couple is obsessed with having a baby. And the shrink they’re all seeing has been messing around.
It’s all quite standard, if you ask me. Thankfully, there are some intricate emotional situations that allow for some pretty solid acting, especially by Ally Walker and Tim DeKay. But even the ensemble is uneven, and much of the total output is just sort of annoying. If HBO thinks it’s all so “real” because they follow episodes with feedback from “real” viewers, they should think again.
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If you do like the show — or are remotely curious — here are the players and their roles:
:: Ally Walker
Katie, an unhappy, unfulfilled wife with two kids and a frigid husband. In the late 90s, Walker was the star of the series Profiler.
:: Tim DeKay
Dave, the frigid husband. You’ve seen him on another HBO series, Carnivale.
:: Sonya Walger
Carolyn, baby-crazy and unable to get pregnant. She’s been in about a bajillion TV series including Lost, CSI: NY, Coupling and The Mind of the Married Man.
:: Adam Scott
Carolyn’s suffering boyfriend, Palek. He played the male nurse in Knocked Up — that’s enough of a resume for us.
:: Michelle Borth
Jaime the non-monogamous sex nut. She played a really small role in the John Holmes bio film Wonderland, which may or may not have been a good setup for this show.
:: Jane Alexander
The shrink. Alexander has been nominated for four Oscars. And she goes down on her husband in the first episode. Just thought you’d want to know.
Check out the Tell Me You Love Me Episode Guide
Other Posts of Interest
- “Tell Me You Love Me” Update: Through Episode 8
- “Tell Me You Love Me” Update: Episode 6 on HBO
- One Last Time: IN TREATMENT, TELL ME YOU LOVE ME
- “Tell Me You Love Me” Update: Episode 9
- Tell Me You Love Me: Season One Finale
5 Comments
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The sex is simulated - the director Patricia Rozema has said so in a recent interview -
‘But it’s not real, it’s simulated. At one point, one of the producers was floating this idea in the trade papers that it would be real sex in the series. I immediately said, “Well, find another director, I don’t want to do that.” I wasn’t interested in that.’
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/rozema.html
- Boyce -
Thanks for the reference. I guess I was trying to make the point that it really didn’t matter, especially with show spokespeople being shifty about “the truth”. It’s good to know, especially when those show creators or the press want to lean on the “controversy”. Let’s break it all down and see if the show is actually any good.
And I’m glad you mentioned Patricia Rozema. The show boasts some solid film directors: Rozema (Mansfield Park), Rodrigo Garcia (Nine Lives, “Six Feet Under”), Ernest Dickerson (”The Wire”, former Spike Lee cinematographer), Melanie Mayron (”Arliss”, The Baby-Sitters Club).
Maybe we’ll do a post just about the directors who do dramatic HBO and Showtime programming. Thanks for the tip!
-Norm S.
Michelle Borth, a star of “Tell Me You Love Me,” talks about the show in this audio interview.
- Bob Andelman -
Cool, Bob, thanks for the interview.
[…] The whole “is the sex real” thing is getting tired. Boyce commented on a previous post that director Patricia Rozema stated it isn’t real. Good, we’re done with […]