TV is in a precarious position at the moment which is certainly the topic for a future blog (maybe even tomorrow's blog???). If you aren't up-to-date with industry news, people are crying the end of prestige television. Is that true? I hope not! I love prestige TV. I mean, I love TV point blank period, but prestige TV has opened up the possibilities for male nudity.
Whether or not the End is Near, let's talk about prestige TV. What makes a TV show prestige? A lot of that has to do with the quality of the show. The storylines are nuanced and daring. Fantastic - even A-list - actors star. Not only that, but these shows moved the culture and they all still hold up years and even decades later. Check out the finest of prestige TV nudity:
Mad Men
Have you rewatched Mad Men since its 2007 premiere? It holds up wildly well and I suspect that it will continue to due to the way it handles commentary. The characters remain iconic from Don Draper sipping old fashions to Peggy leaving the office with sunglasses on and a cigarette dangling from her mouth. The character-driven drama is one of the greatest ever made.
Jon Hamm plays sex-addicted Don Draper who weirdly never goes nude. Do you know who does go nude? John Slattery. John Slattery goes nude after taking hallucinogenics which feels like the most perfect time for nudity. I'm loving this trip!
Deadwood
Deadwood brought the Western into the modern era with its gritty, biting look at the wild west. The West won our hearts with one solid nude scene that was pretty shocking by early 2000s HBO standards considering cocks were rarely seen on TV. Nick Offerman - later known best as Ron Swanson - brings home the bacon with a bloody look at his dick.
The Sopranos
Hands-down one of the best TV shows ever made. On most critics' and experts' lists, it is THE best show ever made. I have to agree with that. The Sopranos has some of the best episodes of TV that I have ever seen - "Whitecaps", "University", "The Pine Barrens", and "Long Term Parking" being among them - and it shocked audiences with its violence. It did take breaks from the violence for a little bit of dudity.
The show has a reputation for being hyper-macho...but it's essentially a family drama and there is an entire season devoted to a gay mobster running away from his family so that he can be himself in a lovely New England small town. Yes, it's violent, but the show was also filled with DRAMA to rival a soap opera.
The Wire
The Wire is one of the best and most provocative prestige TV shows of all time. It remains That Good. Every season feels like a novel and I highly recommend giving it a rewatch. One of the most shocking things about the show was its portrayal of a badass gay gangster Omar Little played by Michael Kenneth Williams. Everyone knew Omar was gay, but he was so feared that they couldn't even question it. He was open because he knew he could do whatever he wanted.
The show also delivered on ass when it came to star Lance Reddick who played by-the-book boss Daniels. That man was so sexy that I savored the aerial shot of him banging a lucky lady.
Girls
Girls took prestige TV in an entirely new direction. Its influence is undeniable and thanks to a few rewatch podcasts, Gen Z is discovering and relating to Girls just like millennials did. It's easy to roll your eyes at Lena Dunham, but it's even easier to forget what the culture and TV landscape were like in the early 2010s when Girls debuted.
Prior to this show, prestige TV belonged to the boys. Judd Apatow discovered Girls creator Lena Dunham at a film festival and helped her develop a show that would speak to the new generation. "I'm the voice of my generation," Lena says in the pilot episode. It's a funny line in the context of the show...but it wound up being somewhat true.
Girls was filled with nudity and it featured nudity from Adam Driver and the Emmy award-winning Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Yes, that's right. It's "Cousin" from The Bear who was railing Allison Williams and eating her ass in one of the first ass-eating scenes on TV. This scene walked, so the next show could run.
The White Lotus
Is The White Lotus going to be the last of the monumental prestige TV shows? I sincerely hope not. Also, in my somewhat expert opinion, I think this will all turn around in a year or two. We will talk about all of this soon, but the fear over losing prestige TV is probably temporary. I hope that it only lasts as long as the next season of The White Lotus!
The first season was earth-shattering. Creator Mike White wrote and directed the entire thing during the pandemic and he brought us Murray Bartlett eating Lukas Gage's ass in a scene that rocked our horny worlds.
