Premium Cable and Prurient Measures

With its super-explicit sex scenes, HBO's Tell Me You Love Me, is making people all hot and bothered at the TCA press tour this year. The new series, about the love lives of three middle-class couples of different ages, airs on September 9th, and "will set a new precendent for prime-time TV," says LA Times Channel Island columnist Scott Collins.

No previous series, on pay cable or anywhere else, has dared show anything even close to this much skin; the climax, if you will, of the first episode finds a woman (Sonya Walger) in her 30s masturbating her husband (Adam Scott) to orgasm, with the entire act and all relevant body parts plainly visible. Even Jane Alexander -- yes, that Jane Alexander, the snow-domed, regally poised 67-year-old former chief of the National Endowment for the Arts -- drops trousers for some frisky senior sex.

The folks at HBO have to be pleased that there's finally a new distraction. It's been a tough couple months. Their much-touted, mystical surfing drama John From Cincinnati isn't connecting with audiences. And Flight of the Conchords, while good, probably won't be a mainstream hit. And after the embarassing exit by Chris Albrecht, their new executive team is doing its best to hit the ground running. While HBO denies that there's been any post-Sopranos exodus for subscribers (New co-president Richard Plepler told reporters this week that HBO boasts 30 million subscribers), one has to wonder if their strangle hold on viewers isn't weakening as new options proliferate.

Speaking of which...rival Showtime (which has 15 million subscribers) had its presentation this past Saturday and has announced that it will not only be working on series with George Clooney and director John Singleton, but also Steven Spielberg. From Variety:

Showtime revealed that it is a step closer to airing a series from Spielberg (Daily Variety, March 15). Pay net said at TCA Saturday that it has greenlit the pilot for "The United States of Tara," a half-hour comedy about a woman with multiple-personality disorder that is based on a Spielberg idea and produced by his DreamWorks Television.

I wasn't able to attend their presentation, but I did connect with their communication vice president earlier last week. The affable Stu Zakim passed along a copy of their new dramedy series Californication, starring David Duchovny, which airs August 13. I finally got a chance to watch it this morning. I have to say, it's a very promising first episode about a hard-drinking, womanizing, morally-bankrupt novelist named Hank Moody who tends to stare at rock bottom with gimlet eyes. And while it might not be as explicit at Tell Me You Love Me, there's certainly no shortage of skin (If memory serves me correctly, there were four semi-nude sex scenes). Even better than that, the show's actually funny. Here's the trailer: