Game of Thrones is full of sex. It is also full of long-winded exposition. Audiences know that these two show elements have been combined, leaving characters delivering plot progressing speeches while engaged in, or surrounded by others who are engaged in, sex.
Thus: sexposition.
Sexposition is a fairly un-interesting cinematic technique. A crutch to move the story along while-look boobs!
So I was glad to hear Ronald D. Moore’s take on the issue for his upcoming TV adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander-another fantasy series that has no shortage of sex.
On the subject of the “pretty graphic sex scenes in Outlander,” Jennifer Vineyard at Vulture asked Mr. Moore: ”Will the show try to rival Game of Thrones in that department? And is sexposition a technique you would ever use?”
To which Moore responded: “What?”
Sexposition — pairing up sex scenes with necessary exposition.
While sex is going on in the background? Oh, that’s funny. I thought you were saying “sex position.” We’ll have those, too. [Laughs.] I’m not sure what I would use sexposition for. We’ll have a lot of sex scenes, but they’ll all seem to have a purpose. And there’s no pressure from on high to sex up Outlander. It’s pretty graphic stuff as it is! We’ve come up with an interesting structure for the wedding night, to tell the story, because it’s one long night. And you’ll get all the stuff that’s in that wedding night. I think people will be happy.
I’m of the opinion that you cannot make a great television program about the human experience without addressing, if not portraying, sex. If your show is about people and our relationships, there’s only so long you can avoid our basic biological impulse.
But in life, and in good stories, sex has a purpose. Good or bad, pleasurable or painful, whatever it is, portraying sex in stories should always come with purpose for the act itself.
The manner in which Game of Thrones has used sex (at least in the early seasons) is indicative more of the teenage male fantasy, where sex is readily available and beautiful women are exposed regularly, rather than an understanding of sex as an actual reality. Even in fantasy like GOT, sex should be considered a consequential act. To be fair, Game of Thrones seems to be learning this lesson.
Hopefully Outlander and Moore will use sex for story, rather than using bodies (usually female bodies) as props to distract from a failure of imagination in telling stories.
Okay.
**Editors Note: Spoilers ahead for series finale of Battlestar Galactica. If you have not completed the show STOP READING
In other interesting tidbits from the Vulture interview, Mr. Moore, once again, addressed the controversial ending of Battlestar Galactica. If you’ve finished the show, and want to read some more of Moore’s thoughts on that infamous finale, keep reading.
Even the people who thought the Battlestar ending was the worst ever for a sci-fi TV show? Do you like hearing that?
I do! Yeah, I wish they loved it, but I think it comes from a place of passion for the show. Why get that upset about it if you don’t care about it? If you weren’t engaged, you could not be that angry because you thought we screwed it up.
Some fans felt that you didn’t explain things enough, that you left things too ambiguous, especially with Starbuck. Did you ever second-guess that decision?
I thought about it. We talked about it at length in the writers’ room, and I didn’t hear something that I liked. I liked the idea, conceptually, that her fate was ambiguous because, conceptually, we were tying her to whatever the power was that didn’t like to be called God and was involved from the inception. From the miniseries on, there’s definitely something else going on in this story, and it’s unknowable. I kind of felt like it should be unknowable. It felt wrong to give it a neat answer on something that was so profound and existential about these people and this situation. They were dealing with something that they had trouble defining, whether it was gods plural, or God singular, or something else out there. Starbuck was in some way representational of that power, or had some connection to it, having been brought back from the dead — literally. I just didn’t feel like I wanted to give it a “Oh, that’s what this means.” It just felt right that that, too, should be mysterious and unknowable. That’s the way I wanted to go. If I called her an angel, does that make everybody happy? That just seemed really unsatisfying. I don’t know what that means. That’s just putting a label on who she is and it doesn’t tell me anything more, really.
Suppose I’m in the minority… I have read four of “A Song of Ice and Fire”-books, and at least in the books, I don’t think there is a lot of sex, and in the series… Sure there is nudity, but I don’t feel it’s too much, or too explicit at that.
The sex in the books has its own-different-problems, in my opinion. But the TV program is famous for it’s explicit use of nudity as prop.
Whether or not that’s too much I suppose is up to the viewer. I love the show, but I think things on this issue got a little out of hand.
Far as I’m concerned, if you have a central actress in the show telling the producers that she “wants to be known for her acting, not for her breasts”, and refusing to partake in unnecessary sex scenes, it’s probably gotten a little absurd. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10066239/Game-of-Thrones-star-rebels-over-topless-scenes.html)
Well, it hasn’t been canceled yet!
Seriously, bring back Carnivale!
Martin puts a ton of nudity and sex in his books
and he does use sex for exposition, if a good deal
less than on the screen. (Lady Catelyn in the buff
reading Lysa’s letter is a particularly good bit of
characterization and worldbuilding).
It says something about HBO’s audience that
the writers think “gotta put sex in, or they’ll
get upset!”
Oh, well, there’s enough violence now that they
can cut that shit out.
Yeah, GoT has way too many unnecessary sex scenes. However, having read most of Outlander before getting tired of it, I can’t imagine that EVERY sex scene in the show is going to be important to the plot. There were a few in the book that certainly weren’t, in my opinion.