I’ve written before that the show Game of Thrones might as well be called Game of Tits because of the amount of gratuitous nudity on the show. People in the legitimate press (e.g. critics who get paid to write about the show) have dubbed the use of nudity and prostitutes as “sexposition.”
Fortunately for us, Saturday Night Live and Andy Samberg have taken the time to show us why Game of Thrones has so many shots of naked prostitutes: one of the consultants on the show is thirteen-year-old Adam Friedberg. You can watch the link here.
This clip has confirmed a few things I already know: 1) Andy Samberg is awesome, 2) Game of Thrones is run by thirteen-year-old boys and people with the mindsets of thirteen-year-old boys, and 3) BOOBS.
Game of Thrones is a very good television show, but it is not a great television show, and it will never be a great television show until the writers and producers have a higher estimation of the viewers’ intelligence, and deliver exposition without including a prostitute in the scene. As this SNL sketch indicates, commentary that the story is “so sophisticated!” and the characters “so complex!” falls a little flat, and often sounds laughable, when you have so many unnecessary whorehouse scenes in the series.
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When I was at my girlfriend’s house this weekend, her roommate was treating herself to a Game of Thrones marathon weekend. Even though the roommate tried to give me enough backstory to appreciate it, I couldn’t help thinking it was a good reminder of why I don’t watch TV, or even own one. Besides the sex role stereotyping (which they try to make us think they’re not doing), and the gratuitous sex, I also had trouble “appreciating” the explicitness of the violence. I would love to have the ketchup contract for that show. For a medieval war/sex fantasy show, it may be pretty well done. But honestly? I don’t have much interest in medieval war/sex fantasy shows.
I think the show is pretty good with NOT stereotyping people based on gender, actually – we get characters like Sansa who are traditionally feminine, but also characters like Arya who are decidedly not.
Just started watching GoT and open minded as I am I totally agree with you. I.can.not.believe. they get a way with it?! Haven’t researched enough yet but do the writers/produces argue they’re simply being ‘true to it’s fictional period’? Ah yes – that mystical period where all prostitutes secretly loved their job….even if enforced from childhood and being abused..seriously! I won’t go on, very glad you have written about it saves me a rant.That Adam Sanberg sketch is genius!
I don’t think the show is trying to portray prostitutes as loving their jobs. Several characters have been mean to them and we’ve seen the terror in their eyes. But it’s problematic in a different way – the experiences of these prostitutes are of secondary importance to whatever they want to reveal about the character abusing them. They’re still not fully developed characters.
to the comment of being “true to it’s fictional period”…. There are prostitutes everywhere because, lets face it, in medieval ages there were probably a lot of prostitutes. Further, the prostitutes are depicted as having a higher lifestyle than most other classes in this destitute world. Of course they wouldn’t complain, even if they hated their jobs, to the nobler classes, and pretty much all of the series is told through the point of view of the noble men and women of westeros.
As to charges of gratuitous sex and violence, well, the series of books the show is based on, A Song of Ice and Fire, has a lot of sex. Even more sex than in the tv show, and often used for character study more than anything else. There are also tons of pages of exposition that just cannot be shown on screen, simply because it’s the characters thinking to us as readers, and therefore it makes sense for the show runners to combine these two types of scenes together. So yes, there could do with a lot less sex, but then it wouldn’t be as true to the source material. *It’s also a subtle and pretty terrible way at showing how important Baelish’s whore house in particular is relevant to the plot whenever he’s there….
Plus, I think Martin is kind of a 13 year old boy.
There are prostitutes in the medieval period, but I doubt that so many of them were that clean and with perfectly waxed legs. If the show were really committed to being as GRITTY and REALISTIC as the producers/writers claim, they’d have hairy prostitutes who are all a little dirty. Yet even though every other character on the show is often covered in dirt and grime, the prostitutes are as hairless as babies (on their legs and lady parts, anyway) and all have a healthy pink glow. That indicates to me that BOOBZ is a higher priority than realism.
I also read the books, and I had problems with the gratuitous sex in the books as well, but I think it’s even worse on the show. There is absolutely no need to have one prostitute finger-fucking another prostitute while Littlefinger exposits the fact that he loved Catelyn Tully and his motives are self-serving. First of all, it’s ridiculous. Secondly, we already knew that Littlefinger loved Catelyn and his motives are self-serving. Thirdly, Littlefinger NEVER reveals his motives to anyone, much less two women in his employ. Ridiculous on all counts.
I agree that Martin is a 13-year-old boy at heart, though.