Tell Me That You Love Me - HBO

[Alberto]

Depressing and offensive. The couples all have very real problems with respect to happiness and intimacy. That is why I cannot understand why anyone would want to watch this. It is beyond me. Life is difficult enough and can be depressing for many. There is no need to see it on TV.

There is also no need to see what was shown on Sunday night in the 9-10pm time slot. Luckily I watched the football game and watched this on the DVR later. Otherwise, some of my teenage kids might have gotten a glimpse of Sonya Walger's character giving a handjob to her husband while watching TV. It included a shot of an erect penis, her masturbating him and oh yes, his ejeculation and her inspection of his semen in her hand. As if you could discern sperm count and motilty by examining it with the naked eye. No pun intended.

Pretty bad that HBO would stoop that low. The money shot even if CGI on HBO, wow. :rolleyes:

[SoccerNova2009]

I DVR'd it and promptly deleted it 15 minutes into it. Had the same reaction to the show as you. Who does this appeal to?

[SueB]

I used to be willing to give any new show on HBO a try, but John From Cincinnati sort of ended that for me (although I lasted 5 or 6 episodes on that one). I'd opted to skip this one just based on the depressing-sounding description, then saw a decent review - plus, I DO like Tim DeKay (aka Bizarro Jerry) ever since Carnivale - so I set my DVR timer for one of the re-airs. But based on this thread, I'm starting to wonder again. I'll try it anyway and make my own call, I guess.

[Alberto]

Sue it kind of reminded me of a soft X rated version of 30 Something. Good show, but ultimately quite depressing.

[Matt in the Hat]

These actors are porn stars, no matter what they call themselves. The line has been jumped.

It boggles my mind that gold like Luckie Louie gets shitcanned and this gets airtime.

[SueB]

Yeah, Lucky Louie was pretty funny. Never mind that I'm still mad at HBO for axing good shows like Carnivale, Deadwood and Rome well before enough of those stories had been told. At least Rome had a satisfying ending, but the other two were left sort of hanging. And I don't believe the Deadwood movie will ever really happen.

Showtime is better now.

[Alberto]

Sonya Walger was the wife on the Mind of a Married Man and has had a recurring role in Lost as Desmond's ex-girlfriend Penelope.

The 40ish guy who does not want to make love to his wife was on Carnivale.

Jane Alexander is an distinguished actress who has received 4 Academy Award nominations for best or supporting actress and has won two Emmys and received numerous other Emmy nominations.

[Crimen y Castigo]

Sonya Walger was the wife on the Mind of a Married Man ....



I was just about to post on "Mind of a Married Man" when I saw this.

I've not seen a second of this new show, but the reviews here reminded me of how AWFUL that previous HBO show was. Insultingly stupid. And it had the added benefit of one of the most annoying, measly, minging, pathetic, squirrely lead actors ever to appear in the modern era.

When that guy showed up in a crucial moment in "Minority Report" -- a film I'm still amazed at how much I like -- I was so pissed off at being reminded of that pathetic show I cursed out loud in the theater.

[TheSlipperyOne]

I recorded it and tried watching it but just flat out did not like it (the characters, the situations, all of it). I ended up just fast forwarding to the sex scenes and even then I was pretty "eh" over it.

I do have to say the sex scene in the bedroom between the young couple sure as hell looked real.

[Nolan]

hbo could be showing Flight of the Conchords reruns instead of this stuff.

[thedesertfox]

I liked it, yeah it is depressing at times, thats real life, the situations encountered by the different couples in this show are nothing new and are among the most common. This show is not for everybody as I can tell but I am 18 years old and I was genuinely interested. Sex is our nature as humans, you can't escape it and this show displays just that.

[sarabella]

What bothered me about this show was that the only purpose I could figure out for the explicit sex was shock value. I don't mind seeing that stuff if it adds something to the show, but it could have been exactly the same without the graphic scenes - maybe even better.

I agree, though, that this show seems a little too real. Nobody wants to watch their own life on TV, and I think there are a lot of couples in very similar situations.

[Alberto]

They've certainly toned down the explicit scenes in episode two, I fell asleep watching episode three. The story line has gotten a bit more interesting, though it's very predictable.

[Alberto]

Caught this show again and.....

Another thing that really bugs me about this show is that it is clearly written by someone that does not understand how men think or react. There was a scene in this past Sunday's epsiode when the husband of the 40 something couple finally goes to therapy with his wife. There is the requisite silence and negative body language, both have their legs crossed away from each other. The husband then explodes (he has not been intimate with his wife in over a year) and states how can he feel sexy if he has to look to buy a minivan, or take the kids to school, of practice or clean up after them. There might be that rare soul out there that might think that way, but men do not normally think that way. We are pretty good at shutting out all the other problems and distractions of the day if we can have sex. A similar thing happens with Palek the 30 something husband, he has a big argument with his wife and he decides to go out and purchase two suits. Folks, it ain't happening that way. Guys don't shop. We might go for a drive, get a drink, hang out with the boys, but we are not buying suits.There are other examples of this in previous episodes too.

[TheSlipperyOne]

HBO picked this up for a second season even though it's barely averaging 1 mil. viewers.

That's really bad for even pay cable viewership and shows HBO even thinks they might be in trouble for new programming.

[That Phat Hat]

HBO picked this up for a second season even though it's barely averaging 1 mil. viewers.

That's really bad for even pay cable viewership and shows HBO even thinks they might be in trouble for new programming.
Well, we are talking about a network that kept Arliss on for multiple seasons. Though we tend to associate HBO with quality shows, they do have their share of duds (The Comeback should have been much, much better, for example).

And I generally find their sex-themed shows to be rather unsexy. Real Sex is the ultimate cure for insomnia, and I caught one episode of Sexual Intelligence, hosted and executive produced by Kim Cattrall, who tries waaaaaaaaaaaay too hard.

[dark knight]

I actually liked the show and I expected to hate it, although I haven't seen all the episodes and I'm in no big rush to watch them. I'm not sure why I liked it, but I think there is something to be said for grappling with relationships in this way - no offense to Alberto, but your critique about "there's enough problems in the world already" seems a little silly to me. There's some value at least in acknowledging that relationships and sexual relationships aren't all like Everyone Loves Raymond with the nerdy guy begging the hot wife for sex - and that relationships go through ups and downs.

We Yanks seem to get really bored and turned off by this kind of realism no? Ultimately, I doubt I'll be able to sustain interest either - but I can appreciate the effort.

Creator talking about the show:

http://www.hbo.com/tellme/inside/season1/episode01.html