That's a shame. This absorbing domestic drama is as comfortable with the subject of sex as everyone should be. Unfortunately, it's already making some people nervous.
The docudrama about the relationships of four couples - which premieres Sunday at 10 p.m. - is as heartfelt as any series about the sexual hangups of modern-day romances could be. But because it seeks to be real by portraying sex in all its natural glory, detractors talk only of its explicitness. Let's get that out of the way right now.
Yes, it's a shocking look at sex - those who have it and those who don't. But it portrays these acts as emotional extensions of the characters, not as gratuitous eroticism.
HBO has already been criticized for peddling "porn," particularly over a scene in Sunday's pilot in which one actor masturbates another in an unsimulated sex act - a first for television.
Yet these scenes are the opposite of "pornography," which is defined as eroticism for the sole purpose of sexual excitement, because they exist to define relationships in the series.
And there is something in each of these characters that will feel familiar.
Carolyn (Sonya Walger) and Palek (Adam Scott) are a successful couple trying to have a baby, and therefore tied to a calendar as far as when they have intercourse.
Jamie (Michelle Borth) and her fiancé, Hugo (Luke Farrell Kirby), are a young couple faced with a crisis when Hugo confesses just before the wedding that he may not be able to remain faithful.
The most interesting couple is the one not having sex. David (Tim DeKay) and his wife, Katie (Ally Walker), are parents of two children who have built a wall of fear and uncertainty about sex so high, they haven't had intercourse for nearly a year.
All three couples are seeing a sex therapist (Jane Alexander) whose own complex relationship with her husband is analyzed.
"Tell Me You Love Me" doesn't blink in its exploration of the role of sex in couples' evolving relationships. But it also examines how sex engenders feelings like fear, anger and jealousy, which in turn complicate relationships that much more.
The big question is whether a show this single-minded can last longer than one 10-episode season.
I watched the first six episodes, and was engrossed from beginning to end. If you can absorb the whole thing without worrying whether there are too many sex scenes, you might too.
Wildly enthusiastic: Try to "Curb Your Enthusiasm," but Larry David's hilarious HBO series is returning for a sixth season. It premieres Sunday night at 11.
Frankly, I'm shocked. I thought for certain the series would have ended with last year's finale about David briefly going to heaven, an episode that felt like a swan song.
But the neurotic creator of "Seinfeld" is as funny as ever with a new storyline in which he and his wife, Cheryl, take in a family left homeless by Hurricane Katrina.
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* VINCE HORIUCHI's column appears Mondays and Fridays. He can be reached at vince@sltrib.com or 801-257-8607. Send comments about this column to living editor@sltrib.com.
