Our Staff Picks column is a new addition that takes you back to a time when video stores reigned supreme and the "Staff Picks" section was the place to find out what films were worthy of one's time. Of course, our version has a decidedly nude angle, as we suss out which films from a certain genre with great nudity. This week: prestige television!
What does that term even mean? Great question. Prestige television refers to TV that is more "elevated" than your typical cable TV show. These shows changed are not just critically acclaimed, but they also helped move the needle on our culture. They made us think. They had people engaging with the show's themes in ways that weren't happening before and they pushed television boundaries. Prestige television began being used in the late '90s to describe shows like The West Wing and The Sopranos. These weren't your mama's dramas! These were something different.
Personally? I think we are oversaturated with prestige television right now. These shows SO changed the way that TV is made that it rose the quality of literally every single show that gets made in recent history. Couple that with the advent of multiple streaming services and we have more prestige television than we can even watch.
All of these shows have things in common: they make us think and they make us have hard conversations even if we are laughing at a cartoon horse. So my Staff Picks today do all of that and more because these shows also make us horny.
The Sopranos
HBO's The Sopranos is probably THE prestige television show to so many. It is undeniably good and engrossing as it tells the story of a mobster family man who starts having panic attacks. He then goes to therapy, having to juggle the nature and secretness surrounding his job with his desire to get better. As the show goes on, you wonder IS Tony Soprano getting better? And can he get better?
The guys don't go nude too often, but one dude does stand out for having an adorable ass. Joe Pantoliano played one of the most annoying and despicable characters on the show, but he also really showed off that hairy ass of his.
Breaking Bad
AMC's Breaking Bad is practically a perfect show. The show's creator has always said that he knew exactly how he wanted the arc of the show to go for all five of its seasons from the very beginning. I think that his perceptive vision really shows throughout the show's journey. It's fantastic. To be totally honest with you all, I am re-watching it right now and it really is a tight show. Bryan Cranston even goes nude a surprising amount of times! He doesn't look half bad either!
Mad Men
For a show that seemed to focus a lot on the sex lives of these 1960s ad execs, there was shockingly little nudity on the show. In fact, there was more male nudity than female nudity! I love this show and I feel like it only gets better on rewatches, but the fact that Don Draper never showed his dong is criminal. In one very memorable episode, John Slattery does psychedelics and strips naked to stand outside and gaze out the window. He winds up having an epiphany that he should divorce his young wife - while she has one that she loves him - and I can't help but feel the same way. Divorce her and get in my bed, John!
The Wire
The Sopranos and The Wire both walked so that every other prestige television series could run. The Wire stands apart from these other shows for having a lead character who was also gay, Omar Little. Omar entertained many male lovers and he was also a hero. He's one of the coolest gay characters in 2000s television for that reason. He's a badass vigilante who has a great time in bed with his hunky boyfriends.
The show was also filled with tension and amazing characters. This was one of my quarantine watches and I just couldn't believe how good The Wire is from front to back. I even like the highly contested season two. It helps, of course, that Michael Kenneth Williams shows his cock.
Fleabag
Prestige television doesn't just refer to dramas anymore - comedies are prestige, too. There is no finer example of this than British TV creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge's series Fleabag. In Fleabag, she plays the leading lady who is a young woman that is very comfortable with making bad decisions...perhaps too comfortable. As she struggles with what that says about her, she also keeps making bad decisions such as making love to a hot priest. It's a shame that Hot Priest barely shows his body in the show, but we couldn't expect too much from a man of the cloth.
Ben Aldridge, however, showed off his soapy bum in this scene:
Insecure
Speaking of comedies, Insecure is absolutely prestige television. Issa Rae is the writer, actress, and creator at the helms of this show that originally felt like the Black version of Girls, but set in LA. It was so much more than that! Issa and her friends navigate young adulthood in Los Angeles and go through a lot of changes in their careers and their relationships with one another.
Insecure was groundbreaking for a lot of reasons, but most notably it literally changed the way that Black actors were lit on camera. Prior to this series in 2016, lighting on Black actors was really taken for granted, and white cinematographers did not do much to properly light dark skin. The show's cinematographer, Ava Berkofsky, properly lit her actors and the difference was noticeable. Thank goodness she did that! How else could we admire Jay Ellis's ass in all of its glory?!
Game of Thrones
The fantasy series Game of Thrones was a wild success. This HBO series had A TON of nudity, both male and female. None of its stars were safe from showing skin. Take Kit Harington, Jon Snow, for example, who showed his ass in a tender love scene with Emilia Clarke. At the beginning of the series, superstar Jason Momoa showed off his muscular buns with pride. The show STARTED with that super hunk baring his booty. It only got better from there!
It really feels like every single actor on the show goes nude. Whether the nudity is sexy or hard-to-watch, everyone had to ditch their clothes - everyone!
And who could forget some of the gay action that the show had? Pedro Pascal and Will Tudor enjoyed a few bedroom scenes together, including this orgy scene that showed off some cock and balls.
