These TV shows weren't afraid to bare it all! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at TV series with the most excessive, explicit and, hopefully, justifiable nudity.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at TV series with the most excessive, explicit,
00:10and, hopefully, justifiable nudity.
00:20Every modern anxiety and vice grip the sleazy suburbanites of East Highland, California.
00:26With themes including body image, orientation, and sex drive, nudity is prevalent on HBO's
00:38Euphoria.
00:39Each episode pushes the envelope with it across genders, as well as graphic simulated sex.
00:44While the teen characters are obviously played by adults, the show has received much controversy
00:49for holding nothing back in dramatizing the mature exploits of kids these days.
01:02Critical acclaim aside, Euphoria has engaged the public in debates about how to address
01:06youth and general sexuality in mainstream television.
01:10Whether it can get any more scandalous with the characters moving into adulthood for the
01:14third season, the first two were candid enough about some naked truths.
01:24Showrunner and star Lena Dunham aspired to a nuanced, unglamorous portrait of millennial
01:29womanhood on girls.
01:31She and her castmates weren't afraid to bear all in every sense.
01:44The HBO dramedy wasn't just noted for representing realistic female bodies, it represented them
01:50as frequently and as casually as possible.
01:53Of course, the regular sex scenes further defied idealized Hollywood myths with awkward
01:57humor, romance, and titillation.
02:14It was a tasteful confrontation with anxieties about body image and nudity in everyday life.
02:19There was probably more controversy surrounding critics' scrutiny of this hallmark.
02:31Whether the nudity on girls can be considered gratuitous or refreshingly natural, there's
02:36plenty of it across six seasons.
02:40For eight seasons, HBO's Game of Thrones stripped all romance from the high-fantasy
02:53genre.
02:54One of its most talked-about methods was the extensive use of nudity.
02:57Much of the cast disrobed for sensationalistic or bold, often disturbing dramatic purposes.
03:04Some actors were actually recruited from the adult film industry.
03:17This element of the brand was often criticized for diluting the show's prestige, especially
03:22as it was disproportionately focused on women.
03:25Such scenes were thus walked back in later seasons of Game of Thrones and are surprisingly
03:30rare on its spin-off.
03:40The nudity on House of the Dragon is also generally more modest and male-centric.
03:45At any rate, its predecessor had enough explicit material for several shows.
03:52Before Game of Thrones, stars really set the standard for shock value in TV costume
04:05epics.
04:06Their take on the Legend of Gladiator-turned-revolutionary Spartacus went way over the top on style,
04:11obscene language, and gore, never mind the graphic nudity of both men and women.
04:25Sexuality drove a great deal of the show's characterization, but its Ancient Rome's glaringly
04:30anachronistic body types and cosmetic enhancements asserted the gratuitousness of it all.
04:36At least this complements the camp value of Spartacus, creatively entangled with a truly
04:42sweeping storytelling over three distinctly titled seasons.
04:50Star's spin-off Spartacus, House of Asher, has a lot of substance to live up to, never
04:55mind its more saucy gimmicks.
05:00The excess of nudity doesn't have to equate to gratuitous.
05:13Showtime's Masters of Sex fictionalizes the lives and work of sexology pioneers William
05:19Masters and Virginia Johnson.
05:21This means that each episode is full of graphic sexual content, um, in the name of signs.
05:32Nudity is also utilized as a way of expressing the complexity of characters and relationships
05:38in the 1950s and 60s.
05:40The show tastefully placed sexuality at the center of the human condition, winning critical
05:45acclaim as a legitimately adult drama.
05:47Unfortunately, the premise was tough to sell to a wide audience.
06:00Masters of Sex may have ended prematurely with four seasons, but it was a lofty experiment
06:05in premium TV standards.
06:14Showtime's The L Word was ahead of its time for focusing on LGBTQ culture from the
06:19female perspective.
06:20It's driven by friendship, love, politics, and of course, the bedroom.
06:25The show features tons of casual female nudity and passionate hookups.
06:39Some feel that this key trend across six seasons sensationalized the subject matter.
06:44Moreover, many in the represented community criticized the perpetuation of an affluent
06:49Hollywood fantasy.
06:50The showrunners at least respected that for the short-lived reboot The L Word Generation
06:55Q, which was just as steamy as the original and much more diverse.
07:06The L Word may not have been the perfect representation
07:13for its ambition, but the explicit material is confrontational enough.
07:27The sexy vampire fantasy was practically the heart of HBO's True Blood.
07:31This steamy supernatural soap explores society after synthetic blood allows vampires to come
07:37out, as it were.
07:39Obvious allegories for sexuality, blended with camp, made graphic nudity a hallmark
07:44of seven seasons.
07:45In fact, it escalated with each season.
07:54This custom helped make True Blood a hot topic and a subject of controversy.
07:58Besides accusations of exploitative sexual content, particularly in later plotlines,
08:03there was criticism of imbalanced nudity between men and women.
08:13The show's ostensibly progressive themes were as divisive as its storytelling.
08:18True Blood remains a cult classic, partly for how far it took racy soap tropes on premium
08:23cable.
08:26David Duchovny's shocking follow-up to The X-Files may as well have added two more Xs.
08:36Showtime's Californication follows bachelor writer Hank Moody through the Los Angeles
08:41dating and celebrity scenes.
08:43There was no shortage of beautiful people across seven seasons, but there was a shortage
08:47of cloves.
08:48Awkward sexual exploits were a key comedic and plot device that grew more prevalent as
09:04the show went along.
09:05Many viewers felt that it came to rely too heavily on nudity.
09:08Duchovny himself, who struggled with many of Moody's vices, told Rolling Stone magazine
09:13that the complicated themes of debauchery got muddled by sensationalism.
09:23Californication is still a blunt portrait of excess, particularly in one area.
09:30Only HBO could do justice to The Deuce, which finds epic drama in New York's sex work
09:35and adult film industries around the 1970s.
09:46Needless to say, explicit male and female nudity is rampant in each episode.
09:50At least the boundary-pushing content was appropriate for the raunchy subject matter.
09:55The dedication to the cast and crew's comfort was no less groundbreaking.
09:59The Deuce was the first TV show to have a resident intimacy coordinator, now a standard
10:04for sex scenes in Hollywood productions.
10:10The show could definitely back up its commentary on the perils and politics of crude entertainment,
10:15but mainstream entertainment would have to get pretty crude to match that much nudity
10:20in three seasons.
10:31Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
10:35Banshee
10:36The edgy Cinemax drama aestheticized nudity as much as action.
10:48Chemistry
10:49Cinemax's short-lived erotic dramedy challenged nudity records in just one season.
11:02The Girlfriend Experience
11:03The Starz anthology tackled sexual politics thoroughly and graphically.
11:21Minx
11:22The revolutionary dramedy about a feminist erotic magazine featured mostly male nudity.
11:36Outlander
11:37Steamy romance has become a staple of Starz's long-running historical epic.
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12:06Shameless
12:07Paul Abbott adapted his British dramedy to working-class Chicago with even more riotous
12:13satire and nuance.
12:15Showtime's Shameless also took advantage of its premium cable format to fulfill its
12:20title.
12:21For 11 seasons, the Gallaghers coped with dysfunction through debauchery, crime, and
12:26steamy misadventures.
12:33There were hundreds of nude scenes to progress the characters, comedy, and commentary.
12:38Emmy Rossum most notably defended this content and defended against being shamed for it.
12:51But was all of it really necessary?
12:53Nudity was part of a shocking brand that actively outdid the competition in mature television.
12:58With even that declining over time, there may never be another show like Shameless.
13:03At least there's still quality TV behind the more crude and controversial content.
13:08Which shows do you think used their racy moments more memorably and effectively?
13:13Get frank in the comments.