GoT: We Get It Already

It only took about two minutes into the season premiere of Game of Thrones last week to serve us a significant dose of gratuitous nudity, which I define as nudity that does nothing to advance the plot. It seems that some prince (don't ask me to tell you his name) is in town (King's Landing?) to seek vengeance on the Lannisters for some offense which I've already forgotten. The important point is that he's a Bad Guy, and, as such, frequents high end brothels where, wait for it, he objectifies the women (girls?) he finds there. If 30 seconds were spent establishing why he was angry at the Lannisters, a few minutes are now devoted to having him make the whores disrobe for him, and while he's at it, proposition a servant lad, who appeared for no other reason I can tell except to demonstrate the standard issue omnivorous lust that's a given in this fantasy land. Dear Game of Thrones show runners: We get it already. Surely you understand this, which suggests that you, and not the characters, are engaging in objectification, and are inviting the viewers to do the same. Sure, a little gratuitous nudity and bodily objectification is fun now and then, but let's not conclude that just because it's on a critically acclaimed premium cable show it is anything other than what it is.

Last year I offered this take on Game of Thrones.