July 15, 2007

Blogging TCA: Sex Sells

Seth Arenstein, at the TV Critics Association summer press tour, on sexy new shows on IFC and TNT

Man, this is a sexy tour. Just when we thought the TCA critics were ready to give their libidos a few minutes' rest, IFC’s room drop Saturday night consisted of fairly large poster of a naked woman touting Indie Sex, its upcoming midnight (Aug. 1-4) event about sex in independent films.

Then, this morning — a Sunday morning, for goodness sake — critics feasted on a healthy panel for TNT’s new "provocative" series Saving Grace, whose premiere episode (July 23, 10pm) opens with star Holly Hunter (as the title character, Grace) wrestling in bed with a young stud, whom we find out later is a married young stud.

“Sex is a big part of Grace’s life. We’ll not be shying away from that,” creator Nancy Miller tells the critics.

The noted behaviorist Holly Hunter concurs. “It’s inherent in who a person is…we want to think of her in a pure sense, and you can’t divorce sexuality from that…her sexuality is wrapped up in who she is.”

On the other hand, Hunter takes a good stab at the question (asked by the same critic for the past four days) about why more lead roles are being written for post-40-year-old women? “It’s cable," she comments. "There’s less money involved, so [cable] can take more chances…a door has been opened.”

Hunter’s a quick study. She’s only a new television watcher. She admits that before screening DVDs of current TV series to scout directors for Grace, she didn’t watch much TV.  “I know that makes me sound like a f—n’ snob, but I don’t.”

When she started screening contemporary TV, and particularly cable shows, she says “it was a revelation…like, wow, The Shield… TV suddenly felt like a lot of personal lives as opposed to a lot of homogenous lives, which is where I left TV.”

• EARLIER: Blogging TCA: Weighty Issues