Tell Me You Love Me

Most dramas on TV are about cops, doctors and lawyers. After watching the first episode of Tell Me You Love Me, HBO's latest original drama series, I now know why that is. Cops, doctors and lawyers are actually interesting to watch.

Tell Me You Love Me is one of the dullest shows you'll ever see. It's so obsessed with its bare bones, indie film style and hyper-realistic attention to detail that it's very much like watching paint dry, without the vibrant colors. The main characters have boring, everyday problems in their lives and relationships, and if I wanted to see that, I'd go to my family's Thanksgiving dinner.

Hugo (Luke Kirby) and Jamie (Michelle Borth) are an engaged couple in their 20s. She wants a commitment, he's scared of being tied to one woman for the rest of his life. Palek (Adam Scott) and Carolyn (Sonya Walger) are in their 30s and trying to get pregnant, but having a difficult time. David (Tim DeKay) and Kate (Ally Walker) are in their 40s, with kids, and going through a sexual dry spell. If this all seems a bit simplistic, it's because it is. Try as the show might to seem complex, each couple is distilled to a single issue that defines their relationship, and no earnest attempt is made to explore these characters beyond that one trait.

Of course, the show tries it's darnedest to seem relevant and edgy with its highly publicized graphic and frank sexual scenes. It's true, there are many moments during the first episode when it feels like you're watching a pornographic movie. However, it's a gimmick, and if there's no real substance to accompany it, what's the difference between Tell Me You Love Me and pornography? It's an interesting question, the constant struggle between art and smut, but it's the only remotely interesting thing to come out of this show.

However, there is hope if you choose to pervert the actual series and view it solely as a cynical and ironic play on the women's liberation movement. Several times in the pilot, a man will tell his wife or fiancée those three little words women have been programmed to respond to in every romantic comedy ever made: “I love you.” But in every instance, the woman complains that this isn't enough. Tell Me You Love Me isn't just the show's title, it's an ironic statement about what women really want, or rather, what they don't.

Women, according to this show, have no interest in having a man say “I love you.” Instead, the women either want a total, unwavering commitment, or sex. So even though men have been convinced that chivalry and professions of love are the true romantic gestures that women want, this show comes around to inform us that women just want to have complete control over men and that all they really need is sex to make them happy. It almost seems to be a radical form of feminism, focusing wholly on the woman's needs and desires and ignoring whatever the man feels.

Is this what the show is actually saying in its subtext? Is there some oddly post-modern take on feminism hidden beneath the surface of this bland and flaccid attempt to discuss sexuality in modern relationships? Or was I simply so bored during the show's pilot episode that I allowed my mind to wander and come up with outrageous and absurd analyses of this show just to keep my mind awake?


-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of HBO)