Marco Polo, produced and directed by Netflix, arrived promptly and without warning a few weeks ago to good reception among viewers. I’m currently making my way through episode 4 of the season and wanted to share some initial thoughts on the series, in particular to the sheer amount of nudity.
Ever since Game of Thrones, nudity has been frequent and almost required in some TV series to fill the ‘tick list’ quota.
NudityExplosionsforbidden lovegoofy sidekick
In the GOT series, the use of love and sex is ,more often than not, required. An example is Osha using her body to lure the guards from their watch. One other example is John and Ygritte as the copulation is used as a weapon by Ygritte to show that John is not true to his vows. All graphic yet add to the story.
Marco Polo seems to take the option of presenting sex as stylistic rather than substantial. They don’t progress the story and only serve as a voyeuristic pleasure. The bathhouse scene wherby Marco Polo is tempted by Khan to take any woman he likes doesn’t add any substance and neither does the naked sword fight scene. Add to that the sex scene at the big feast and you start to realise it doesn’t use sex efficiently enough.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Leave a comment below!
Tom's TV Blog 