And then there's Fox's "Skin," the newest project from Jerry Bruckheimer, the maker of the hot (but often sleazy) crime show "CSI." It opened to a warmer critical reception, with some cultural observers licking their chops at "cultural Puritanism" taking yet another hit. Months before the premiere, New York Times boor Frank Rich was giddy at "the prospect that (actor) Ron Silver's porn mogul may turn out to be more principled than (actor) Kevin Anderson's self-righteous lawman." He added: "Bruckheimer didn't get where he is by being ahead of the curve. He is the curve. His gut tells him, accurately, that porn is not just well within the American mainstream but overdue to be stripped of its plain brown wrapper in prime time."
Melding prosecutors and pornographers into a "sophisticated" shade of gray is an easy way to win over the amoralists. The porn mogul is a warm, fuzzy daddy so principled that he would not get involved in child pornography (a round of applause here?). The prosecutor, on the other hand, is a hyper-ambitious, adulterous jerk, and a faulty parent to boot. Critics hail the breaking of "television pieties" -- as if piety belonged in the same sentence as television.
Rather than complain that the show's premise is manipulated straight into the national zipper, critics were more likely to react by saying the show wasn't sex-drenched enough . In Time, James Poniewozik complained the porn business seems to be portrayed as too disreputable and is not properly honored for its attractiveness to millions of males: "'Skin' does an admirable job of showing us the politics, the culture, the angst of sex. Would the sexiness of sex be too much to ask for?"
The poor ratings were puzzled over, but mostly based on sports arguments. Did the premiere of "Skin" within Fox's nearly nightly baseball playoff lineup hurt the show? Can a porn-based show attract an audience against "Monday Night Football," since many men are busy and not as many women would seem to form the majority of that so-called massive, all-American, porn-loving caucus?
Hopefully, the woeful ratings of crass shows like "Coupling" and "Skin" will show network executives that Americans aren't simpletons fixated on sophomoric sexual titillation.