Our Staff Picks column takes you back to a time when video stores reigned supreme and the "Staff Picks" section was the place to find out what films were worthy of one's time. Of course, our version of Staff Picks has a decidedly skintillating angle, as we suss out which films from a certain genre or year with great nudity. This week: prestige television!
What is prestige television? The term is used to describe those that are more elevated and elite than your typical cable TV show. These shows changed culture, made us think and engage, and pushed boundaries. The term started being thrown around in the late '90s with shows like The West Wing and The Sopranos paving the way for TV that was more than just a sitcom.
I have also seen a prestige TV show defined as a show that has above a 74 Metacritic rating, so I am going to refer to that definition a few times with these suggestions. Personally? I think the term is overused now as the original prestige shows changed the game SO much that every other TV series had to rise to that level of quality. Now, thanks in part to multiple streaming services, we have A TON of shows that we consider prestige.
There aren't just prestige dramas, by the way. Shows like Atlanta, Fleabag, The Office (UK edition only), and even WandaVision fit that brief. Even animated shows like Bojack Horseman is on the Metacritic list! All of these shows have things in common: they make us think and they make us have hard conversations even if we are laughing at a cartoon horse. So my Staff Picks today do all of that and more because these shows also make us horny.
The Sopranos
Considered by many to be the best TV drama of all time, The Sopranos changed the landscape of television. There has been so much written about the legacy of The Sopranos, so anything that I could add would probably pale in comparison to what others have had to say. Like a lot of other prestige shows, the stars don't really go nude. Edie Falco plays the amazing Carmella Soprano who showed her buns in one episode.
Lorraine Bracco played Tony's therapist and she showed off her amazing boobage during some of Tony's fantasy scenes where he was dreaming about bagging his therapist.
The show did have a lot of nudity from all of the strippers at the strip club and some of Tony's girlfriends. For example, we got to see Leslie Bega's breasts when she rode Tony Soprano in a chair, showing off her skintsational body. Bega left us begging for more!
Mad Men
The Sopranos walked so that Mad Men and Breaking Bad could run. When AMC acquired those two shows, prestige television was officially here. Mad Men is a fantastic show - with a couple of detours - that introduced us to Don Draper as his life and viewpoints drastically changed during the swingin' 60s. From a 50s playboy at the top of his game to an older man struggling to keep things together as the youth began to dominate cultural shifts, Jon Hamm was a great focal point for the show.
That being said, I was much more interested in the women that populated Don's life! Elisabeth Moss played Peggy, January Jones played Mrs. Draper, Jessica Pare became the next Mrs. Draper, and we had the stunningly sexy Christina Hendricks. There was very little nudity on the show which is shocking considering how much sex Don had, but the cleavage was plentiful.
Breaking Bad
If you want to know what I think a perfect TV drama is, then the answer is Breaking Bad (The Wire is a close second). The show never strayed from its course which is rare for any long-running drama. Vince Gilligan, the creator of the series, has said that he always knew exactly how he wanted the show to end and he had the five-season arc planned the entire time. Showrunners, take note! That's how you do it!
While the male-dominated show did not have a lot of nudity as we followed a former high school science teacher with cancer making meth to afford his treatments (and then getting sucked into the dangerous world of dealing high-quality meth), there was an episode where Jesse Pinkman throws a party with a sexy stripper played by Kayden Kross. Pray to this Kross for her perfect pair!
The Wire
Finally, a prestige television show in which its stars went nude. Not only that, but The Wire is practically Shakespearean in its ability to weave together storylines. Set in Baltimore, the show follows detectives working against a corrupt system to bring down powerful drug lords who are also very charismatic. You find yourself rooting for these guys! I did, anyway. I even enjoyed the second season which is the least liked by fans. It's a fantastic show with each season outdoing the last.
I was also rooting for stars like Deirdre Lovejoy, Sonja Sohn, Wendy Grantham, and Callie Thorne who all showed their tits.
Fargo
I have to be honest: I was one of those naysayers who thought there was no reason to make a TV show out of such a legendarily great film. Welp, I was wrong! Fargo is great. Every single season of it is unique and wonderful as it follows its own storyline (but observant viewers know that all of them are indeed connected). The third season is probably the least liked by fans, but I thought it had one of the legitimately creepiest villains that I have ever seen on TV. It also prominently displayed Mary Elizabeth Winstead's ass when she played a scrappy criminal!
Better Things
If you haven't seen Better Things, then you are missing out. All of the Pamela Adlon series' seasons are in the top 100 of the Metacritic best TV list. The show does not have the very best nudity on this list, but I couldn't help myself in recommending it after I saw the show hitting that list. It's funny and a little bit whimsical as we follow Pamela's adventures as a newly single mom of three daughters who as she tries to get steady work as a voice actor in Hollywood.
I May Destroy You
This was a British miniseries that proved to the world that actress-writer-creator Michaela Coel was not to be trifled with. If you don't know who she is, go fix that right now. From her original comedy series Chewing Gum to this harrowing BBC/HBO drama, Michaela proves that she is a serious talent and that she is not going anywhere any time soon.
It helps that she goes nude in several scenes! She plays a promising writer under pressure who was drugged and attacked one night. She wants to find out who did that to her, but her revenge fantasies get in the way of her finishing her next book. She gives us plenty to write about with multiple sex scenes and some underwear yoga!
Game of Thrones
A fantasy novel did not seem like an automatic candidate for prestige TV, but it took the entire world by storm when it first began airing. This sho was known for its hot nudity and wild sex scenes. In the pilot alone, Emilia Clarke made her nude debut with a stellar look at her petite body.
She's not the only one! This HBO series made stars out of actresses like Nathalie Emmanuel, Rose Leslie, Carice van Houten, and SO many more. Lena Headey played a fantastic and powerful villain who used a body double for her full-frontal shot and so many women went fully nude that it would take me all day to list them off. Even Charlie Chaplin's granddaughter Oona went nude on this show! Game of Thrones did not just make prestige TV - it made prestige nudity!
