The Witcher takes exploitative nudity to a whole new level

The Mary Sue

"Game of Thrones is the reason we have the term 'sexposition' – it excelled in using sex and nudity in scenes where it wasn’t required and many shows took the wrong message from it: that they needed more nudity to be on the same level," says Jessica Mason. "And sometimes this worked! Spartacus contained constant and gleeful nudity and incredible violence…but somehow that fit with the story of exploitation and slavery. The nudity there was also equal opportunity: with many males showing their full monty across every season. But The Witcher wants to be Game of Thrones more than it wants to be Spartacus (which is too bad because Spartacus was a better show than both). There’s no queer characters, it deals with race is really bad ways, and it takes exploitative nudity to a whole new level. In just the first episode, a sorcerer named Stregebor is in hiding out in a villa of some kind and he’s created illusions of naked women all over…just because. They serve no purpose other to show this guy is a creep, but hey, he also arranged for the rape and murder of an innocent princess so, whatever! This goes on and on in the show and the character that’s most victimized is Yennefer, who is constantly naked for no reason except for when she’s just hanging out at an orgy that has no relevance to the plot. She’s naked for some brutal, violent scenes too and it’s pretty uncomfortable."