It is important to understand what it is that is being objected to, by me at least. It does no good whatsoever to say that it's much worse in the books.
I know it is, I've read them, remember, almost (if not actually) before Omar was born 
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If you (plural form) are fine with how the series is being portrayed, then that is okay. I'm not going to judge you because of what is acceptable in your eyes to be seen on television; that is, after all, a question of personal moral sensibilities.
My negative reaction is no doubt a generational thing and almost certainly my being an Englishman brought up in a strictly religious household has it's role to play too. All I can say is that the overt and violent sexual scenes detract from the story for me and for many of the adults that I know - which rather gives the lie to the phrase "Scenes of an adult nature" if adults don't want to see them :lol:.
For me, HBO is using a rather tattered shroud to pass off near pornography as 'art' and the line that it is "essential to the story" carries no weight for me. As I said earlier in this thread, you can get across the moral bankruptcy of many of the characters in the story without having to hang it all out to dry. An audience should be intelligent enough not to need to have it spelled out in 78 point font
. Of course, this is not exactly new for HBO as all their series that I have seen bits of rely on the same 'hook' to drag in the young male viewer.
It's not exactly new to television either, of course. Even Auntie Beeb put on some pretty salacious fare in the seventies - "I Claudius" for example {:faints whilst blushing:}.
In the end, the line of what is acceptable viewing is a moving target but I can't help but feel, as I age, that the line that marks where 'decency' lies is in danger of being trampled underfoot if 'pushing the boundaries' becomes seen as a necessity just to get some ratings figures.
