Friday, July 24, 2015

Funeral Parlor Sex on 'EastEnders' is the New Crypt Sex!

Ben Mitchell and Paul Coker stripped down to their boxers near a dead body.
When General Hospital characters Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) and Ava Jerome (Maura West) had sex in the Quartermaine crypt in 2014, it was one of the most talked about moments of the year in American soaps. British soap EastEnders may have topped that "crypt sex" with the show's recent "funeral parlor sex" between Ben Mitchell (Harry Reid) and Paul Coker (Johnny Labey).

Nearly 50 viewers complained to Ofcom after the episode aired last Friday, with the TV regulator clarifying that the main cause of concern was the setting rather than the sexuality of the characters.

“We had 48 complaints about the scene where a couple had sex in a funeral parlor, when there was an open casket in the room,” a spokesperson said. "We'll assess these complaints before deciding whether to investigate or not."

After a number of EastEnders fans took to social media to voice their disapproval at scenes that "made them feel ill," the long-running BBC soap opera released a statement arguing that sex was “implied and not explicit."

“The millions of regular EastEnders fans who tune in each week know and expect dramatic storylines,” the statement read. “We are always mindful of our time slot in which we are shown and the scenes in question were implied and not explicit.”

3 comments:

  1. I found it kind of silly and amusing...from the clip. As for GH I think people were upset because it was after AJ's funeral in the family crypt that Ava and Sonny (the people responsible for his murder) had sex...not so much that it was in a crypt...IMO anyway.

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    1. I found this one kind of humorous as well, played that way despite the setting. The Sonny-Ava crypt sex was well-acted but completely turned me off.

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  2. Due to the fact that The Cokers are morticians, scenes involving them are often played with an element of "black comedy." (Like when Dot insisted that Dead Nick "lay in state" in her parlor, and the arm of the dead body (not Nick) fell out of casket with Charlie trying to hide it; or when hapless Billy was put in charge of things for a day and got the two funeral caskets mixed up. The whole thing was played as slapstick.) To me, this is on the same level. I mean, the whole idea of Pam insisting that Paul use the "dead Mrs. Birch" as his "cut and color" customer to compete for the job at Blades began the fun. And in terms of "sex" they didn't really show anything but a pile of clothes in the "Chapel of Rest." The complaints seem a little eye-rolling to me.

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