HBO Sex Series Sparks Rifts, Heat in Married Couples

"We fight over it," he said. "I tend to like shows that are very introspective and make you look at yourself and your life. But some people are turned off by stuff that's too raw like that."

Alex Atkin, a 39-year-old mother, caught the first episode with its sexually charged scenes and hoped her husband would join her.

"It was so much fun because there was so much sex in it," said Atkin. "He was away on business, and I told all my friends you've got to watch this."

After seeing the second, tamer episode together, her 43-year-old husband opted out. "When my husband watches TV, he wants to be entertained.

"The show hooked us and dropped by the third episode," said Atkin. "I am already bored with the characters. To me, they are very transparent."

Television can be like foreplay — when the lead up is hot — but when the narrative stamina fails, viewers pull out.

"If someone is watching a TV show, the characters have to be real and true," said Virginia psychologist Geoff Michaelson. "That's what draws people in. The show may titillate at first, but it will get stale quickly if it doesn't deal with all the emotions."

But some couples are finding emotional depth to the show and are learning from the therapy.

Typical Counseling

Some of the scenarios are "typical fare" in couples counseling, according to Michaelson, who is on the faculty of the Human Sexuality Institute in Washington, D.C.

"Therapy is pretty simple," said Michaelson. "It's about communication and how to better deal with our emotions, anxieties and fears."

So far, the show has addressed what he calls the "existential emotional stuff that people have inside of them."

"If shows are just about sex, you can get that on the Internet," said Michaelson.

For some couples, the show has given them a positive lens to view their own relationships.

Dawn Rhodes, a stay-at-home mother, awkwardly viewed the second episode with a girlfriend and her husband at the urging of a friend.

"The thing I found surprising," said Rhodes, 40, "is the fact that the couples were hiding so many things from each other and had these deep emotional issues they were hiding from the therapist.