Yeah, I wanted a "Yes, but that's a good thing" option. A good TV show or movie will reflect reality. I'm not talking about reality shows (which I think are really the root of all evil), but a reflection of the world in which we live. Good drama should be true-to-life, engrossing, make you think, and be, well, dramatic. Good comedy should be funny. Someone once defined comedy as "when bad stuff happens to other people", and tragedy as "when bad stuff happens to me." (I think it was Mel Brooks.) This was a jest, but there is a certain amount of truth to it.
Let me give an example. I like police dramas. I like following the cases, the lives of the officers, watching them solve the crimes, and so on. Now, for me to fully appreciate the show or movie, it has to ring true to reality. I know a few police officers. They curse. A lot. So I don't want to see a police drama where the cops are all polite and use nice language. It would ruin the effect of trying to portray a gritty city environment. When Andy Sipowicz on NYPD Blue says, "Ipsa this, you prissy little b---h," it's funny. It's exactly the kind of thing an NYC cop would say to a pretentious DA. Anything less would not have set the tone the writers wanted between these two characters. And that goes double for the criminals. Criminals are not supposed to be nice people, so it only makes sense if they are yelling obscenities at the cops. The same goes for the violence. Violence is a part of life, and there are evil people in the world that deserve to be shot down like dogs.
An alternative to reflecting reality is to show how we might like reality to be. A good example of this is a Clint Eastwood movie. His characters are typically larger than life. Another good example: the new show The Inside. There was a scene at the end of the first episode where a serial killer was dragging one of the stars of the show off a subway, where she had been posing undercover as a "victim." (She fit the profile of the kinds of girls this guy killed.) Another star of the show headed them off, and drew his gun. He shot the guy in the head, killing him, then said, "Let her go... D-mn, I did that backwards." (and I can't f-ckin believe you set this site up to censor the word d-mn, Johnny, that's just a little extreme.) Now wouldn't it be great if cops could really do that?
About sex, I think that's just a personal preference. I happen to be voyeuristic, so I like sex scenes. If you don't, don't watch R or X-rated movies, but leave those of us who do alone. You have no right to force your sense of morality on other people. That's what it means to live in a free country. If you want a society that is sexually repressed, move to Iran or something.
