SEX WITH THE CABLE GUYS NEW SERIES TAKE SEXUAL THEMES TO THE NEXT LEVEL.

Byline: DAVID KRONKE

>TV CRITIC

Sex in entertainment presents an eternal dance between those who are stirred by its depiction and those who are squeamish about the whole issue. Several new television series are pushing the envelope when it comes to depicting sex as they never have before, if not shredding the envelope altogether.

Following HBO's "Rome" and Showtime's "The Tudors," randy period costume dramas offering frequent nudity and sexual situations, several new series go even further, or at least explore sex and relationships from provocative viewpoints.

Showtime's "Californication" and HBO's "Tell Me You Love Me" feature copious nudity and, in the case of the latter, explicit lovemaking scenes between several of its characters. TNT's "Saving Grace" isn't as explicit, but it goes far further than any show heretofore seen on the network. And AMC's "Mad Men," while downright chaste in its sex scenes, revels in its depiction of an era -- the early '60s -- when women were considered little more than conquests to be had.

If all of this frankness seems a bit much, know that one of the upcoming fall season's most acclaimed new shows, ABC's "Pushing Daisies," concerns a romance between a man and woman who can never touch each other. But here are the shows where a whole lot of touching is going on:

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[e-mail] www.insidesocal.com/tv/

"Californication"

10:30 p.m. Mondays, Showtime, premieres Monday.

Call it "The Sex Files:" David Duchovny stars in this dramedy as Hank Moody, a blocked novelist who uses his inability to write and his recent failed relationship as an excuse to sleep with any woman who will have him, and in his dizzying world, pretty much all of them will: Four women disrobe for him in the first episode alone, including one who he later discovers is underage.

"It's a show about an adult trying to function in an adult world," Duchovny explains. "He had certain vices, certain abuses that he is following. Therefore, you see him smoking. You see him drinking. You see him drugging. You see him having sex. These are important things for the guy's state of mind and for the show. It's not done in a gratuitous fashion. It's part of the character."

Creator Tom Kapinos insists the nudity is not gratuitous. "(Depicting) it actually never felt important to me at all. I mean, I see it as a (show about a family). It just happens to be a very fractured, (screwed)-up family, and it just seemed very germane to Hank as a character."

Duchovny said he took the role because he was interested in seeing if he could make such a sybaritic, self-absorbed character likable.

"There's a certain kind of reprehensible quality to the guy sometimes that I thought, well, this is really interesting to try to make this relatable or make this guy somebody that you'd want to pull for even though he's not pulling for himself," Duchovny said, adding that when he gave his wife, actress Tea Leoni, the script, "I said, 'I'm thinking about doing this,' and she said, 'Oh, I don't know.' So it was the kind of conversation where I asked for her opinion and then said, 'I don't like your opinion."'

"Mad Men"

10 p.m. Thursdays, AMC, premiered July 19.

"I could write -- and have written -- a hot sex scene, but I don't need that here," declares Matthew Weiner, a former "Sopranos" scripter who created "Mad Men," about highly successful advertising executives in 1960. "The greatest moment in a relationship is the moment you go from 'Can I get this person?' to the first kiss. I have no interest in showing graphic sex. What I want to show is what leads up to it, the moment someone gives in."

Instead, what makes "Mad Men" provocative is the mind set behind the men's seductions of women -- these gals are there for the taking -- and how the women sort of just accept that notion.

"The Pill came out (in 1960, but) it's a very repressed time, actually," Weiner explains. There's just a kind of a dourness to it, and at the same time, promiscuity, alcohol, marijuana, infidelity -- these things were really at the forefront, and I get that not just from reading John Cheever; that's from the people who were there."

"In 1960, it was expected that that's what a secretary did, that was part of your duties," says Elisabeth Moss, who plays Peggy, the new girl at the firm.

Christina Hendricks, who plays Joan, the cynical office veteran, adds, "Matt had suggested that I read 'Sex and the Single Girl' by Helen Gurley Brown, and there are chapters of it that tell you how to become the 'it' girl in the office and work those situations for your benefit. If your boss is giving you a little extra attention and says nice things about your figure, you know, you might get a nice little piece of jewelry out of that. She really, seriously, goes through and tells you how to make that a pleasant environment for yourself."

John Slattery, who plays the head of the ad company, says, "In 1960, the world was a man's oyster, and some took more oysters than others."

"Tell Me You Love Me"

10 p.m. Sundays, HBO, premieres Sept. 9.

No show has raised more critics' eyebrows because of its sexual content than "Tell Me You Love Me," about three sets of couples attending therapy with one doctor (Jane Alexander) because of their sundry sexual and relationship dysfunctions. Sex in the series is raw, unromanticized and extremely realistic in its depiction.

"It's certainly turning out to get a lot more attention than I thought it would," insists creator Cynthia Mort. "When I wrote the pilot, the sex always was there in service of intimacy and in service of love. ... These are sex scenes between two people who are in love, in a committed long-term relationship. It's not marginalized; it's not perverted. So I am a bit surprised, but it's OK, you know."

Michelle Borth, who plays a young woman who turns to a promiscuous lifestyle when dumped by her fiance, says, "The sex scenes are a pretty integral part of the story line. We are not porn stars. We're actors. And part of our job in any scene, whether it's a sex scene or, you know, a fight scene or an emotional scene, you do the best that you can to do it authentically and honest."

Ally Walker, who plays a wife sexually disconnected from her husband, adds, "It didn't seem gratuitous, and it didn't make me nervous. It was just like, 'Oh, wow. That's part of the story.' It's not, 'Hey, look. The sex scene came up.' Cynthia didn't write it to explore what a great sex scene could be. She didn't write (thinking), 'This is going to be the kick-ass sex scene of the century. I'm going to make it hot and steamy.' We're not doing that. We're having sex where you're trying to get pregnant, which is not hot. (My character's) not having sex, which is depressing. And Michelle's having sex to hide behind because she's in pain. So it's not really there to titillate you."

Sonya Walger, whose character is trying to get pregnant, admits shooting sex scenes is hard. "It's as hard as it is to watch. It's uncomfortable, which is why you know you're doing something good, because the sex scenes are essentially scenes that have no dialogue but say as much as if they did, which is what makes them so interesting to play."

"Saving Grace"

10 p.m. Mondays, TNT, premiered July 23.

TNT has already ordered 15 more episodes of this critically admired drama, which stars Holly Hunter as Grace Hanadarko, a hard-living Oklahoma City police detective who pursues her vices -- sex and drinking -- with equal passion. (Perhaps she should hook up with "Californication's" Hank.) The show does not flinch from its depiction of Grace's behavior -- it sometimes looks as though the editors waited to cut shots until the very last frame before certain body parts would've been exposed.

"She's just barely legal, and we like it like that," Hunter jokes about her character. She adds, "TNT really wanted to step out with this and live up to that 10 p.m. time slot. They're pursuing an audience that is absolutely appropriate for that. Audiences have to have a certain maturity to tune in. They're really stepping out and wanting to broaden their own identity and explore things creatively as a network.

"This is what cable can be offering, and they're taking cable up on the offer," she says.

Series creator Nancy Miller says, "This character lives life on the edge, and she loves living out there. It's important to depict this because of the journey we're going to go on with this character.

"She's gonna have a hard time changing just like we all do."

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) SEX

New TV shows revealing more than ever

(2) "Californication"

(3) "Mad Men"

(4) "Tell Me You Love Me"

(5) "Saving Grace"