“The only organized group was some media watchdog group trying to ban us from coming to England. Typical far-right religious stuff—the decay of society, blah blah blah. I was shocked at some of the reactions. Particularly calling it pornographic or soft core. Apparently the sexual revolution is dead or long forgotten. It deeply concerns me about the sex life of Americans if they think this is soft core. It’s like they haven’t been on the Internet in the past 10 years. It’s absolutely R-rated, but it’s just R-rated. I was stunned and shocked about the overzealous reaction to people having sex on TV. Somebody called it the most graphic sex ever on TV. Didn’t anybody see Tell Me You Love Me on HBO?”

-Executive producer Steven S. DeKnight commenting on the criticism of Spartacus: Blood and Sand‘s explicit sexual content.