In an interview with TIME about the changing landscape of sex on television, How to Get Away With Murder showrunner Pete Nowalk said he worries about how much attention is paid to the character Connor’s sex life.
Connor, a sometimes-monogamous-sometimes-not gay character, uses apps similar to Grindr on the show. One hookup says after an encounter with Connor, “He did this thing to my ass that made my eyes water”—a sentence likely never uttered on American network TV before.
“I guess I have just been surprised that people have taken notice of it as something new,” says Nowalk. “I don’t want people marginalizing the character based on the fact that Connor is having sex with men. Viola Davis’ character, Annalise, is just as sexual as Connor, but she doesn’t get as much attention in the media. I just want people to pay attention to the character as much as they do to his sex life.”
Read what writers from other shows like Girls and The Americans think of their character’s sex lives here.
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Write to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com