Perhaps you’ve seen the new TV series whose pilot episode begins this way: A man and a woman are having sex, but something soon goes awry, and the whole production wraps up on an ungainly, awkward note.

If you’re having trouble naming the show, it’s because there isn’t just one that commences this way. The tone-setting awkward sex scene has become a staple of the modern television series opener. And while it can seem like merely a (now hackneyed) storytelling device, its prevalence may also reflect recent tectonic shifts in heterosexual politics.

First, a rundown of some examples (with a tip of the hat to Benjamin R. Cohen, a professor in engineering at Lafayette College, who alerted me to the trend):

In “Love,” we are treated to no fewer than three sex scenes within the first six minutes, the most dramatically significant one being the male protagonist having stiff, monotonous sex with his aloof girlfriend, both of them still wearing tops, as he asks her to move in with him. (She says yes; a month later, in their next scene together, she breaks up with him.)

In “Togetherness” (canceled by HBO after its second season), the male lead attempts to initiate early-morning sex with his wife. When rebuffed, he begins masturbating, hoping she won’t notice. She does, and kicks him out of bed, but not before asking him to take the baby monitor with him.