In an interview for a TIME story on the evolution of sex on television, House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon, praised the porn industry—and not for the reasons you might think.

Thanks to porn, Willimon argued, TV writers no longer feel obligated to insert unnecessary sex scenes in their TV shows to attract viewers.

“I think there was a pressure for a time for shows and movies to provide that service, and it always felt false because it was like, ‘Here’s the titillating part of the movie.’ It was a marketing technique,” he says. “Now you can’t put anything on TV that’s more pornographic than what’s easily available with a few mouse clicks. So you can really focus once again on character, and those characters can engage in sex the way actual humans do.”

Read the full story on what writers from shows like Girls, The Americans, Transparent and How to Get Away With Murder did with that newfound freedom here.

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Write to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com.