HBO Confronted with Violence Controversy at TCA

By Reuben Levine | Jul 31, 2016

Casey Bloys was forced to answer questions about on screen violence

HBO is known for a lot of things. They include producing award-winning television and movies, being the home of both The Sopranos and Game of Thrones, and having a fair share of sex and violence. During the TCA press tour HBO’s Head of Programming, Case Bloys, has fielded questions about the future of True Detective and the demise of Vinyl, but not everything has been so pleasant.

The press also the time to grill Bloys on the amount of violence in multiple HBO series, such as Westworld and Game of Thrones. The topic of rape was also brought up. Bloys originally held his ground, and not very convincingly:

"“I can tell you that violence, it’s not just specific to women. It’s indiscriminate. Plenty of men are killed as well…”"

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That could be used as the definition of a weak argument. Bloys apparently realized that and quickly backpedaled, calling the criticism “valid” and that “it’s something that people should take into account.” Not exactly a bright spot of the press tour, and certainly not a convincing argument. This has been an issue that has HBO has faced for a long time, but it has recently been coming to a head.

There is certainly an issue here, but there isn’t really an easy fix. Having the Head of Programming intervene in every show isn’t necessarily the right idea. On the other hand, Westworld faced a minor controversy when it was rumored that HBO had direct involvement in the amount of nudity in the new series.

Next: Casey Bloys on the end of Vinyl.

Perhaps it’s not that HBO should take a more direct hand in regulating content, but that more hour-long dramas should be greenlit that don’t rely so heavily on sex and violence. The closest that HBO currently gets to that is The Night Of, but even that doesn’t really count as it begins with a murdered young woman.

It wouldn’t hurt to diversify a bit.

Via: Deadline