Dr. Phi has noticed that television is becoming less edited:

So I was quite surprised this summer when I was watching MGM and saw they were running She’s Gotta Have It apparently unedited. Maybe that’s just MGM, I thought. But then, a few days later, AMC showed the vampire movie The Hunger, also apparently unedited.

One of my guilty pleasures is USA’s Suits. It reminds of some of the good stuff from Boston Legal but without nearly as much in the way of sanctimony and lefty politics.

Apparently they got the go-ahead this most recent season to curse as much as they want. Whether they used to be able to curse at all or not, I do not know. But in the new season in one episode two of the characters are going all Clay Davis with “sheeeeeeeit” and batting it around back and forth throughout. But even that joke (“joke”) aside, the cursing has been ramped up hugely.

Rather than making it feel more mature, though, it makes it feel like the show is a ten year old who discovered a new word.


Category: Theater

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9 Responses to Guttertube

  1. Peter says:

    Television is still heavily censored. Even the merest hint of nudity is taboo.

  2. Mike Hunt Rice says:

    I would love a post from Sheila about the recent suspension of her favorite television reporter.

  3. Kirk says:

    I know when people say “shit” on t.v., it takes me out of the story a bit. Instead of following the dialogue I end up thinking, “Wow, they just said ‘shit’ on TV.” I wish they’d knock it off, as it takes time for me to get back into the show. (I seem to remember their saying it on ‘The Walking Dead.'”

    As for HBO…shit is about all I can say.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUBiOOx0Pxw

  4. Φ says:

    I tuned into an episode of Suits a while back, and took note that the Leftward politics of LA Law (which I watched avidly back in the ’80s) and Boston Legal (which I watched once) were missing.

    But . . . I was struck by how all that was left was essentially nihilism. And, on the strength of one episode, I just couldn’t bring myself to care about the scheming machinations of corporate lawyers against other corporate lawyers.

    Then again, what do I know. I came to the same conclusion about Game of Thrones.

    • Trumwill says:

      That’s a pretty fair criticism of Suits. On the other hand, its moral indifference gives it a unique quality, in my view. How many shows will have the protagonists defending a multinational oil company accused of running roughshod over Africa?

      The Practice (Boston Legal’s predecessor) was relatively unique, at the time, in its willingness to show criminal defense lawyers actually and unapologetically defend clients dead-on guilty of unjustifiable crimes. But on the civil side? They never backed backed the big guy. Which, given that they were a small firm, made sense in the context of the plot. I remember actually saying to myself “They’d never show these guys defending oil companies” (oil companies specifically were what came to mind).

      Suits tries to walk a balance, as far as that goes. Most of their clients are some degree of sympathetic. And there’s no “badge of honor” like there is when The Practice defended guilty folks. But it’s something different.

      Having said all that, I can’t imagine Suits being up your alley in any event.

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