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HBO Talk Confederate Controversy, Defends Slave Drama, Not The Way It Was Announced
- Thread starter lightskintwin
- Start date
I'm glad they're moving through with this. I'm really interested in this show, and I really like fiction that looks at alternate realities - I'm hoping somehow the alternate reality in this show mirrors what Tarantino did with Inglourious Basterds and what Bethesda / MachineWorks are doing with Wolfenstein. And while Django Unchained was not an alternate reality film necessarily, it did feature a superhero (Django) brutally murdering slave owners - and I hope that this occurs as well.
What I don't want to see is the show being more than 3 seasons. If the show is too long, it just won't work in my opinion. They need the main characters to quickly dismantle modern day slavery and work towards a swift brutal/violent end to slave owners, like Django did.
What I don't want to see is the show being more than 3 seasons. If the show is too long, it just won't work in my opinion. They need the main characters to quickly dismantle modern day slavery and work towards a swift brutal/violent end to slave owners, like Django did.
Different time period but we did get Spartacus.
It's a work of fiction and alternate history no less (one of my favorite). Why the fuck be upset about this. It's not like they are going to glamorize slavery, they're going to show the south being shitty to slaves because that's what would have happened if this alternate history were true. You're still going to be rooting against the south. Take man in the high castle, no one is rooting for the nazis, you still want to see them fail.
PIMPBYBLUD
Member
Because it's a sensitive subject; especially in today's society. I'm a black male and I'm highly skeptical about this show. Whether I choose to watch it or not.
You do, you just want them to shut up.
A show with overwhelming white people, fittingly enough.
I get how provocative an idea this is but some were talking as if this was being produced exclusively for the Alt Right nutters, have any of those worried about this show ever watched HBO's output before?
This is the home of Last Week Tonight, Looking and Girls among others and recently put into development a comedy about a gay Muslim woman.
This is not a series that any of the red states will be tuning in for.
This is the home of Last Week Tonight, Looking and Girls among others and recently put into development a comedy about a gay Muslim woman.
This is not a series that any of the red states will be tuning in for.
iPaul93
Member
No,I don't.If something bothers me about a show,I simply won't support it,so I don't watch it.
Frozenprince
Banned
"God stop being angry that the only prestige roles actors of color can get are as slaves or criminals"
To quote the good sir Snoop Doggy Dogg
Enough of this slave shit.
To quote the good sir Snoop Doggy Dogg
Enough of this slave shit.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
that's way more dangerous.
DKehoe
Member
Come on. If the shows good I'll watch it but I 100% get why people are complaining. Artist can do whatever they want but the consumers of the art have just as much right to voice their opinion.
Spoilers I guess
Westworld
autonomy and free will, but the hosts can be seen as slaves
benicillin
Banned
I imagine they could have avoided a lot of the controversy by not attaching it to the GoT bros, who are some of the last people I'd want near any sensitive subject matter.
Frozenprince
Banned
I'm sure this won't just be "LOOK AT HOW MODERN SLAVERY IS JUST LIKE THE REAL WORLD. ARENT WE CLEVER"
Mister Wolf
Gold Member
Us not watching it was already a given, this thread is to discuss why.
Do you do this in all threads here where people are whining about framerates or how much they hate certain costumes in movies or is it just when there are complaints about yet another media portrayal of black people in subservient positions?
AuthenticM
Member
omfg
This show is going to be awful.
Yeah I guess the issue is that the producers are coming from this idea that slavery was a thing from the past and is not currently still happening when in fact it already is happening in a "totally modern and not plantation-based" way.
Devilinthiscity
Member
Not feeling the subject matter or the ability for those guys to pull it off. That being said, I can have that opinion without wanting or needing to see the show no matter how much you dislike people "whining."
Time for some hot conflicted slavemasters, aw yeaaaaaaaaah
I wouldn't trust those writers with anything sensitive like slavery on their best day. Throw in the current political climate and everyone can see that this will be a shitshow more likely than not.
Plus the premise is fucking laaaaaame.
Alternative history is so much more than "what if we still had nazis". Ain't all that alternative.
Have they already said that they won't?
Bruce Springsteen
Member
I think how the producers have handled race before is what has some people concerned
So business as usual in Hollywood
I think how the producers have handled race before is what has some people concerned
I'm not a black person so I'm not going to pretend that this is an issue that I can relate to (excuse the wording if it's clumsy) but do you think that what you posted was a deliberate choice by the producers, the image of the white saviour?
If you don't think the show is a good idea then fair enough but while this is a provocative issue I think there's a wealth of material to mined here that could relate to modern world we live in. I think that's why stuff like the Handmaid's Tale resonates so much at the moment.
Whether it works or not is another question but I don't think that there's any intentional malice here.
Ehhh
Technically a couple of white male humans help the robots get autonomy in order to give them freedom.
A show where a repressed minority underclass in modern America rises up to violently overthrow their white oppressors?
Nah. Too risky. Misery porn, now that's a moneymaker!
I don't know why people like you seem to think that it's only an issue if it's deliberate. Even if it was completely unintentional, how blind do you have to be to not see how an image like that would appear and why should anyone trust that you'd be able to handle a topic that explicitly deals with race and racism?
iPaul93
Member
No,I don't.Also,comparing framerates to a screenplay isn't the best analogy.I said what I had to say.I'm out.
Zelenogorsk
Banned
D&D are going to fuck this up so bad.
Criticizing the premise of a show and not watching it are things that can be done simultaneously.
American slavery is still fresh, and the effects of it are still felt by black people to this day. Nothing that I know about the people that are involved tells me that this is a subject that will be handled with the care that it deserves. Nothing.
If you're going to tell the story, tell it. But make it more than the fucking fantasy of two white men with a penchant for depicting rape and the grotesque.
American slavery is still fresh, and the effects of it are still felt by black people to this day. Nothing that I know about the people that are involved tells me that this is a subject that will be handled with the care that it deserves. Nothing.
If you're going to tell the story, tell it. But make it more than the fucking fantasy of two white men with a penchant for depicting rape and the grotesque.
metalslimer
Member
Provocative is not a reason to do a show. It has to have something meaningful to add the conversation which why a lot of folks in the black community don't trust the two white showrunners of GoT to have anything useful to add. I am also sick of the best roles a black person can get being a fucking slave. While I applaud hbo for a show like insecure, I will remain skeptical here until I see the end product
Frozenprince
Banned
I wonder what season the kind slavemaster falls in love with the radical slave who wants to free her people.
Think that's a season 2 kinda thing.
Fried Food
Banned
That's the problem. Why is modern slavery something you feel passionate about and want to do?
I see.
Billy_Pilgrim
Member
It disturbs me that you base what people should and shouldn't be able to write about on their race.
freeofgreed
Member
Here's the thing. Whether it was intentional or not, is besides the point. The Effects are still there. Most "White savior" tropes in fiction are not intentional. Doesn't mean they still don't propagate white supremacy.
What I think is interesting about this is that for the recent Handmaiden's Tale adaptation , the showrunner talked publically about their very conscious decision to excise all the racist elements from the show (where Gilead dictatorship has essentially shipped off anyone who isn't white somewhere else), arguing that often "there's very little difference "between making a show about racists and making a racist show".
Then this show comes along and pretty much throws that perspective out the window, by literally making a show where white people still reign supreme and black people are still forced into slavery.
Then this show comes along and pretty much throws that perspective out the window, by literally making a show where white people still reign supreme and black people are still forced into slavery.
And I see that you don't want to actually address the issues people have.
ClosingADoor
Member
The problem was not that it was a press release. The problem is the actual show. And no, showing slavery in a nuanced way is not a fix for that.
If they want to make the show, that is their call, but expect a lot of criticism before and probably after it has aired.
Nichelle Tramble wrote some good episodes of Justified and The Good Wife. Though I don't think it'll really matter. I doubt D&D are gonna give these black writers final word on story and script ideas.
That's fair. I have to imagine that HBO will be sensitive to how this will look (if they weren't before they will be now!) moving forward, assuming it does move forward, but until we see or hear anymore it's just going to be an awkward elephant in the room for the network.
I'm not going to argue for or against this series given that we know next to nothing about it except for a brief description but I can see your point of view.