You've just contradicted this article...if people are turning aways from anti family-values entertainment, why are people turning out in droves for satellite radio for Howard Stern and in record numbers to watch cable TV fare? People still want Empty filth, they just want it in the privacy of their own homes. It's the overt political agenda that people are turning away from. You watch any episode of and FX series or an HBO series and it's pretty graphically sexual with lots of filthy language. But the shows are great. I watch all of them.
I'm not one to get hooked on TV shows/series, except for 24, but I have to admit that I can't help but watch Nip/Tuck, that's just a great show. I like Prison Break too.
And as far as the FX (I assume you are talking "The Shield", "Rescue Me" or "Nip/Tuck") and HBO ("Sopranos", "Deadwood") are concerned, there is a HUUUUUUGE difference between graphic sex/violence/language on these shows and the dreck on the big screen. If you can weed through the "filth", you'll find some pretty good writing and acting with a view not terribly different from average Joe American. Not the anti-American, anti-family screeds we get from George cLooney, Michael Moore-on and Rob "Meathead" Reiner.
And, in most of those series, people like those characters didn't marry the schoolmarm, drink tea at 4, and tut-tut the children when they did something wrong. The "filth" is, for better or worse, a somewhat accurate approximation of the way those people are in real life.
Good point. I was hopelessly addicted to HBO's "Rome", which had plenty of filth and bad language; but the story was very compelling (ok, James Purefoy..sans clothing..I peeked)