Posted on 06/14/2019 7:09:53 AM PDT by Kaslin
The programmers at HBO pride themselves in setting the tone for the rest of television, especially when it comes to the absence of taste, from Bill Maher's "Real Time" talk-show tantrums to Lena Dunham marching around undressed on "Girls."
Every time HBO hits the bottom of the gutter, it finds a way to go deeper still. It is really headed into the gutter, and it knows it. A new HBO series about teenagers and sex and drugs called "Euphoria" is starting June 16, starring 22-year-old Zendaya, another former Disney Channel star desperately seeking to keep her career alive in the eyes of Hollywood casting agents and limiting herself to one name in the pursuit of that.
The show's creator, Sam Levinson, gleefully predicted to The Hollywood Reporter, "There are going to be parents who are going to be totally f---ing freaked out."
This is how The Hollywood Reporter began its story: "Thirty penises in one episode? Zendaya's new series, filled with graphic nudity, violence and drug use among young people, is so extreme that one star quit mid-shoot, but the network hopes that authenticity will help the show break through."
Ah, "authenticity." That's the word HBO uses when it makes a wildly over-the-top series. Levinson claimed the point of the show is to "expose an adult audience to the challenges of growing up in 2019," and that many of the scenes come directly from Levinson's life. "It may seem boundary-pushing, and the idea of putting them on TV may be, but somebody lived them." Levinson, born in 1985, is the son of top Tinseltown filmmaker Barry Levinson.
Many "somebodies" have navigated through dramatically sinful lives, but that doesn't mean they're all going to be exploited by HBO. If the company just loves "authenticity" for its own sake, can we expect it to run "Gosnell" on its channels, or "Unplanned"? Or is the authentic ugliness of the abortion industry just too tawdry?
Casey Bloys, HBO programming president, claimed the show is "not sensational to be sensational." There is zero authenticity in that claim.
Levinson says HBO executives have been supportive, but they did push back on two scenes. He wanted to start the whole series with a camera shot focusing on the birth of Zendaya's character that came from "behind a doctor and went straight between her mother's legs and into her vagina," the Reporter says. In the actual version, her character narrates over a clip of herself in utero, saying, "I was repeatedly crushed over and over by the cruel cervix of my mother."
The network also protested a scene in the second episode featuring dozens of naked high school boys. How responsible. "What made it to air is a trimmed-down version of the original shot, which included 'like, 80 more' penises," the Reporter says. It never ceases to amaze that HBO is now the first destination for new "Sesame Street" programming. The executives cravenly cashed in.
Parents Television Council President Tim Winter made the most salient point to the Hollywood Reporter. This show "appears to be overtly, intentionally marketing extremely graphic adult content -- sex, violence, profanity and drug use -- to teens and preteens."
HBO makes its way into millions of American homes, and not just on the television anymore. Children can easily stream a perverted show like this on their laptops or iPads or even cellphones. Parents should be alerted that this smutty show will be bubbling up from the bottom of the sewer.
Until HBO goes deeper still.
“Thirty penises in one episode?’
When 29 ain’t enough, and 31 is crossing the line.
Pass.
In “Tombstone” when Doc Holliday said Jonny Ringo was filled with rage because he wanted revenge for being born, he summed up this kind of Hollywood Left Wing angst perfectly.
Most Disney stars wind up with their boobs out at some point.
The Left is the most misanthropist group of people in the world.........
Miley Cyrus is a paragon of virtue and wholesomeness. I’m surprised other Disney actresses are having a difficult time.
Who? It doesn’t matter...I think I last watched HBO in 1970...(I think I watched it three times...).
Oooooo...don’t I hear the sarcastic acid sizzling with your posting!
Uh, no longer a disney star. An adult making her own decisions.
Another disturbing organization is “Nickelodeon “ they encourage kids to be racist and uncivilized.
Horny Bodies Only.... ugh.... no wonder society is in such a shambles.
The animated bumper from the early 80s was rather good.
I agree, Disney, the present model is a terrible product.
Walt Disney would puke his guts out at what has become of his enterprise.
From what I’ve read about this show, there are no PARENTS anywhere in it.
Which just might be the problem.
If its creators want to be realistic, the show should feature typical parents of these kind of teens.
Show them as the drunk, drugged out, promiscuous, totally incapable of self-examination lefty trainwrecks they are, who are either totally unaware, or can’t understand why their kids are in deep trouble.
Remember back in the day when HBO had it’s own little receiving antennas?
It wasn't that HBO had them, but 'enterprising' folks could get the same signal the cable companies were getting, thereby bypassing the PAYMENT for the programming.
With satellite technology largely unreliable in the early 1970s, HBO initially distributed its signal via microwaves. But satellite offered a far greater reach at less of an expense, and as the channel hit a ceiling of subscribers, they began using the technology out of necessity. By 1977, the service had over 600,000 households signed up.
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