Apparently Law & Order: SVU’s child pornography and human trafficking plot lines are a-OK for the Peacock Network, but a show about a do-gooder billionaire? Too much! According to The Hollywood Reporter, NBC has parted ways with Emmy-winning producer Tom Fontana (Homicide: Life on the Street, cast pictured) after deeming his take on the upcoming drama The Philanthropist too grim.
The show focuses on a wealthy renegade who uses his assets to help the less fortunate (do student loans count?) while addressing hot-button issues like immigration, drug addiction, and child soldiers. Fontana and his writing team had submitted several scripts to the network when it became apparent the two sides had very different visions. For its part, NBC was looking for something more "escapist and fantastical" to fit the rest of its schedule, and is now searching for Fontana’s replacement. But seriously, NBC, what were you expecting from the guy behind Oz and Homicide? (As an aside, Fontana and Law & Order producer Dick Wolf are actually old friends who often swap cast members — Christopher Meloni and Dean Winters both appeared on Oz and SVU, while Richard Belzer’s character John Munch famously jumped from Homicide to SVU.)
So, with a The Philanthropist redo in the offing, we want to know what shows you’ve found too grim of late. Did a blood-soaked murder scene make you hide under the couch cushions? Did a stomach-turning operation on your favorite medical drama leave you feeling ill? We want to hear about it!
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Some of the storylines on Criminal Minds have me about to jump out of my skin. Not that they show too much (or can on Network TV) but when you leave some things to the imagination, that is when fear creeps in. On another note, I had to close my eyes Sunday night during the finale of John Adams on HBO. His daughter had breast cancer in the early 1800’s and had to had surgery with no drugs, tied down to the bed with a strap to bite down on. Now that is terrifying!
I can handle anything Bones throws at me-while eating, no less. But last night’s shot of the family of baby rats had me screaming like a baby as I curled into a fetal position on the couch.
The recent SVU “almost” rape scene in the basement of the women’s detention center left me feeling every bit the weaker sex. Although realizing in real life Mariska (and most women I know) would have just bit the sucker off left me feeling somewhat vindicated! I also feel even better about enrolling my daughter in self-defense courses…though I hope she’ll never have to employ them much less while locked up in prison!
I’ve always considered SVU to be sexploitation and all the CSIs to be necrophilia and torture pornography. I’m not surprised they’re always the top-rated shows on TV. After Idol, of course.
The CSI a couple weeks ago with the little girl in the box was too much. We have a daughter around the same age and we had to turn the show off before the second commercial break and delete from our DVR. My wife was in tears. CSI may lose its DVR season pass for that one.
I agree with MWC. My husband was watching that while I was in the kitchen fixing my year old son’s lunch. I was in tears just from hearing the plot. Needless to say, it is no longer on our season pass. We also stopped watching Nip/Tuck because of the fantastical story lines and graphic images. I have too much to think about in my own life, I don’t need that at home.
canadian network CTV recently picked up Dexter, and after watching a few episodes I have a huge problem with them airing it as early as 10pm with the only edits being the swearing (“late night” scheduling doesn’t start ’til 11:30). i have an even bigger problem with the writers screwing with psychopathic symptoms to make dex seem more sympathetic by doing things like questioning his actions and debating morality – two key things psychopaths don’t do/are incapable of. people didn’t find anton chiurgh sexy and exciting, but that’s probably because the coens wrote him as a true psychopath. the writers of “Dexter” are completely irresponsible, and the show makes me sick on so many levels.
CBS has the most disturbing shows right now. NCIS and Criminal Minds can go way too far. This fall NCIS had a show where several dead bodies exploded. They could just had reaction shots of the actors, but no, they had to show dead bodies exploding from heat would have looked like. Nice! Remember when CBS’s biggest star was Angela Landsbury?
I can handle a lot (nothing on Six Feet Under bothered me, and I like cheesy horror movies), but Nip/Tuck’s just too much. I think the problem may have been that my first experience was seeing the season finale with the Carver…I just can’t watch it now. Ew.
This is not really even what you’re talking about, but I’m constantly horrified in a sort of different way by “House” always telling me the bizarre things that can go wrong with my body. The other night it was a floating kidney–a floating kidney, for God’s sake! I DIDN’T KNOW MY KIDNEYS WERE ALLOWED TO DO THAT.
IMO, another NBC show has had some of the grimmest storylines of all this season–Medium. We’ve been “treated” to: the kidnapping, murder and stuffing-in-a-box of a 4-yr-old; women being chained up and tortured in a basement; a cannibalism story; a guy creating a miniature version of Paris in which to keep his former girlfriend; the list goes on. But yeah, a philanthropist sounds WAY more depressing.
It isn’t a real episode of “House” if I don’t turn away from the TV at least once when they’re doing some gory procedure or other. And as the mother of a 5-year-old, I just won’t watch anything about psychopaths endangering kids.
KLF, I can sympathize about the John Adams scene. I once read a first-person account of an early-19th century English lady who went through the same procedure for breast cancer…and she didn’t even get a strap to bite down on. *shiver*
I have no problem with grim storylines, but when they become so routine and the characters act non-chalant coming across six or more bodies in an episode, the show begins to lose its grip. Criminal Minds’ body counts are getting ridiculous. I always thought when it didn’t bother you anymore it was time to get out.
No doubt NBC had a hard time getting advertisers to sign on for this one. More informercials to come…America’s Best Mom, Chevy’s I Want to Be a Stuntdriver and Nerd Makeover coming to a TV near you.
I have no problem with grim storylines, but when they become so routine and the characters act non-chalant coming across six or more bodies in an episode, the show begins to lose its grip. Criminal Minds’ body counts are getting ridiculous. I always thought when it didn’t bother you anymore it was time to get out.
I have no problems with Dexter. I have, however, given up trying to stomach Nip/Tuck.
I heard the idea for this show and was bored by it…but I didn’t know Fontana was involved. Too bad he’s gone from it now, because I would have watched his version of it without a doubt. Now I’ll no doubt be skipping this.
The South Park episode where the internet went down, and Randy snuck into a goverment trailer to watch internet p*rn. And when he was caught………possibly the most disgusting , yet hilarious , thing I have ever seen.