When I was waiting for the "Game of Thrones" finale to start, I saw the trailer to one of HBO's brand-new series "His Dark Materials"!
I was excited as hell based on the casting and suspenseful tone, and then he realized it was the second adaptation
of a Y.A. book series. The theme of "His Dark Materials" that has received a lot of praise and criticism
is the fact that it's a young adult book series centered around themes that are critical of religion
And the perceived abuse of religious authority. I also saw a quick promo for the upcoming teen drama "Euphoria"...
That's right-teen drama. I mean yeah-they're adults pretending to be teens, but the topics that I will not spoil...
Sound more like things you'd see on "Skins", which makes me want to watch it just for taking a bold chance on demographics.
And seeing both of these promos made me wonder two things; one was...
Wait, really-THAT happened?!
The other was if HBO had ever broadcast any content for younger audiences let alone created any?
And surprisingly...
Yeah, they actually have... sorta.
If you look on HBO's website
there is a section dedicated to family entertainment,
but it's mostly compiled of either recent kids films like "Smallfoot" or much older shows that HBO has under syndication rights;
"Sesame Street" being the most recognizable. So as you can tell from this list HBO doesn't really create
Quote-unquote "lighter" content for everyone to enjoy and it raises the question:
What makes "His Dark Materials" & "Euphoria" different?
In "His Dark Materials" case,
The BBC are actually the main producers of the show and have much more leeway with what content they can create for which audiences,
and with a star-studded cast, sizable budget and well-respected source material,
it's no wonder HBO decided to distribute the series.
But what about the content itself?
Why would HBO want a series where children are central characters?
If not more of a focus than the adults?
Well in a way they've kind of done it before:
In "The Wire", some storylines featured kids were involved in the drug trade, their attempts to climb the ladder in terms of who rules over who
or attempt to get out of the business and create a better life for themselves.
And since many adults in the show have faced similar
circumstances, adult audience members can identify with and become fans of such characters, like Wallace.
"Game of Thrones" had children whose development came from the influence of several different adults:
You got Joffrey and his sadistic nature coming from Cersei's spoil parenting,
You got Ramsay who's jealous rage stems from Roose's lack of attention and each Stark child had to learn from multiple different strangers
about how the world works, how they grow as people and eventually reach their destiny as adults.
But you will notice that with each of these examples,
there's a presence of adulthood that's necessary for audiences to identify with these younger characters in the first place.
BBC doesn't really have that problem because another advantage that they have over HBO was attracting different demographics to certain shows.
"Skins", "The Inbetweeners", "Bad Education", "Sex Education" all feature drugs, sexual activity,
eating disorders, among other things that aren't worth getting into super detail-
but teenagers and adults equally enjoy them in the UK and
from my experience in Canada - so I'm sure that there are some Americans who would feel the same way.
Why? Because adults can look back on their adolescence and remember any times where they struggle learning about themselves, and
teenagers may realize that they're not alone with their feelings and troubles. from a comedic standpoint,
topics as humiliating as a sexual encounter or being bullied among other things are
played up for laughs to make adults and teens alike relate to similar
embarrassments in their past and laugh at it as a way to release the tension the subject brings.
"Just walk to class with her"
"I just don't feel like it".
"What's wrong-you got a hard-on just because some pretty girl talked to you"?
"Hold on, you don't actually got a stoke on, have you"?
"Oh my god-he's got a boner"
"Jay, Please"-
OY! Simon's got a boner"! (Cheering and teasing)
But when these same subjects are as dramatic as they are funny (much like life itself),
the tones appropriately shift realistically maintaining the relatable situations for the audience.
Who's writing the material of course matters the most - you can either do what "Skins" did where the actors and writers are roughly similar ages,
Seriously, the average writer on "Skins" was two years old in order to make even the most exaggerated moments feel real, or in "Bad Education"
where the adult writers can look back on the worst things they ever did as kids;
Curse at teachers, pick on classmates and turn them in this seriously funny bits.
"Sir, Professor Green wants to see you".
"Oh, could you tell Professor Green to go swivel on that"? (Laughing from students)
"No, I didn't mean that they don't tell her that. I'll meet you in the science lab in ten minutes. Could you come back please"?!
Thing is, since America does have a bigger population, they have more people to tell you what you can or cannot watch.
Common Sense Media, The Dove Foundation,
Parents Television Council-you name it, watchdog organizations who attack any show featuring the slightest sexual, violent, profane, obscene,
or content that they consider to be anti religious.
It makes no difference
If you get rid of the religious content in order to get rid of any
controversy because more than likely, some groups will go after you anyways because you adapted something that was critical of religion
which somehow makes you just as bad, right? You know,
even if the actors in it are religious and of the exact denomination that's being criticized?!
It would make sense if these shows and films they condemned were aimed at children and were inappropriate for children...
Course-who am I kidding? How often does that happen?
Why trust parents to have common sense not to show their kids content aimed at adults in time slots where even stupid parents wouldn't let their kids stay up for
when you can complain that you're being forced to see obscene content and retaliate by attempting to...
Actually force content on other people?
Thankfully organizations such as these that face much more setbacks and they have successes, and since they only attack adult content,
kid shows that are much more...
Brave and daring with what they can or can't show attract very little controversy. Some do get noticed-
but if the subjects more acceptable in society,
People can't really do much about it.
The UK does have similar organizations such as the Advertising Standards Authority but it has shown themselves to be a nonpartisan,
self-regulatory organization
that doesn't abuse its power over any particular group.
So it doesn't really threaten mature content from being promoted. And there are many more groups such as "Campaign Against Censorship"
Campaign for Freedom of Information and Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom. How many campaigns do you need in Great Britain-
Wait-what?
Out of business? the source didn't say that-Oh, fuck... my bad
That needless to say, do the exact opposite of american watchdog
organizations, and any organizations that oppose mature content on British television are very broad groups that don't really focus solely on television
broadcasting itself.
The subjects in "His Dark Materials" & "Euphoria" nonetheless still have...
Well, dark material...
the-fuck did you think I was gonna say? That we'll go on some people's nerves, but considering HBO's reputation and the benefits of video on-demand services,
I doubt it'll be hard for younger and older audiences to be able to watch certain stuff together,
as long as they know what they're getting themselves into. And with the way news travels fast nowadays online, that should be simple enough...
then again, news will always travel fast whenever somebody doesn't like anything!