Television and all other distributive channels of commercial entertainment should be open to exploring new ideas and topics without the crushing weight of overly moralistic censorship looming in the background. Still, as the creative methods for dealing with taboo subjects that filmmakers up to the loosening of the Hays Code in the 1960s reveal, censorship is not necessarily a malevolent force. Proof: consider the snappy dialogue of the 1930s versus today’s movie dialogue when a certain four letter word for fecal matter exists as a synonym for every other word in the English language.
The topic at hand here is self-restraint or the willingness for artists to censor themselves. Television producers would do well to learn the value of this trait. Developing the ability to say no even when you no one is forcing you to say no can have not only great artistic value, but even redemptive value. Self-denial is an especially precious commodity when it comes to competitive arena of searching for something new to which a network, producers, writers, actors, directors and assorted crewmembers will be expected to commit potentially years of their lives.
Bryan Fuller was the creative force behind one of the most imaginative and subversive network TV shows of recent years, “Pushing Daisies.” Perhaps it was the almost demonic manner in which ABC treated that show which pushed Fuller away from subversion and toward that darkness that television critics and pundits like to describe as “edgy.” In the world of TV, “edgy” means nothing more than nudity and foul language. That kind of edgy is the perfect description for what can likely be expected from a TV series based on the character of Hannibal Lecter.
Bryan Fuller is the creative force behind this ill-conceived notion. A TV series about a cannibalistic serial killer providing assistance to a young FBI agent in his weekly engagement with the bad guys out there? It’s a terrific idea for a movie or two. Less so for a series of movies. Even less so for an NBC series. Is NBC so desperate in 2012 to recapture their glory years of Must See TV that they are eager to become willing accomplices in the effort to help move along Hannibal Lecter in his progression from villain to antihero to hero?
Somewhere along the line of inquiry into the idea of turning Hannibal Lecter into a character on a weekly TV series, someone needs to do a little soul searching and recognize the value of self-censorship. Don’t leave the job of shining the spotlight of negativity to those who will castigate the series on moralistic grounds alone. Much more is at stake here than the morality of turning Lecter into a hero who assists law enforcement. We all know that this kind of thing happens in real life every day; that’s not the point.
The point has less to do with morality and more to do with the foundation of entertainment. Commodification of antiheroes is big business. Just look at all the shirts sporting images of Al Pacino’s “Scarface” character. It would be easy enough to convince a large measure of the public to commodify Hannibal Lecter as is since he is already at the level of hero. Turning him into a mainstream consumer product requires just the slightest bit more tinkering. A network TV series would require that Lecter’s more Satanic characteristics be softened and dampened. The result of that would merchandise galore that doesn’t have quite the same taint of disgust as it would now.
When Hollywood artists realize the value of placing constrictions upon the netless tennis game that is entertainment today, they are going to be startled to discover that a certain lack of freedom has the paradoxical effect of stimulating creativity. The first place to start practicing self negation is to begin thinking like artists rather than marketing mavens and search for projects based on expression of imagination rather than the potential for tertiary income.
For more from Timothy Sexton, check out these self-censored articles:
The Evolution of Hannibal Lecter
A Brief History of Television Censorship
Brecht and the Need for American Entertainment to Reject Ideological Naturalism