USA Network's new lax censorship

[JohnL]

Last Friday I watched USA's new show, Touching Evil, which aired at 9pm. A couple times during the movie, different characters said "s**t" and one said "bulls**t". Tonight on Final Destination, they just barely blanked out that word (characters would say "sh..") but they left in the word "a***ole".

Anyone else noticed this? I would have though that they would be censoring themselves even more in the wake of Janet Jackson's breast stunt and the FCC crackdown. True, cable channels aren't covered by the FCC, but you'd think they'd be on their best behavior to head off the possibility of some politician starting a bill to get cable channels censored.

[ulthar]

We've talked about this before, of course, but I'll throw my two cents in again.  One of my big problems with this is the language is generally unnecessary.  It seems like it is just forced into the script to appeal to the 12-15 yo males who, myself included at that age, thinks cussin' is cool for some reason.

There were some really, really good movies made in the 1930's, 40's and 50's.  I doubt anyone complained then about the absence of foul language making the movie less realistic.

Okay, so one might say our culture is different now?  Well, I watch those older movies and often the story is so engrossing that I don't have 'time' to think "gee, they aren't cussing every other word, this movie does not represent modern culture.'  But hey, that's just me.

So, I think it is unnecessary in most movies, in most situations.  But, having said that, I am in general not a fan of censorship (by the gov't by definition)...I wish the broadcasters would police themselves and act responsibly.  Cable, well that's a tricky animal.  It is not broadcast.

But you are correct....USA is picking an odd time to push the envelope.

[JohnL]

On the other hand, I've watched some conservative movies made today and it always seems strange to me when something happens and they use some lame substitute for a swear like "gosh darnit!". Or to see the bad guy, who has no problem murdering people, yelling something like "Shut the freaking door!"

[NC]

They cursed on the original series as well.

[gecko brothers]

I agree completely. So does this mean that the sci-fi channel is going to be less edited. I say that because I saw Day of the Dead. and the practically got rid of half of the ending, including the famous line "Choke on em'"

[Neon Noodle]

I always find it interesting with a movie like Final Destination (which has been on USA around 3-4pm sometimes) that will leave the decapitation sequence completely uncut but take out half of the swearing. Makes you wonder if they invest any real thought into what goes out and what stays in...