HBO orders alternate universe Civil War drama from David Benioff & Dan Weiss

[Sithborg]

I am thinking. I am thinking that the showrunners are not the ones to be able to due this correctly.

 

[dude stannis]

Agreed. I don't think they're strong enough storytellers and would be better off with a less important subject matter. That said I wish them the absolute best and I hope they can pull it off and give the subject the treatment it deserves.

 

[Lencho01]

All I can say is, "Yikes."

 

[chamber-music]

This will generate controversy both ends of the political spectrum. I'm not offended by the premise myself but I know other will probably take issue with it.

Even if the confederacy succeed in separating I doubt slavery would of continued until today. Most nations probably would of sanctioned and boycotted the Confederate nation like much of the world did to apartheid South Africa. The industrial revolution and cheap labor from poor immigrants would of quickened the demise of slavery if it continued as well.

 

[javonstokess]

This idea might best be shelved due to the current climate.

Personally, as an African American man, I've had enough dramatizations of slavery to last me 5 lifetimes.

 

[Doctor Jones]

It's the best time to have this show now. It's what art does. It helps us confront these things and helps get us through these tumultuous times. Shutting down the idea because it's delicate is censorship.

I have my problems with Bennioff and Weiss but they're smart enough to know going in this could go wrong if done incorrectly. Again, it also helps they have black writers. Yeah it's risky. I thought risk was part of this golden era of television.

 

[Rowsdower!]

I'm sort of torn on this. In a sense, this is essentially "The Man in the High Castle" only with the Civil War instead of WWII. In a way, I think this is a good thing because while we (rightly) view the Nazis as real-life villains due to the unspeakable acts they committed, the slave owners (or at least the Confederate soldiers) of the American South tend to get romanticized. The U.S. as a whole is not ashamed of slavery and the Confederacy in the way Germany is ashamed of the Nazis. While there has been some effort in recent years to acknowledge this bad mark on America's history, there are still and will continue to be monuments to the Confederacy all around the country, and men will still dress up as their favorite Confederate soldiers and participate in reenactments all around the the country. And some of these people are so fanatical about it that they recently set up camp in Gettysburg armed to the teeth because they heard a rumor that someone might deface some Confederate monuments. This amounted to nothing more than one of these gun-toting, Confederate flag waving, Trump-loving idiots shooting himself in the leg.

So I feel like we need make more of an effort as a society to acknowledge that the Confederacy only existed because the South wanted to keep black people in chains. And art that calls attention to that is a good thing. However, I'm not sure that these guys are the best people to be doing this. I'm a big fan of Game of Thrones; the show has its issues but on the whole I think it's top notch television and better than most movies out there. But I feel like they're wading into some dangerous territory that can and likely will backfire on them; in some ways it already has and the show hasn't even gone into production yet. So... if they move forward with this, they'd do best to tread carefully.

 

[Lencho01]

This will generate controversy both ends of the political spectrum. I'm not offended by the premise myself but I know other will probably take issue with it.

Even if the confederacy succeed in separating I doubt slavery would of continued until today. Most nations probably would of sanctioned and boycotted the Confederate nation like much of the world did to apartheid South Africa. The industrial revolution and cheap labor from poor immigrants would of quickened the demise of slavery if it continued as well.

I think the idea of this show is extremely dumb, especially coming from the the guys behind Game of Thrones.

 

[Lencho01]

'Game of Thrones' Bosses Defend 'Confederate' Sci-Fi Slave Drama: "The Concern Is Real"

 

[Kaleb]

There’s A New Hashtag Campaign To Get HBO To Scrap “Confederate”


It's been a week since the announcement about and immediate backlash against HBO’s upcoming series from Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Confederate, which is set in an alternate timeline where the American South won the Civil War and slavery is still legal. And now, there’s a Twitter campaign brewing to get HBO to put a stop to the series.

 

[souvlaki]

Can someone please explain to me what makes this any more controversial than Man in the High Castle? It's not as if the Confederacy is going to be the heroes in this show.

 

[Schlosser85]

Because internet SJWs are bullies.

 

[souvlaki]

This makes me uncomfortable in a way that The Man in the High Castle didn't, and I can think of two reasons why:

1. This is an American series. The Holocaust wasn't American, but slavery was, and it was probably the ugliest part of our nation's history.

2. There's a lot of racial tension these days.

So this set off warning bells before I even saw that the showrunners were white, or that people had issues with their handling of minorities in their other show. A lot of things get a negative reaction that gets reported in the media, like a half-Indian actress being cast for Jasmine, for example, but I think this will be especially bad. I'm betting HBO underestimated the pushback and that this'll never make it to air.

Okay, after going back through this thread and various complaints about this concept this seems to be the running complaint I'm seeing and probably the worst complaint. Obviously it all hinges on how it's handled but the fact that it IS an American issue and racial tensions are high is actually why people should be talking about this stuff instead of sweeping it under the rug. Glorifying and romanticizing the confederacy is unfortunately a trend that continues to this day and if this opens a dialog on why this is a such a misguided belief than it is a net positive in my opinion.

 

[terry78]

You already know the cliche complaints you're gonna get.

- More white guilt gripes
- Black folks can only be slaves, this is some kind of white savior fantasy.
- Slavery is over, deal with it.

Those are the three defaults that will be worded differently but all making the same pseudo point.

 

[NotNickFury]

You've gotta give it to armchair activists...they sure do feel that hashtags actually amount to something. The more folks gripe about this, the more I want this show to come to fruition. Plus, I am curious about the concept in an alternate world.

 

[Sithborg]

Can someone please explain to me what makes this any more controversial than Man in the High Castle? It's not as if the Confederacy is going to be the heroes in this show.

I want to say its the showrunners is what makes it controversial. They are not exactly subtle, and a lot of what they like to do is shock and awe.

 

[Kane52630]

Spike Lee already did this over 10 years ago and it never made the news.

 

[terry78]

The GoT pedigree gives them more attention.

 

[Kaleb]

 

[Doctor Jones]

The controversy is liberal McCarthyism. Look, I'm left leaning and the left and Democrats are the best possible thing, but right now it's pissing me the **** off with petty stuff like this. There comes a point where it's like people are just looking to pick fights. You have to choose your battles.

Things are so tense right now, it can get out of control on both sides where even the slightest thing sets people off and they get defensive. I get we're living in tumultuous times and we have to fight, but that doesn't mean we have to act like unreasonable idiots. Otherwise we're no better than who we're criticizing, I don't care how good intentioned you are.

 

[SuperT]

This idea is stupid at ibest and extremely harmful at the absolute worst. There are Black and African-American people still living this reality on a daily basis in this country right now. Why do we continuously have to show black lives and bodies terrorized and brutalized in order for white people to understand that we're humans who deserve the same rights as everyone else.

It's not about being a SJW (which is dumb word to begin with) black people are just exhausted at this crap. If people don't get it at this point they never will or they purposefully don't want to get it or understand.

 

[Monochron]

‘Black America’: Amazon Alt-History Drama From Will Packer & Aaron McGruder Envisions Post-Reparations America

 

[terry78]

Lawd. I'd rather see McGruder's anyway.

 

[Chance Jackson]

Do not want

 

[Chance Jackson]

Spike Lee already did this over 10 years ago and it never made the news.

Wasn't that a mockumentary that audiences didn't care for? A whole series of that in the vein of GoT is a whole other animal