News HBO draws ire after 'Confederate' announcement

[Skipper]

HBO's President Regrets the 'Misguided' Way the Network Announced Confederate

According to HBO president of programming Casey Bloys, the network anticipated that there would be significant backlash to the announcement of its upcoming series Confederate, but they were not prepared for how swift and damning it would be. HBO, Bloys said, could have handled things better.

Speaking in Pasadena at this week’s Television Critics Association’s press tour, Bloys admitted that a large part of the public’s negative reaction to a show about modern-day slavery in an independent Confederate nation had to do with how HBO went about announcing it.


Bloys took responsibility himself, on behalf of the company, and stressed that none of this was the fault of Confederate’s co-executive producers David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Nichelle Tramble Spellman, and Malcolm Spellman.

Said Bloys:

“If I could do it over again, HBO’s mistake — not the producers’ — was the idea that we would be able to announce an idea that is so sensitive that requires such care and thought on the part of the producers in a press release was misguided on our part. [We] had the benefit of sitting with these four producers, we heard why they wanted to do the show, what they were excited about, and why it was important to them, so we had that context, but I completely understand that somebody reading the press release would not have that at all. If I had to do it over again, I would’ve rolled it out with the producers on the record so people understood where they were coming from.”

Bloys went on the stress how confident he is in the creative team behind Confederate and urged everyone again to withhold their judgements about the show until we’ve actually seen it. To his credit, Bloys is doing what a good head of production is supposed to do: getting in front of a controversy plaguing his networking and owning up to some of the mistakes his company’s made.

But it’s still worrisome that HBO, an organization that is not new to rolling out new flagship programming, seemingly didn’t think before simply sending out a press release describing the show’s basic premise with a bit of enthusiastic language from its creators. When you hire the two white guys behind Game of Thrones (co-producers Spellman and Tramble Spellman are people of color) to make a new television show about the Confederacy winning the Civil War and maintaining modern-day slavery, you don’t just send sent out a run-of-the-mill announcement. At least, not if you want people to believe that you’re being cautious and responsible in handling something as potentially polarizing as Confederate.

 

[Jayson1]

Thank you for sharing your family history. It only adds to the facts--standing against the ridiculous, blanket statements about Christians in this matter, which do not match history.



It seems like a cheap way to dig the knife of controversy into the skin of viewers just for that reason--not for some conversation on different personalities and beliefs with contemporary slavery as a backdrop,

I heard the show was going to be focused more on the poltics of the situation. They described it as a "House of Cards" type of show.

Jason

 

[JaseTheAce]

I'm about as liberal of a social justice warrior as they come but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the controversy of Confederate. Maybe it's a rare instance of me not checking my white privilege. I'm serious BTW

I've always thought a series based on Turtledove's Southern Victory series would be interesting. Maybe this series will be like that, I don't know. If they show slavery for what it was and cast the Confederates as the traitorous war criminals that they were, maybe that's a good thing.

I saw a blog post from an African-American writer lay out his objections to the show. One of his main beefs was the way Game of Thrones has handled people of color and I agree with some of his sentiment.

 

[Morpheus 02]

I don't know if this has been mentioned here, but NR just had a segment about how the AFRICAN AMERICAN co-creators have been completely overshadowed in the controversy, and how THEY are leading the creative control. They also described the setting as being more like South African apartheid.

 

[Skipper]

#OscarsSoWhite creator starts social media campaign to stop 'Confederate'

 

[Jayson1]

One thing I will say is if a show is risque enough to piss people off for being "indecent" it's usually a good sign the show will be good. What great show hasn't had people hate it because it's something they aren't use to seeing on tv. "OZ" "Sopranos","Breaking Bad" and so forth. Used to be that you could almost judge how good a show was going to be based on how low a rating the Christian watchdog groups would give it.

Jason

 

[Grendelsbayne]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life...-program-confederate-black-america/529682001/

Apparently Amazon already had a similar show in development that is now moving forward. Only this one focuses a brand new country (controlling the territory of three southeren states) run by former slaves who were granted the land as a form of slavery reparations,. So those asking for a different take are getting their wish, as well.

 

[Snaploud]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life...-program-confederate-black-america/529682001/

Apparently Amazon already had a similar show in development that is now moving forward. Only this one focuses a brand new country (controlling the territory of three southeren states) run by former slaves who were granted the land as a form of slavery reparations,. So those asking for a different take are getting their wish, as well.

But where Confederate imagines slavery as a modern-day institution, the Amazon offering focuses on freed slaves who form their own country, New Colonia, out of the states of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, given to them as reparations for the country's original sin.

New Colonia has been at peace with the United States for twenty years following 150 years of fighting. But their newfound accord is endangered by an economic role reversal: the new country has emerged as a new global power player as America slides into decline.

I'm not sure what is more ridiculous: that a country formed from just Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana survived a 150 year war or that this country became a global power player. Did they get a hold on alien technology or the spear of destiny?

Seriously, I'll try to withhold judgment. They claim to be using historians to justify this alternate reality. It will be interesting to see how they further explain their premise.

 

[ichab]

Some would argue the prison industrial complex and particularly privately owned prisons are slavery.

And some people just aren't well educated if they're drawing that comparison.

t's hard to judge whether slavery would have ended on its own if the south had won the civil war. At the very least, I think in the technological age, machines would have proven more cost effective than slavery and that would have lead to its ending. Whether they would have given to political pressure or morality is harder to say. I think public opinion in the South would have eventually run against slavery but the rich powerful people who give money to politicians would not. And we all know money has more of an effect than public opinion in determining policy.

I honestly don't think the practice would have ever died out on it's own. It would still be here the only difference is it wouldn't just black people but also Hispanics from across the border.. Also those underground massage parlors with young asian girls would be more out in the open.

Far as the "controversy" about the subject matter goes, if it offends some people then no one is forcing them to watch. There are many other options on T.V and streaming.

 

[Snaploud]

I believe it's quite well documented that incarceration was used for many decades as an end-run around the 14th amendment's prohibition against slavery. I would be hesitant to say that this practice is common in modern times, though.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

You honestly don't consider it the slightest bit a form of slavery for minor drug offenders to be given mandatory minimum sentences to be forced to work for private companies? Minor drug offenders who may have had a public defender who is so overstretched he might have talked to the accused for five minutes and urged them to plead out? Not the same as black slavery but still systematic imprisonment and forced labor for the benefit of private investors. Private prison companies are even suing states to imprison more people, higher per capita incarceration rate for nonviolent offenders than any other country.

Anyway human trafficking is very much alive and well, it's just no longer legal.

 

[Snaploud]

Good points.

 

[Jayson1]

Not only do we sort of still allow slavery in the form of prisons I would argue the amount of income inequality has more or less made everyone a slave to the 1% If people don't have options other than work for what they want to give you or die then that doesn't seem very free. You need options for true freedom. Let's not forget we like to outsource our slavery as well in terms of sweatshops.

Jason

 

[Markonian]

US-American society is so savage!

 

[Snaploud]

US-American society is so savage!

It was much worse before Trump instituted Thunderdome.

Vote White Walker in 2020, by the way.

 

[Shawnster]

I wouldn't mind a idea of a show that had white people become slaves in America as well.

Instead of "as well," I'd like to see a complete race reversal story. White slaves, black masters. Historical movie with only the races cast complete opposite. I think that would make a powerful statement if you could get past the people complaining.

 

[Jayson1]

Instead of "as well," I'd like to see a complete race reversal story. White slaves, black masters. Historical movie with only the races cast complete opposite. I think that would make a powerful statement if you could get past the people complaining.

The sounds like a good idea for a show. I wonder if they would try and explain it through changes in history or would it be like that Travota movie I mentioned were the race switch is never explained and is just used as metaphor. If the change happens to far back it would be hard to buy into the idea of a America happening with the same name and backstory and it would feel less like a alternate world and more like "Battlestar Galatica" that is a whole new society with humans. I think I like the metaphor version the best because that would take some complicated backstory explanations to set it all up because it wouldn't be formed from a real historical event. At least with the HBO show it's a somewhat easy idea to understand. South won the war and slavery never ended. If you did the reverse and you went with metaphor you also have a easy way to explain the show. American slavery if it had been reversed. I do wonder if these type of shows could get lost in to much backstory trying to set up it's premise.

Jason

 

[gblews]

West World comes to mind as a show that depicted slavery. And while I don't watch Game of Thrones, isn't there slavery in that show too?

Equating the story depicted in West World , a story about a wholly fictitious amusement park featuring super intelligent AI and androids, with a show based on real events, as presumably, Confederate will be, seems a dicey proposition at best. The "slaves" in West World are not human, they're machines created by humans for the purpose of entertaining customers attending the park. Did I mention that the androids are not human beings?

"Confederate" will be fiction based on real events, real atrocities against real human beings. Other than the fact that both will be HBO shows, I don't see how the two can be logically compared.

I don't know if this has been mentioned here, but NR just had a segment about how the AFRICAN AMERICAN co-creators have been completely overshadowed in the controversy, and how THEY are leading the creative control. They also described the setting as being more like South African apartheid.

Pure speculation, but I think the show's producers as well as HBO likely believe that having Black people on the staff will provide some "cover". I can't imagine an HBO trying to do this show with no Black people on the production staff? My point is that this show could be a disaster in numerous ways regardless of the racial make up of creative staff.

 

[O_Kav]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life...-program-confederate-black-america/529682001/

Apparently Amazon already had a similar show in development that is now moving forward. Only this one focuses a brand new country (controlling the territory of three southeren states) run by former slaves who were granted the land as a form of slavery reparations,. So those asking for a different take are getting their wish, as well.

The premise of this show seems very similar to Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bisson. I like it. I'll be keeping my eye close to it in the next few months.

I'm not sure what is more ridiculous: that a country formed from just Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana survived a 150 year war or that this country became a global power player. Did they get a hold on alien technology or the spear of destiny?

Oh, well. After The Man in The High Castle, we're watching a small-time "fever" of AltHistory Series. We're bound to have Alien Space Bats. I don't care much, I just like seeing the genre having some attention. Besides, even The Man in the High Castle is already ASB-ish. If AltHistory gets popular enough, who knows, maybe one day we will see something by Turtledove getting adapted.

Yeah, we'll have to see what explanation Black America gives to us. Perhaps they had for 150 years a situation similar to the aftermath of the Korean War, not a full war. And being a Global Power Player sounds vague. It doesn't necessarily mean they are a Superpower. They could be a Great Power like France or just a Regional Power that blocks U.S advances towards the Caribbean. Only time will tell.

 

[Gaith]

Instead of "as well," I'd like to see a complete race reversal story. White slaves, black masters. Historical movie with only the races cast complete opposite. I think that would make a powerful statement if you could get past the people complaining.

As I understand it, the 1995 Travolta movie White Man's Burden is a lot like that, albeit in "modern" times, without slavery.