Lucky_Ladybug (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ladybug_archive) wrote2014-11-09 10:18 pm
ladybug_archive) wrote2014-11-09 10:18 pm
Entry tags:
Fantasy vs. Reality
Double-posting, and another Batman post, but my and a close friend's frustrations with Once Upon a Time this arc have caused me to muse on something interesting and curious.
Once Upon a Time, last I checked, is generally billed as a family-friendly show. It carries no viewer discretion warnings. Yet honestly, some of the goings-on are rather alarming and graphic and not something I would want young kids to see, like what the Queen of Hearts does to the Mad Hatter or this latest trend of people being frozen and then exploded. Come on, that's horrifying! Just because it's fantasy shouldn't make it alright to show it without at least giving some kind of viewer warning.
Gotham, on the other hand, carries a viewer discretion warning for violence. But ... even though it's the more realistic show, and airs on FOX, which is notorious for being graphic, it seems to usually go out of its way to not be upsetting. The second episode was a bit of an exception with the scratching scene, and the opening scene of the balloon episode was cringe-worthy, but other than that, even when there's something going on that honestly could be very graphic, they either keep it off-screen altogether or else show it far enough away that you really can't see in detail what's going on.
Odd, isn't it?
I'd actually be more willing to let young kids see Gotham than Once Upon a Time. Of course, there's some stuff in Gotham I wouldn't want them to see, either, like some of Fish Mooney's scenes, and Penguin's flip-out scenes, and maybe the scene with Bruce's parents being killed because it's so heartbreaking, but overall I think Gotham is much less offensive than some of the stuff happening on Once. I can imagine myself watching Gotham as a kid, maybe because I liked the old Flash show when I was four. But I don't know that I would have dug Once. At least, not the way it is now. I might have liked season 1 ... and then got traumatized by the Mad Hatter episode.
And of course, this is just violence-wise. Character-wise, there's a whole other series of Once-related complaints, some of which I've gotten into before.
Once Upon a Time, last I checked, is generally billed as a family-friendly show. It carries no viewer discretion warnings. Yet honestly, some of the goings-on are rather alarming and graphic and not something I would want young kids to see, like what the Queen of Hearts does to the Mad Hatter or this latest trend of people being frozen and then exploded. Come on, that's horrifying! Just because it's fantasy shouldn't make it alright to show it without at least giving some kind of viewer warning.
Gotham, on the other hand, carries a viewer discretion warning for violence. But ... even though it's the more realistic show, and airs on FOX, which is notorious for being graphic, it seems to usually go out of its way to not be upsetting. The second episode was a bit of an exception with the scratching scene, and the opening scene of the balloon episode was cringe-worthy, but other than that, even when there's something going on that honestly could be very graphic, they either keep it off-screen altogether or else show it far enough away that you really can't see in detail what's going on.
Odd, isn't it?
I'd actually be more willing to let young kids see Gotham than Once Upon a Time. Of course, there's some stuff in Gotham I wouldn't want them to see, either, like some of Fish Mooney's scenes, and Penguin's flip-out scenes, and maybe the scene with Bruce's parents being killed because it's so heartbreaking, but overall I think Gotham is much less offensive than some of the stuff happening on Once. I can imagine myself watching Gotham as a kid, maybe because I liked the old Flash show when I was four. But I don't know that I would have dug Once. At least, not the way it is now. I might have liked season 1 ... and then got traumatized by the Mad Hatter episode.
And of course, this is just violence-wise. Character-wise, there's a whole other series of Once-related complaints, some of which I've gotten into before.