‘Sons Of Anarchy’ Targeted By Parent Watchdog Group: Sex Scenes Too Much For Cable Show?
Last week’s wild episode of Sons of Anarchy has brought forth a strong response from the Parents Television Council. The opening segment of the Season 7, Episode 10 show featured many SOA characters engaging in various racy couplings, and the PTC has made a statement expressing outrage at the sexually explicit scenes airing on a regular cable show.
As Entertainment Weekly notes, the Sons of Anarchy montage in question showcased six different pairings engaging in a variety of explicit acts. Charlie Hunnam’s bare butt was seen, the characters of Tig and Venus crossed a risqué barrier not seen on the show before, and Nero and Gemma got in on the wild times as well. Those who follow Sons of Anarchy spoilers had known that the first four minutes would be explicit and intense, but it seems the PTC feels the show went far across a line for a cable television show.
PTC president Tim Winter said, “It’s official: In order to watch cable news, ESPN, Disney or the History Channel, every family in America must now also pay for pornography on FX.”
The statement said that this was the most sexually-explicit content ever seen on basic cable, and typically one would need to subscribe to a network like Showtime or HBO to see that kind of footage.
The statement added, “Families should not be forced to underwrite pornography. Cable Choice is a solution whose time has come, and there could hardly be a better example of it than this.”
So far, neither show creator and writer Kurt Sutter nor the FX network have commented on the latest PTC statement.
It’s not unusual for the PTC to be outraged over things that happen, or sometimes they anticipate might happen, on television. In fact, they had targeted Sons of Anarchy during Season 6 over a school shooting storyline. As The Wrap notes, it seems to have taken the PTC a full week to get their statement on the SOA sex scenes out. The statement says the organization calls on Congress, the FCC, and the Federal Courts to give cable customers a choice on what networks they want to purchase.
Fans of Sons of Anarchy appear to mostly be shrugging or laughing off the PTC criticism. The show does air late at night and has a TV-MA mature audience warning regarding its content. The explicit scenes were racy but hardly out of character or context for the show. Sons of Anarchy revolves around a motorcycle gang deep in the world of adult entertainment, drugs, guns and death, so it’s hardly targeted toward children.
Most would say that it seems unlikely that parents would embrace the show as a fit for their children to watch in a regular week, but then take offense at the opening montage in Episode 10 in particular when it comes to kids watching. For the most part, Sons of Anarchy fans commenting online regarding the PTC criticism think that it seems a bit foolish. Did Kurt Sutter go too far in this SOA episode for cable television, or is the PTC going a bit too far?
[Image via Michael Becker/FX]
