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Comment by ehPReth | Hacker News Reader

"And there were issues early on, like axing a show based on Dr. Dre’s life because it was too violent, and canceling one about Richard Gere on a shooting spree because it wasn’t friendly enough."

Is this 'wholesome-only' stuff from Apple in apps, tv, etc starting to get old and annoying for anyone else?

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See is pretty violent (and I like it) so this Apple being wholesome-only cliche is starting to get old and annoying for me.

But if the article is to believed, they are canceling shows because they're too violent.

Can you call something a cliche when it's happening in front of you? Is the assumption that because See got released, that Apple didn't actually censor the other shows mentioned here, and Gizmodo is lying?

The reality is that there's clearly no mandate that all content on Apple TV+ needs to be family friendly, and we know that from what they have released. Dr. Dre's show and the Richard Gere project may have been canceled because the violence or sex was gratuitous, or because it was just bad.

It’s not a cliche if it’s true. Apple doesn’t allow anything remotely adult or NSFW in the app store. Apple even went so far as to briefly remove Telegram because a gif search bot contained adult gifs.

The whole plot of The Morning Show revolves around sexual assault.

Not exactly "wholesome only".

I read this as too violent/unfriendly to amass substantial interest from people, not a value judgement per se.

Steve did lead Pixar, so there’s maybe some pressure to continue the family focus in TV creation

Apple is basing their streaming content strategy on a dead CEO’s former job?

That seems rather unlikely.

I wouldn’t call Morning Show (pretty much their only hot) family friendly.

For All Mankind (the only show I've watched on Apple+) also has a bunch of adult themes, if not graphic sex and violence. People are having sex (straight and gay), committing adultery, have drinking problems, are dying in horrible accidents, etc.

The lack of graphic sex and violence on TV+ doesn't strike me as a big deal since, on the same device, it's available a click away from other content providers. Plus, nothing prevents you from streaming anything you like via AirPlay.

Oh there’s definitely graphic sex in TMS. And graphic violence is like one quarter of See (plus a little bit of graphic sex). There’s no lack of either on TV+, judging from the two shows I’ve watched so far. (I’ll probably binge For All Mankind soonish.)

Haven’t seen any Apple TV+ myself, just going on OPs assertion that it’s all “wholesome-only”

And they rate their existing shows TV-MA for no apparent reason. Why is "For All Mankind" unsuitable for children under 17?

A few death scenes including of a child? Some brief nudity? (Admittedly I think this one is dumb but it’s what many viewers think. ) Lots of F-bombs. Seems reasonable to me Given their intended audience.

Do you live in a world where a 16 year old will be shocked by an offscreen child death or an F-bomb? There are other ratings exist, for instance TV-14.

There was no nudity in that show.

In the US, use of more than one F-bomb (or using your one in a sexual manner) in a film is an immediate R rating; TV age ratings mostly map to the MPAA film ratings.

Have you watched an episode or two, or just the previews? Because to me it is a show with some obvious adult themes.

Yes I watched it. Tons of shows with similar themes are rated TV-14 on network TV.

There’s technically criteria to a movie/TV show rating. One such being the F-word. One usage is ok in PG-13 rated movie, but any more and it’ll be R.

Ultimately though, IIRC, movies are rated by a committee run by the MPAA who watch the movie and rate based on how they feel it should be (while taking the criteria into account).

I know there are guidelines that broadcaster should follow. But the lines between ratings are blurry. For instance, Mad Men was rated TV-14. They had F-bombs, rape, death, and most of the plot was around "adult themes".

Mad Men was on basic cable, so even though it had those adult themes, it didn’t make them explicit (for example, one plot line was that a character traded sex for a business deal — but the episode didn’t show the sex scene).

There were scattered F-bombs that were censored from the original broadcast; the version available on Netflix (or for purchase on home video) restore them.

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