Confederate, the proposed HBO drama that depicts a modern world where the southern Confederacy states break with the northern Union and slavery exists, didn’t get a lot of love out the gate of its announcement. The network’s president of programming, Casey Bloys defended the show at the 2017 TCA summer tour, saying it was a “mistake” to announce the show way ahead of its scheduled release.
Vulture reports:
“If I could do it over again, our mistake — HBO’s mistake, not the producers’ — was the idea that we would be able to announce an idea that is so sensitive and requires such care and thought from our producers in a press release,” Bloys said. He then explained how their “misguided” approach came to be: “The problem is [HBO CEO] Richard [Plepler] and I had the benefit of sitting with these four producers [Beinioff, Weiss, Nichelle Tramble Spellman, and Malcolm Spellman]. We heard why they wanted to do the show, what they were excited about, 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.”
Ah, OK.
Naturally, HBO was excited to announce the show as hit series Game Of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have proven they have a golden touch. But the backlash that came in the wake of the announcement was probably the last thing the network expected considering how beloved GOT is.
See, here’s the thing. HBO knows that many people of color watch Game Of Thrones and there is chatter of the lack of diversity in the series although that’s improved somewhat as the show marches on. To be fair to the network, nobody knows the true angle of the Confederate series and it’d be nice if they’d let us in on how they intend to tell this story without reminding Black people and others of color how oppressive this nation continues to be.
Maybe there’s a redemptive factor present or a rebellion of sorts but as it stands right now, Confederate looks to be another show where white folks get to flex power in droves. You know, like they already do now.
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Photo: Thomas R Machnitzki (thomas@machnitzki.com) – Own work, CC BY 3.0, Link
