{"id":4067,"date":"2013-08-05T05:41:44","date_gmt":"2013-08-05T09:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=4067"},"modified":"2013-08-05T05:48:06","modified_gmt":"2013-08-05T09:48:06","slug":"pendulum-shift-fx-and-showtime-chiefs-signal-a-shift-away-from-dark-fare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/08\/pendulum-shift-fx-and-showtime-chiefs-signal-a-shift-away-from-dark-fare.html","title":{"rendered":"Pendulum shift: FX and Showtime chiefs signal a shift away from dark fare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today&#8217;s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It&#8217;s always darkest before the dawn.<\/strong> Some good and hopeful news for the forces of light came out the <strong>Television Critics Association<\/strong> meetings with network execs.<\/p>\n<p>From <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/live-feed\/fxs-john-landgraf-fxx-netflix-598793\">The Hollywood Reporter<\/a><\/strong>: <em>\u201cI can\u2019t imagine a protagonist darker than <strong>Walter White [of Breaking Bad]<\/strong>. I think that\u2019s the end of the road for out-darking each other,\u201d <\/em><strong>(FX Chief John<\/strong><em><strong>) Landgraf<\/strong> said of the cable space\u2019s decade-long love affair with the exceedingly dark antihero, be it <strong>Tony Soprano, The Shield\u2019s Vic Mackey<\/strong> or White&#8230;Landgraf suggested that his network is instead moving back to the middle with series like Justified. He added: \u201cThis nuclear arms race of darkness has ended.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Also from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/live-feed\/showtimes-david-nevins-risk-anti-595669\">The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>: <em>As the entertainment chief at<strong> Showtime, <\/strong><\/em><strong>(David)<\/strong><em><strong> Nevins<\/strong> gets pitched every kind of reprehensible anti-hero imaginable. And since his is a destination where \u201cyour license is sex, violence and bad behavior,\u201d as he puts it, he\u2019s more able than most to push the envelope with regard to how reprehensible his characters can be. But Nevins used the TCA stage to argue that his latest antihero, Ray Donovan, is representative of a pendulum shift away from the particularly dark characters that have come to populate the cable landscape. \u201cWe\u2019re now seeing some movement back to the middle,\u201d he suggests, noting: \u201cI don\u2019t think you can go much further to the left of what <strong>Bryan Cranston<\/strong> is doing on Breaking Bad.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Taken together, a pretty good indication the heads of two of the edgiest networks out there that momentum is no longer with dark entertainment. I just hope they realize that viewers aren&#8217;t just seeking less dark programming. They actually want bright and optimistic fare that actually celebrates the best in us.<\/p>\n<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/good-lord-hollywood-suddenly-hot-251536\">The Hollywood Reporter<\/a> (in 2012): <em>\u201cThe eyeballs are there,\u201d insists <strong>Paradigm agent Michael Van Dyck<\/strong>, who is building a business focused on bringing faith brands, including established authors, therapists and musical acts, to TV and film. \u201cIn this economy, people are starving to see real characters that have a relationship with <strong>God<\/strong> on the air. And as soon as one of those shows hits, whichever executive is behind it will appear to be a genius.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em><strong>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today&#8217;s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. It&#8217;s always darkest before the dawn. Some good and hopeful news for the forces of light came out the Television Critics Association meetings with network execs. From The Hollywood Reporter: \u201cI can\u2019t imagine a protagonist darker than Walter White [of Breaking Bad]. I think&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13,22,31],"tags":[5235,35,5237,5234,1750,5236,5233,5229,1118,5232,5231,5230],"class_list":["post-4067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-family-matters","category-media","category-television","tag-david-nevins","tag-1-thessalonians-511","tag-bryan-cranston","tag-entertainment-chief-at-showtime","tag-paradigm-agent-michael-van-dyck","tag-ray-donovan","tag-series-like-justified","tag-television-critics-association","tag-the-hollywood-reporter","tag-the-shields-vic-mackey","tag-tony-soprano","tag-walter-white-of-breaking-bad"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pendulum shift: FX and Showtime chiefs signal a shift away from dark fare<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/08\/pendulum-shift-fx-and-showtime-chiefs-signal-a-shift-away-from-dark-fare.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pendulum shift: FX and Showtime chiefs signal a shift away from dark fare\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s today&#8217;s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. It&#8217;s always darkest before the dawn. Some good and hopeful news for the forces of light came out the Television Critics Association meetings with network execs. From The Hollywood Reporter: \u201cI can\u2019t imagine a protagonist darker than Walter White [of Breaking Bad]. I think&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/08\/pendulum-shift-fx-and-showtime-chiefs-signal-a-shift-away-from-dark-fare.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-05T09:41:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-08-05T09:48:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pendulum shift: FX and Showtime chiefs signal a shift away from dark fare","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/08\/pendulum-shift-fx-and-showtime-chiefs-signal-a-shift-away-from-dark-fare.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pendulum shift: FX and Showtime chiefs signal a shift away from dark fare","og_description":"Here\u2019s today&#8217;s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. It&#8217;s always darkest before the dawn. Some good and hopeful news for the forces of light came out the Television Critics Association meetings with network execs. From The Hollywood Reporter: \u201cI can\u2019t imagine a protagonist darker than Walter White [of Breaking Bad]. I think&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/08\/pendulum-shift-fx-and-showtime-chiefs-signal-a-shift-away-from-dark-fare.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2013-08-05T09:41:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-08-05T09:48:06+00:00","author":"John W. Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/08\/pendulum-shift-fx-and-showtime-chiefs-signal-a-shift-away-from-dark-fare.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/08\/pendulum-shift-fx-and-showtime-chiefs-signal-a-shift-away-from-dark-fare.html","name":"Pendulum shift: FX and Showtime chiefs signal a shift away from dark fare","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-08-05T09:41:44+00:00","dateModified":"2013-08-05T09:48:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/08\/pendulum-shift-fx-and-showtime-chiefs-signal-a-shift-away-from-dark-fare.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/08\/pendulum-shift-fx-and-showtime-chiefs-signal-a-shift-away-from-dark-fare.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/08\/pendulum-shift-fx-and-showtime-chiefs-signal-a-shift-away-from-dark-fare.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pendulum shift: FX and Showtime chiefs signal a shift away from dark fare"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/","name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - John W. Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4067"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4072,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067\/revisions\/4072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}