As a writer, Ryan Murphy has never shied away from shocking material. Although Murphy has a legion of fans from his work creating Glee, the American Horror Story series, and Scream Queens, Parents Television Council president Tim Winter is not one of them.
The TV watchdog group highlighted the season premiere of American Horror Story: Hotel as featuring what he characterized as an “unbelievably explicit combination of sex and violence.”
What got Winter so hot under the collar? Well, it might have been the blood-soaked group sex between Lady Gaga, Matt Bomer, and two other participants. Gaga, making her acting debut, plays the bloodthirsty Countess of Hotel Cortez -- the site of this season’s action. But even if Winter had been ok with that, he might have found Max Greenfield graphically raped by a spiked sex toy somewhat objectionable. "This is the most vile and shocking content I've ever seen on TV. Ever," Winter wrote in an email to PTC subscribers calling for an advertiser boycott. "Most Americans have no idea this is primetime fare on advertiser-supported basic cable. And everyone is paying for it as part of their program bundle."
Maybe he’s a New Girl fan (he’s not), or maybe he just really hated Artpop?
PTC also took issue last month with Scream Queens, the other risque offering from Murphy. In a review of the series, writer Christopher Gildemeister said, “Scream Queens’ content is so constant, so graphic, and so horrific that is is nearly impossible to know where to begin describing it…”
At issue are the nonstop violence, sexualized dialog, including references to bestiality and necrophilia, and “general nastiness.”
Winter specifically called out McDonald’s for its role in sponsoring Scream Queens, saying “The Golden Arches brand now stands for sexual fantasies with dead people and with decapitating college coeds.”
But honestly, if he thinks that Scream Queens is more of an abomination than gray hamburgers, we don’t know what to say to him.
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