Huffington Magazine Issue 38 | Page 65

GENE PAGE/AMC Exit than it did a decade or two ago. Whatever you think of the results of this trend, there are quite a few logical factors behind it: Every day, an ever-expanding array of networks flood the market with all kinds of programming, and new-media companies like Netflix and Hulu are stepping into the fray as well. So how does a network stand out in a cluttered media landscape? One way to get eyeballs is to gouge them out, apparently. January’s moderately successful debut of Fox’s The Following not only showed or mentioned a couple dozen murders, but also featured a disturbing scene with a mutilated dog. Not one to be left behind, NBC debuts Hannibal later this season; the drama tells the backstory of the serial killer from The Silence of the Lambs. Gone are the days when a posse of good-looking doctors, lawyers or cops were enough to garner a reasonable audience — at least that’s what network executives concerned about audience erosion appear to be thinking. Take Do No Harm, a shortlived doctor drama on NBC about a physician who moonlighted as — wait for it — a murderer. Television isn’t competing only TV with other networks and the internet; it’s also competing with other leisure pursuits, including video games and movies. Television executives are well aware that the video-game and film industries are peeling off potential viewers, and they have responded accordingly. Whatever we may think of the bleed-through among media platforms, it’s not surprising that certain sequences in The Walking Dead resemble challenging levels on Call of Duty and that Game of Thrones makes the body count of The Hobbit look quaint. Television audiences have seen a lot over the years, and television writers know that heeding the HUFFINGTON 03.03.13 David Morrissey as “The Governor” in AMC’s The Walking Dead.