I’m predicting that Swamp Thing will also be TV-MA because they’re leaning into the horror angle, but if Stargirl is a mature show then something is sadly broken.
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Okay, going to show, rather than tell.
Golly gee, golly gee, golly gee!
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!
Which one seems more realistic, and not childish or pasteurized?
MACJR
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Gee whiz Wally, I say the latter is more realistic.
But fantasy is fantasy and doesn’t always have to mimic reality.
I don’t mind the swears in Doom Patrol. In alot of instances in Titans, it felt forced. For Doom Patrol, given the characters, their backgrounds and what situations they’ve endured so far, it feels more natural.
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timelady365.32923, DC comics have not always been this dark. The darkness of DC started coming about after mid-1980s or so, and especially more so in the 1990s, and later. From child friendly, and perhaps too campy, to brutal, gruesome and more mature. I was, and am not, overly fond of the darkness, but the more mature the stories became, the more interesting the stories became. No longer speaking just to children, but to me, as an adult, too.
It was not all bad, but yeah, I did, and still do, complain about the excessive amount of darkness in many of the stories. The language never seems forced to me. It just seems real, at least to us non-church going people who all like to pretend that they have virgin ears.
MACJR
That should be, who do not pretend to have virgin ears. 
Or tongues, for that matter.
MACJR
@Vroom, I would have to re-watch Titans to see what cussing was uncalled for. I was paying more attention to the story, that the cussing, I guess.
I know that when I am dealing with intense emotions, or something unpleasant, I will use profanity rather than pretend I am a child and say, “Oh golly, I wish that had not happened,” or “I wish you had not said that,” or “Oh darn, that really hurt like the Dickens,” when that little toe is throbbing like mad. I am not going to stop and be polite when my emotions, or the situation, or the pain, have just suddenly flared up.
Sure, when I am calm and rational, and nothing is exploding about me (literally or not), I will refrain from using curse words, and be and act more civilized. The situation dictates what I am going to say, and how I will react.
MACJR
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At first when I saw the title of this thread, I didn’t really care, but the more I think about it, the more I agree. All the sex, violence, and swearing is a cheap and childish crutch that poor writers use as a substitute for maturity in substance (rather than superficial window-dressing with minimal plot-relevance). Look at the DCAU: the storytelling there was deep, complex, mature, and often quite dark despite their hands being tied on the superficially mature content. Then look at Titans: the characters stab people in the crotch with garden shears and proudly say “Fuck Batman” in the trailer, but the plot and theme is basically “Dick is angry and sad. There are maybe some other characters, and something with a demon probably. Anyway, here’s a ton of episodes on the backstory of characters who aren’t even part of the title team while you still don’t know anything about three of the four main characters.” It’s like a twelve-year-old’s idea of what maturity looks like.
Of course, Daredevil, to name one example, is both substantially and superficially mature. So, like I said, the superficial “maturity” is entirely optional window dressing when paired with good writing, but it makes bad writing doubly unpleasant to sit through, because not only is it bad, it feels like it’s trying too hard.
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Definitely do not stop making TV-MA content. Don’t stop making stuff for children and teens either, but definitely dont stop the mature stuff. The “superhero genre” cant grow under such limits and by extension, neither can this app.
Theres a reason Cable TV happened, because people wanted more mature content then the national networks were allowed to produce. For all the claim people give the Arrowverse, the rest of the world is talking about shows like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Westworld, Walking Dead, Mad Men, the Americans, the Wire, ect. It’s because the stories are more engrossing, the characters are more relatable, and it’s all generally more believable due to its tight tether to reality. Seeing is believing, so seeing Cliff’s hot nanny in the moment really helps you understand the level of temptation he deals with. It makes his eventual regret and remorse more poignant, imo. Anytime I see a character who just engaged their lover physically, immediately cover their entire body with a blanket up to their armpits, all I can think is how I’ve never seen that happen in reality.
This app is aimed at DC comics fans with jobs, generally adults. They should offer something for everyone. These shows are likely to pull in more viewers than they alienate, because most people arent looking for truncated storytelling in a childishly fantastical world displaying good vs evil as a black and white conflict. It’s as if you want the police displayed as armed with batons, walkie-talkies, and spotlights only.
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@macjr, I wasn’t paying attention to the swears in Titans, but there were some moments where it just popped out to me and I thought “That wasn’t necessary.”
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i disagree we need a varity of both of TV MA and PG shows not everything can be PG just watch anime DC shows since their more PG friendly
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well to be honest it did add that shock factor for me, i said to myself “holy shit is this a really dc” but now that i think about it, i like it. i grew up, i’m more grounded in the real world and i feel that this is something that makes dc separate itself from marvel. i’m tired of the pg pc life that keeps getting portrayed everywhere because it’s not real at all, i’m glad dc is doing stuff like this.
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Beg to differ on several comments by the people above.
I don’t think that the swearing or the nudity adds to the quality factor of the series so far produced. I also don’t think it should be abandoned forever.
The use of the “f-bomb” in the fight scene in episode one of Titans was appropriate. I didn’t find it at all egregious. As the series unfolded, the uses of future “f-bombs” and other scatology didn’t really bother me much, but I found it over used. A lot of people complain that that is the way people talk in the real world. I don’t know who you know, but in my social group its not common. Swearing is reserved for high emotional situations or situations where there is no better way to express yourself. I didn’t find Cliff’s swearing in Episode 2 of Doom Patrol to be egregious. He was expressing panic and fear. Later, when Rita uses it, I found it also appropriate. However, the potty mouth that Jane uses, though it might be appropriate some of the time, isn’t as well used as it is with other characters.
Nudity in Titans and Doom Patrol is not omnipresent, but I think that both series could use it in a better way. The images associated with Cliff’s nanny are an example. We could have seen the image in shadow or in profile or a brief glance without missing out on the plot point value. I feel that as it is edited, the moment is heavy handed. Sex should be a part of superheroes. Both casual and committed couples involve themselves with it. Same sex, multisex, doesn’t matter, the issue is intimacy and the portrayals of relationships. So, should nudity and sex be banned from the shows? Nope. But it should be handled with more delicacy. Look at Young Justice. There is no doubt the characters have a sex life. We feel it in the interrelationships of the characters. But we don’t see anything on screen.
I might want to see beautiful people doing acts of intimacy, but I’m not watching DC Universe for that purpose. If I wanted DC Superhero Porn, I can find it in all forms on the internet. I grew out of that phase of my life a long time ago, and I don’t have a strong desire to revisit it.
So, aside from this, violence is the other thing I am not overly happy with. Yeah, Superheroes lead violent lives. They deal out damage to each other that is both brutal and egregious. Half of the blows in the first real fight in Titans should have resulted in death or maiming of the participants. The blows that disturbed me the most were the ones that seemed to be unnecessary. Do we really need to grind thugs faces in brick and broken glass. That’s a slasher flick move. On the other hand, showing Dick being overly brutal in episode 5 wasn’t really horrid. I was particularly happy when you had the Starfire character step in. Though it also surprised me, as she had been pretty brutal herself.
Try to find a line to follow that is not so full of unnecessary cursing, violence, and sex. Find a way to portray adult themes without alienating your subscribers. Hopefully, this will grow as the service matures. You don’t need to be so ham-fisted, guys. Really. The operative word here is mature. In all it’s meanings.
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I have said my peace, others have said their peace. There is no need for me to say more. It would just be rehashing what has already been said.
It is a personal choice of what you want to watch or see. I do not go out of my way for shows that have nudity or profanity, but I do not turn away from them either. If you do not want to watch these kinds of shows, I am sure as hell not going to force you to watch them. It is your choice.
I will not tell you how to live, or what you can or cannot watch, and I respectfully request that others do not tell me what I can watch, or not watch.
MACJR
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To be honest, I was kinda surprised with the nudity in the Doom Patrol Pilot. Was put off by it, just surprised by it. And they could probably dial back on the “f-bombs” a bit. I get every once and a while. But sometimes they do seem to be added just to add them. Especially in Titans. But again, not put off by it. But I can see where some people are coming from.
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I wanted a premium service for the fact that it HAD TV MA included in it. If you want family friendly, toothless garbage, stick to the Disney Channel.
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To post a more toned down view on this topic, when I was younger, I probably would have argued the other side of this issue, for more sanitized shows. I remember arguing to keep censorship, back when cable was starting to flex its muscles and open its mouth in more and more non-censored ways, back in the day, in fact.
So, what changed?
I grew older and more experienced in life. People who do not hear swearing in their daily lives, these days, live very sheltered lives. In this is coming from a shut-in who is very selective about what kinds of shows he will watch. I feed my brain stuff I want to be in there. I would rather not keep adding content that I find of no interest to me, or of no intellectual value to me. I avoid horror shows, and stupid silly-stupid comedy shows that I do not find funny. Yes, sometimes I will miss some good shows, because there are exceptions to everything. Sometimes I do stumble into a good horror flick, or a good silly-stupid comedy, but rarely so, because most times, such shows just disappoint me. I feel that I have wasted my time and brain space by watching them. Just cluttering my brain with more junk entertainment.
So I am highly selective in what I will watch. Blocking out all content because of nudity and profanity would block out too many good shows, that have a lot of interesting content to think about, other than F-bombs and nude scenes. When you let someone use their creativity without restrictions, that is when you get to see the most creative versions of their work.
As I said though, I was surprised to see TV MA content in a service that probably caters to a very large underage audience. Is DC Universe blocking the under aged kids from viewing this content? Or do they have access to anything they want to see? I read a post last night that suggest at least some younger kids are watching these TV MA shows. I do find this somewhat troubling.
However, what kids see online these days probably makes TV MA shows seem tame by comparison. So kids these days are just not so innocent anyway.
I came from a more sheltered time in American culture, but things today are not at all like they were when I was a kid.
So I argue against censorship. Protecting the kids and and the Christians sheltered sensibilities (in their own isolated version of reality), would rob the rest of us who do not want to be sheltered in such constrained and restrictive realities forced on us by others, who are of a minority group that thinks it is better than everyone else.
I do think that DC Universe may be wise to add more content though, that is toned down for the kids… not that they will stick to that toned down content. But it would give more content for those who want to live in a false version of reality that has been pre-sanitized for them.
MACJR
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If comic books were rated like films/tv shows and video games, most DC comics since the mid 70’s would be rated PG-13 or Rated R, TV-14 and M for Mature!
Most DC films are rated PG-13 with Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay(Animated)being Rated R and most games are T for Teen with some being bordlineline M rated.
In the comics, characters cuss. Mostly censored with #$*% but technically they are cussing including F bombs. Nudity is a rare occurance in the comics but it has happened and many female characters are dressed like hoochies all the time and there is sexual innuendos
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