Paramount Reveals They Won’t Cancel Old Movies And Shows Because People Are Offended
Paramount+ is standing up for what it believes by not canceling older shows and movies because they might contain offensive material to the public.
This article is more than 2 years old
These days, people seem to be offended by a lot of things. This includes movies and shows that are clearly outdated and were made in a time when people had a much different outlook on life and cultural issues. That is certainly the case for a lot of films that are part of the myriad of streaming platforms we have now. However, the CEO of Paramount+, Bob Bakish, has made it known that the streaming platform would not remove offensive materials from its lineup. According to Bakish, “By definition, you have some things that were made in a different time and reflect different sensibilities. I don’t believe in censoring art that was made historically, that’s probably a mistake. It’s all on demand – you don’t have to watch anything you don’t want to.”
Bakish has an excellent point in that often it seems people are quick to get offended because they choose to be offended. There are ways to just ignore the offensive materials that are delivered to us daily. Turning off the program for one, changing to something else for two, and three just flat out ignoring it. However, people want to be champions for social justice, which is completely understood as well. However, one must understand that films that were made in the 1980s are going to inadvertently be offensive because that is how people viewed the world then. It is a bit foolish to get mad at a film or show that was made 30 or 40 years ago. And honestly, there are much better programs to watch these days anyway.
The fact that Paramount+ is stepping up and claiming they won’t change what is offered on their platform is brave. Netflix ran into the same kind of issues when promoting controversial comedians like Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais. Now the streaming giant is in a ton of trouble. Well, that is mostly due to the drop in subscribers than it is with promoting the previously mentioned comedians. Then again, the drop in subscribers could be because of those comedians being promoted. Still, Paramount+ is still new, and this take might anger some people.
Although Paramount+ is not giving in to the “woke” culture that exists these days, they are still quite affordable in terms of price, so people might let this one slide. For comparison purposes, Netflix costs $15.49 per month, while Paramount is a mere $5.99 a month. Sure, Paramount doesn’t have quite a much to offer in terms of shows and films, but they are steadily growing. This hot take on not censoring older content might also do the trick in bringing more attention to the streaming platform.
Paramount+ is starting to bring higher-profile content to the platform. The new Halo series was a hit and has already been renewed for a second season. South Park has been releasing their hour-long movies on the platform, and even Beavis & Butthead are heading there as well. Clearly, there is a ton of new content that is likely to offend people, but the older stuff should just be passed over. Older movies were a bit basic in terms of storytelling anyway, so it shouldn’t be something that people should immediately get upset over. Just let it go.
