Another Reason Why I Hate Hollywood

The Pitch: A Series About Wacky Terrorists. This article tops the Arts section in today's NYTimes. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the article and the brain trust at work in LaLaLand:

"'The Cell' as this exercise in envelope-pushing is titled, has been making its way through Hollywood for more than a year, cracking up development executives and their assistants."

"The script's writers, meanwhile, have landed three assignments thanks to 'The Cell.'"

"I'm sure there would be a lot of people that said you can't do this, but that's what they told me about 'Will and Grace.'" -- Warren Littlefield, former NBC Entertainment President

You hear that, gays? You've blazed a trail for terrorists! If desert camo is the new black, terrorists are the new you!

Look, in entertainment, is it important to push boundaries? No doubt about it. "Hogan's Heroes" did it well, and making hay about Nazi Germany definitely offers a good counterpoint to the 'how can you joke about something like this, you sick fuck?' argument that was my initial response. But here's the difference with this show: the heroes in "The Cell" are the terrorists, not the allied forces.

Now I haven't read the script and no doubt most of the jokes come at the terrorists' expense, but what I find almost as offensive as the premise is the idea that the entertainment community is patting itself on the back for thinking themselves so "edgy" (one of their fav. words) and progressive that they find this stupid concept "hot."