Daredevil
Netflix
Well, not everyone is happy about Disney Plus adding Daredevil and all the other old Netflix Defenders shows to its catalogue this coming week. The Parents TV Council is tearing Disney a new one for the move, with the organization lambasting them for including R/MA-rated content on what was “supposed” to be a family-friendly streaming platform.
Here’s the Parents TV Council in a recent statement (via Variety):
“There is no need for Disney Plus to compete with the explicit content on other streaming platforms, Disney is already at a competitive advantage with a streaming platform that is the safest one out there for families. Its foray into TV-MA-rated fare will forever tarnish its family friendly crown.”
While they praise Disney for beefing up its parental controls, they believe that just the fact that there is mature content on the platform will be enough to turn off many families altogether. This goes back to the debate of whether Disney was indeed going to keep all its Marvel content together with this move, or put these more “mature” shows somewhere like Hulu instead. They chose the former, because it already seems like they were moving in this direction in any case. Moon Knight, for instance, is supposed to be as “brutal” as Daredevil ever was, according to Kevin Feige.
Hawkeye
Disney
The PTC also believes this is a slippery slope in terms of where Disney goes from here:
“It seems wildly ‘off-brand’ for Disney Plus to add TV-MA and R-rated programming to this platform, ostensibly to increase subscription revenue. So what comes next, adding live striptease performances in Fantasyland at Disney World?”
Whoa, whoa, whoa that escalated quickly. It should be noted that for the most part, the mature content in these former Netflix shows is violence, though I do remember maybe a bit of sex in Luke Cage and Jessica Jones across the seasons, though nothing too explicit. I also think that plenty of PG-13 movies and shows have pushed the line in terms of mature content already, as there is a lot of violence you can get away with in that rating in this genre. I mean did we not see US Agent murder a guy with the bloodied edge of Captain America’s shield a few months ago?
Will anything come of this? No, I highly doubt it. Disney has their mind made up and most everyone is celebrating the arrival of these shows on Disney Plus. Disney wants to compete with places like HBO Max and Netflix at scale, and that means having at least portions of their streaming service that are more adult-focused. As any parent who has kept kids entertained with hours on end of Cocomelon on Netflix, there are ways to have a streaming service that has both must-see kids content and heavy adult content in the same place at the same time, and no one needs to end up corrupted because of it. We’ll see if Disney issues a response.
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