I'll say this much -- I'd definitely prefer to have channels that don't lock properly, rather than channels that use bludgeon-style censorship.
The best example I ever saw of brainless censorship was one of those Naked Gun movies, on TBS or someplace similar. There's a scene where Leslie Nielson is standing below a female character who's in a skirt, up on a stepladder, getting something off a shelf. Leslie looks up at her and says, "Nice beaver." She then pulls down a stuffed beaver mounted on a board.
The numbnuts draconian censor bleeped out the "nice beaver" line.
There's a couple problems here:
1) He's talking about a friggin' beaver, not anything sexual. The movie proceeds to SHOW us the beaver to prove it.
2) The ONLY people who would think the line was sexual are those folks who've already been exposed to the term being used in that manner -- in other words, folks old enough and jaded enough to hear a line like that and immediately jump to a naughty conclusion.
Hence, if you're a kid who shouldn't be exposed to such vile thoughts -- surprise, surprise, you AREN'T. Because if you're an innocent kid who hasn't been exposed to that phrase, it won't mean anything to you. The scene won't seem funny or interesting in any way -- it'll just be a scene where Leslie Nielson comments on the finished product of a taxidermist.
Sorry -- just felt like going off on a bit of a rant. I, for one, have been pleasantly surprised by the uncensored nature of the material on the VOOM exclusive channels.
For that 1% who actually uses parental locks on their TVs, well, you've got my sympathies. You're right -- movies like that should definitely be flagged.
