HBO is not afraid to push the envelope. Mature, cutting-edge subject matter should be able to be crafted and aired without pressures from sponsors or the censorship police. Because HBO makes its money from subscribers and not advertisers, there is a lot of creative and editorial freedom that is evident in the shows and documentaries that it produces.
All of that came crashing down recently with a show called Luck. The drama series is nearing the end of its first season. It has high-profile actors like Dustin Hoffman. The theme centers on horse racing and the corruption that surrounds it. The show was renewed for a second season and was in the middle of production when HBO suddenly announced today that it is canceling the program.
Three horses have died during the filming of Luck. Opinions vary on what actually caused their deaths, but there is no denying that the horses were tied to the production of the HBO show.
I am glad that HBO pulled the show off the air as a result of the pressure from PETA and other animal rights organizations that helped bring the horse deaths to light. I am not pleased, however, that HBO embarked on a show that became all too realistic, where the putting down of these animals carelessly mimicked the fictional storyline. In addition, HBO did not come clean soon enough about the tragedies. If not for PETA, the show would have gone on and more horses might have died.
I only watched one episode of Luck, long before it was known that horses were actually dying in real life and not just fictionally on screen. Despite HBO promoting the heck out of the show and some critics claiming it was one of the best dramas HBO has ever produced, I found Luck gave me a bad vibe and fell far short of what attracted me to shows like The Sopranos or The Wire. Along with it being virtually impossible to follow and a tad boring, Luck had an intangible air to it that was unsettling to me, and I don't mean in an artful way. Something just felt wrong about the whole concept. As a result, I gave up on the show early on.
Of course, three dead horses connected to a now canceled HBO show doesn't even begin to address the real problem of the horse-racing industry, which in my opinion is no better than illegal dog fighting. Whether legal or not, profiting from these atrocities is an outrage.
HBO did the right thing in canceling Luck and probably lost millions of dollars in doing so, but might have lost millions more from people like me who would have canceled their subscriptions if the show wasn't nixed. Unfortunately, the chronic gamblers and business entities who support the horse racing industry have no such motivation to shut down that so-called sport.
