Negan with his bat “Lucille”. Screengrab from YouTube/The Walking Dead HD
The first episode of The Walking Dead’s seventh season had viewers at the edge of their seats due to its climactic storyline, but a media regulator is suggesting it may have gone overboard in its depiction of violence.
The highly touted AMC cable channel show is currently under investigation by the English television board Ofcom after it has received multiple complaints from some viewers who claimed that the show’s graphic violence went beyond acceptable limit.
The particular scene in question occurred when the show’s villain Negan (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) murdered series favorites Glen (Steven Yeun) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) with a baseball bat covered with barbed wire.
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“We’re investigating scenes of very strong violence shortly after the 9pm watershed, and whether these scenes were justified by the context,” an Ofcom representative was quoted as saying in a report from The Sun.
The complaints still came even after FOX UK reportedly toned down the violent barbaric scenes for the British audience and reducing the number of times Negan bashed the heads of his victims.
Its effort, however, failed to satisfy the media regulatory board, which appeared to continue its probe of the show.
In a statement, FOX UK said they would fully cooperate with the regulator’s investigation.
“As Fox Networks Group is regulated by Ofcom, we have a duty of care to ensure all our programs broadcast adhere to the parameters of the Ofcom Broadcasting code,” the studio said.
One of the casualties of the scene, Culditz, meanwhile, defended the gory nature of the show,
“We knew that was going to happen. In my opinion it’s very important that it had that kind of shift,” he said.
“We always knew that we were in a dangerous world, as far as the Walkers and the uncertainty of what was going on. But I think that the uncertainty now has been raised even higher.” Khristian Ibarrola