NBC's Newest Star: Charles Manson

NBC is already home to a TV series glorifying gruesome, gory serial killing and cannibalism on its series Hannibal. And this week, the network announced an upcoming series that will make a hero out of sadistic mass murderer Charles Manson. The network is investing its show hailing Manson with considerable prestige. Tentatively titled Aquarius, the program is being billed as an “event series.” “The combination of…the Manson murders, along with a television star of the magnitude of David Duchovny, is the very definition of an event!” boasted NBC Entertainment President Jennifer Salke, according to Deadline: Hollywood. NBC Chairman Bob Greenblatt also cheered the new show, expressing “great pleasure” at working with Duchovny on the program highlighting one of the twentieth century’s most notorious killers. – or, as Greenblatt calls it, a “compelling drama.” Not coincidentally, Greenblatt and Duchovny worked together at premium cable network Showtime, where Greenblatt produced yet another serial killer show, Dexter, while Duchovny starred in the thinly-veiled pornography series Californication. Charles Manson is particularly notorious for masterminding the murder of pregnant actress Sharon Tate, along with various of her friends and the LaBianca family in 1969. That Greenblatt would make a movie about these murders demonstrates the utter contempt that Hollywood has for human lives – even those of their comrades in the entertainment industry. And, of course, Charles Manson is still alive, currently imprisoned in Corcoran State Prison in California. No doubt, he will be thrilled to hear that a major broadcast network is devoting 13 hours to making his career of racism, rape, murder, and mayhem into a “compelling” “event series.”