Boo!

We watched the movie "Firewall" for reasons that now escape me on HBO last night. Not much to say about the movie, other than it features Harrison Ford as a security head of a bank whose family is kidnapped and he's forced to steal money from the bank for the kidnappers. A pretty forgettable story, with lots of bad writing and acting.

What struck me, however, was that the movie was broadcast on HBO Family. While I can see that that it was on at 8pm, thus technically in the 11pm EDT timeslot and therefore not during the "family" hour, it was a pretty gruesome film. Several people are shot, one guy gets it in the back with a pickaxe, and the family's kids are terrified (and in one case, knowingly given peanuts when the kid had a peanut allergy). On HBO Family. At 8pm on the west coast.

I can only come up with one conclusion - this movie is supposed to create fear, much like those "are your kids protected/safe/in mortal danger?" segments you see on the local TV news. Be afraid! I'm not sure when corporations came to the conclusion that they make more money when we're all terrified, but it must be the case unless somehow HBO became an arm of Fox News recently and I missed it.