One far less important, but still very real result of the abuse scandal which has shaken Hollywood and beyond over the last few months, is that a lot of TV shows and movies have either had to make adjustments by getting the abusers off their projects, or - if they’ve already been made - have become tainted, perhaps even rendered unwatchable, by the presence of a known abuser.
Kevin Spacey has been the face of House of Cards for five years, but the show will now continue without him - the excellent Robin Wright taking up a solo lead role - while the allegations against Louis C.K. have made his material a no-go zone for many.
Some argue you should be able to separate the art from the artist, but these are extremely muddy waters. It’s highly unlikely anyone would consider old Jimmy Savile shows acceptable, for example, and yet thousands of people were dismayed by Netflix’s decision to drop Spacey from House of Cards.
The question of how bad does someone have to be to make their art unwatchable is a strange question to even ask. What is perhaps a better use of people’s time is to seek out shows and movies that are not linked to abusers - particularly material made by women.
With this is mind, a very useful new website, called Rotten Apples, has popped up. The name is a play on the popular TV and movie review site, Rotten Tomatoes, and essentially is able to tell you if any known abusers are linked to a project.
You simply type the name of the show or film into the search bar, and it’ll either come up ‘fresh apples’ (all good) or ‘rotten apples’, detailing a list of the known abusers linked to the material, and links out to articles details the allegations against them.
For example, this is what you get when you search for Stranger Things - a show that’s in the clear:
And this is what you get when you search for House of Cards:
If you want to make sure you’re not supporting abusers during your hungover Netflix binges, then Rotten Apples is a sadly necessary site to add to your bookmarks.
(Images: Netflix / Rotten Apples)
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