Creator Eric Kripke knows his show has taken a hard turn from the original selling point, which was essentially “what if Superman was a breast milk-obsessed jackass?”. “You’re not really expecting a superhero show to have the vibe of Veep,” he recently told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s just another way that we try to be unexpected.”
What would really be unexpected is the ever-provocative show caving to the fear of dissent put in place by the current administration, but Kripke says fans don’t need to worry about that. “There’s been a total of zero notes about pulling our punches or about making things less political or less savage,” the showrunner promised. “The various powers that be have been really great about it. I think they know that we’d just do it anyway, so why bother?”
That said, he is nervous that other showrunners won’t be so bold. “Look, not about this particular show, but I’m certainly worried about a cooling effect when, now more than ever, you need people in the back of the classroom throwing spitballs,” Kripke said. “That’s not just healthy, that’s vital. It’s really important that people who can thumb their nose at it don’t get scared.”
His concern is certainly justified. Donald Trump has a proven track record of pulling funding (or worse) from any program or individual that offends him or shares an opinion that clashes with his authoritarian agenda. At least Kripke has been aware of the danger of speaking out for a while. “Sometimes we joke, a little unsettlingly, that we’re Satan’s Writers’ Room,” he quipped. “But because we’re writing about what we view as societal problems, the unfortunate truth is these things were problems two years ago when we wrote them and they’ll be ongoing until we really figure out how to get a handle on a lot of this and maybe stop trusting the people in power quite so blindly.” We’ll see how the show handles, uh, everything that’s gone down since season four when the fifth and final season, which is currently in production, comes to our screens.
