In this video you can see episode 8 of season 4 of Game of Thrones.The fourth season of the show was aired between april 6 and june 10 of 2014. In this episode there is a trial by combat between Oberyn Martell (the viper) and Ser Gregor Clegane (the mountain). In the fight the viper needs to beat the mountain in order for Tyrion Lannister to be freed. The Viper tires out the mountain and has a clear victory, but he has his own agenda and tries to get the mountain to confess to the rape and killing of his sister Elia Martell. The viper puts on a display of cockiness by toying around with the mountain and refusing to kill him until he confesses. In the process, the mountain gets a hold off the viper and chokes him, he then goes on to pop his eyeballs before brutally smashing his head to pieces. In this clip it is very noticeable that there is a lot of brutality and gore that wouldn’t have been regularly allowed in an earlier television era given that there was a “code”. The code refers to a set of rules and regulations that are not official and have no penalty but the tv networks would not have dared to cross. The code that I am talking about, encourages tv networks to avoid content that is very sexual, violent, or gory in its nature. In this clip it is quite visible that there is an excessive amount of gore and violence for a prime time television program. If this was another era, HBO would not have dared to invest so much money, time, and other resources into this show. However, because of the change in generation in television, this show is actually one of the top watched shows ever in the history of television. Although the gamble paid off, this risk would have been avoided if the time period was different.
-Victor Villanueva