The titular “B” in ABC’s new comedy series Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 is not exactly what you’d call a morally upstanding individual, as you may have surmised by the title of the series. Watchdog group the Parents Television Council have voiced complaints about the character and the series in general, targeting the show’s advertisers in the process.
According to Deadline, the PTC is upset over what they’ve determined to be “offensive content” on ABC’s Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23. Deadline quotes the PTC as describing the series as “a sexist mixed-bag of hedonism, drug-use, alcohol abuse (including the main character plying a 13-year-old boy with alcohol to get him drunk) and explicit levels of promiscuity that are shocking even by today’s broadcast TV standards.”
By the way they’ve described the series, it does sound more like something you’d find on a cable network like FX, as I can actually picture the It’s Always Sunny gang getting a young teen drunk if it served their purposes (if they haven’t already). Is it a bit risqué for network television? I suppose so, but Krysten Ritter’s character Chloe is painted as a quasi-villain, or at the very least, a morally-challenged, self absorbed conniver who’s willing to do whatever it takes to get her way, even if it means getting a kid drunk to get information out of him. So, it’s not as though the series is painting her as a hero. Of course, context is probably irrelevant in the eyes of PTC. It’s likely the fact that such behavior is happening at all on network television that the group takes issue with.
Per Deadline, the PTC is looking to get the attention of AT&T and Volkswagen, which are two of the show’s main advertisers. Whether or not either respond remains to be seen.
Photo Credit: ©ABC
