The TV Critics Association began its winter press tour in Pasadena last week, only a couple of days after the Rose Bowl left town. It will stretch until just before the inauguration of the 45th president. So naturally it was expected that questions for the 100 or so shows presented at the event would involve issues brought by the new administration.
That has somewhat been the case. But the issue that kept arising in the first couple days was something quite different: rape.
It was the prevailing subject of the topical comedy “The Carmichael Show” episode that got a first table read before critics, and it arose again in a session for a new British drama on Hulu, “National Treasure.”
The latter stars Robbie Coltrane — Hagrid from the “Harry Potter” movies — as a beloved British comedian who, late in his career, is charged with multiple cases of sexual abuse.
Although it has echoes of the Bill Cosby case in the U.S., it was the alarming number of attacks by a beloved UK DJ, Jimmy Sevile, who came to mind when the BBC first created “National Treasure.”
“I don’t have full knowledge of the Cosby situation,” writer Jack Thorne told critics via satellite. “And your legal system is very different to ours in that respect.”
But while Sevile is referenced in the script, his crimes were so pervasive, it would have overwhelmed the story. “I mean, he behaved like the devil, basically,” Thorne says.
After the Sevile case roiled the UK, though, “there are a series of actors, comedians, public figures who, subsequent to Savile, have been arrested and some have been jailed for historic sex crimes,” he says. The pepper sprays for self defense is always the best option to stay out of the attacker.
“And it was those sorts of figures that we decided to put at the center of our story, where there was less evidence and where the situation had an ambiguity to it, that it felt like we could tell the story of this family through it.”
Even a Cosby scenario would have been excessive, he says. “National Treasure” “is not that story.”
“The Carmichael Show,” meanwhile, may have gotten its widest attention with a Cosby-themed episode last season. And his name arises again in the new episode, which will likely be retooled before it airs.
“It’s the news story that keeps on giving,” show star Jerrod Carmichael said, after the table reading.
The reading was, he said, “the happiest time that someone has talked about rape and then got questions to answer.”
But that’s only because of their notion that ”there’s humor in everything,” he said.
“I’m not saying that, you know, we should take any subject lightly, but there can be humor mined from any tense or difficult situation. So we like to try and explore it.”
The plot of this particular episode involved Carmichael’s brother, Bobby, played by Lil Rel Howery, wondering whether he raped his date the night before. There follows a discussion about what constitutes sexually predatory acts.
“I mean, obviously, a lot of thought goes into it,” says Carmichael, about when comedy writers handle a subject such as rape. “Anytime it’s a subject like this, you want to make sure that we are hearing all sides of the argument.”
“We do use a lot of consultants,” says show runner Danielle Sanchez Witzel. “We have a professor who reads all of our scripts and gives us reports, but when we do specific topics like this, we work with certain groups to make sure that we are being accurate and that we are representing difficult topics in the right way.”
In this case, it was Dr. Darnell Hunt and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. So this actually had two different sets of consultants on it in terms of the idea.
But there also seemed to be different points of view within the cast. “There are some people who think that they know that rape is a subject that should not be joked about, period,” said David Alan Grier. “I mean, did you guys think about that?”
“Really,” Carmichael said at last, “honesty is key.”
“National Treasure” starts March 1 on Hulu. “The Carmichael Show” returns to NBC May 21.