Slicing off a woman’s nipple, a man cutting his own tongue out, and title credits rising out of a puddle of semen = OK

Fetuses and abortion = WRONG

Getting off to rape as it occurs 10 feet in front of you = OK

Just had to thrown that one in there.

IDT Entertainment, the production company, is releasing it on DVD through its corporate sibling Anchor Bay. I don't think Showtime stands to rake in much, if anything, from home video sales.

From what I understand, the production behind this series is not like a typical Showtime series. Because Showtime isn't financing this -- they just signed a deal to air it before DVD release. So you have IDT actually ponying up the money for the series, with a deal in place in place with Anchor Bay to distribute the DVDs. I may have heard that at one point this was supposed to be a direct-to-DVD series all the way, but I guess the producers did a deal with Showtime to recoup a little more money. So Showtime's profit from this will come in additional subscribers for the series and ratings, not DVD sales.

I'd say the real villains in this Miike situation are the Showtime pinheads, not the MoH producers (though they take full-blame for the other deficiencies in the series, like many episodes sucking:)). I'm pissed, but not "cancel Showtime" pissed. With my cable service, just them and HBO are the premium channels in HD. And unlike HBO, they show most HD movies in the OAR. But with home HD supposedly taking off, my need for Showtime may change. Miike sounds like he's taking it well. He'd have legitimate reason to be angry if he was told he had carte-blanche to make a scary/disturbing episode, promised a debut on Showtime, and got knocked back to direct-to-DVD at the last minute. He's done DVD already, but this would've been great exposure for him to a broader audience on Showtime.

Coladar, nicely written letter. Not that they'll care, but good job.

Perhaps the Showtime producers should have aired "Box" instead, and "Imprint" should have shown up as one of the "Three Extremes".

Then again, I suspect "Box" would have been a bit too lofty, too "arty" for lack of a better word, to fit in well with the schlock that's come to typify the "masters of horror" series. I mean, yeah yeah, Joe Dante's installment was politically timely and enjoyable, but hardly a masterful work. Plenty of cheese at the core of that one, though much more memorable than the rest.

Yes, I'm disappointed. Disappointed in Showtime to be sure, but also disappointed that the vast majority of media outlets have allowed this first amendment "big chill" to descend without so much as a whimper.

We've become pussies in defense of our liberties in this country, so I guess pussy cinema is our just desserts.

Anyone else hope HBO does a "these are the REAL masters of horror"-type series? Not so much "Tales From The Crypt" redux.

What Rich said. While the full length version elaborates on a few extra plotlines, the condensed version does not cut out any of the graphic details and is actually more disturbing. Read below for huge spoiler details.

Browsing IMDb today, that looks to be the case thus far:

Season 2

Episode 1 "Family" dir. John Landis
Episode 2 "Pelts" dir. Dario Argento
Episode 4 "Pro-Life" dir. John Carpenter
Episode 11 "The Black Cat" dir. Stuart Gordon

Is this not the same network that airs the L word and its male equivalent?