Seriously, if you were being attacked by zombies, you might yell out the word f- - -. But no one does on The Walking Dead. When it comes to language in this golden age of basic cable dramas, the rules are idiosyncratic and unclear.
"It's so arbitrary, hon," says Kurt Sutter. "It's just basically people in suits making up the rules."
Sutter created the biker-gang drama Sons of Anarchy on F/X, and if you've ever looked at his Twitter feed, his language might put you in mind of another program: the famously profane Deadwood on HBO, where for three seasons pretty much anything went, cursewise.
Sutter says he's not allowed to use the f-word. Or the word "retard." He also can't use his very favorite epithet — probably the first one that comes to mind when I say "slang for female anatomy."
"But we can use the word 'gash,' which I think is far worse," he observes.
“ They want to be able to say 'bulls- - -,' which is a really hard word to substitute for. It's hard to find anything else that feels as good.