Excerpt:
Battered by criticism that FX's Tyrant shows stereotypical and damaging depictions of Arabs and Muslims, executive producer Howard Gordon defended his show as a "family drama" not a polemic on the Middle East.
"No one is trying to fulfil an agenda that's propaganda, that's something else entirely," said Gordon of the controversial show, which premiered June 24 for a 10-episode run. "What appealed to me was that this was the story that's happening. We're seeing it, unfortunately, unfold every day in the newspapers, to tragic effect. And so there is a kind of tragedy happening and it felt like this was an opportunity to get under the skin of that challenge. What do you do with power?"
Gordon is no stranger to controversy: he was a producer on both Homeland and 24, which have also been criticized for negative portrayals of Arabs and Muslims.