Too horrible even for Showtime

There's been some chatter at tvbarn2 about the "Masters of Horror" episode that was cancelled by the network. People want some details on it.  Well, here's the gory story, straight from yesterday's session with Bob Greenblatt of Showtime:

QUESTION: In front. I wonder if you could talk about the episode of "Masters of Horror" directed by Takashi Miike that you guys have apparently withdrawn as unsuitable for even premium cable viewers.

ROBERT GREENBLATT: Sure. Yeah. I don't know if people know him as a filmmaker, but he tends to make films that are really extreme in terms of their visual depiction of torture and violence. And the episode came out just really, really strong. And there's a lot of violence and a lot of scenes of torture and things in it that I think, in the aggregate, just make it, you know, unsuitable even for a premium cable. I think it would be the equivalent of an X rating if it were going in front of the MPAA. And rather than try to figure out how to cut it and make it work for us, we decided it's probably better not to butcher Takashi's vision and, instead, not air it, and they'll put it out on DVD.

QUESTION: Was this not foreseeable?

ROBERT GREENBLATT: You know, we sort of said, "Let's see. Let's see how edgy it gets and how extreme he wants to go." And we kind of gave him the freedom to film it, and then we decided to take a look at it and evaluate it after the fact.

Now, this is why I come to TV critics' tour: A colleague, specifically Bill Goodykoontz of the Arizona Republic, has actually seen a "Masters of Horror" episode and was able to describe it in grisly detail.  The storyline seemed to involve a serial killer who enjoyed putting people's heads in drill presses and boring holes into their skulls.  While we watch. 

After a rundown of that episode, Goodykoontz and I were both left with one question: How bad can this Takashi episode be??