2018-08-28

Heavy reaction: Netflix's "Insatiable"

① Television creators normally don't feel the full weight of public opinion until after people have seen the show.

② Not so for Netflix's new drama "Insatiable", which began airing yesterday.

③ The trailer—promising the story of an overweight teenager who slims down and enacts revenge on bullying classmates after an accident leaves her jaw wired shut—sparked an internet firestorm when it was released in July.

④ Over 200,000 people signed a petition to cancel the series, accusing it of "body-shaming".

⑤ The show's actors and producers claimed it was satire and pleaded with audiences to give it a chance.

⑥ But opinion did not improve with eventual viewing: critics slammed the full series this week, with Vox calling it "both obscenely cruel and terminally dull".

⑦ Hollywood has long used fatness as shorthand for unflattering character traits—for example, in the film "Shallow Hal" and the television show "Friends"—but it seems that today's viewers demand a more inclusive diet.