Netflix’s baffling and rage-inducing Insatiable sparked controversy from the moment the show’s trailer hit the Internet. Very quickly, the show’s stars responded to a petition that resulted from “fat-shaming” backlash, given that the show’s main character loses a huge amount of weight after having her mouth wired shut and then seeks revenge against high school enemies. And Netflix has been pushing the show to viewers with widespread “a show you might like” notifications, but the service has been quiet regarding viewing numbers.
So, it’s anyone’s guess on whether the show will receive a second season (after all, hate-watching numbers are still numbers). In the meantime, star Debby Ryan has defended the show’s use of a fatsuit for her character by saying that she was hesitant at first to wear one. Ryan said that she was concerned that “it would almost be done in parody like in Friends.” She insisted to Teen Vogue that showrunner Lauren Gussis assured her that this would not be the case:
“There was a point where [the showrunner] and I are like, ‘If at any point this is funny, if at any point people laugh, we’re not doing it.’ We’re not doing the show that we’re trying to do. We’re just trying to portray an origin story. We’re trying to showcase that.”
Ryan, of course, is referring to the fatsuit worn by Courteney Cox to portray high-school Monica. For sure, those scenes were crude and often showed Monica slathering an absurd amount of condiments onto massive sandwiches, etc., and Insatiable doesn’t take that route, but the show’s very premise likely guarantees that there won’t be forgiveness in the face of such an intentional omission. Still, Ryan insists that the show presents a necessary discussion “that this societal brokenness needed to be addressed.” She added, “[B]ut we didn’t know how badly it needed to be addressed,” which appears to be a reference to the backlash without going much further.
(Via Teen Vogue)
