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Insatiable on Netflix: fat shaming or good entertainment?
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@amusedmonkey the strange thing is that it has very little to do with high school. It's more about the pageants. And yes, there are pageants. Didn't expect that from the trailer.1
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How about an option 3; Neither.
Because it is not fatshaming. At all. The weight loss is a plot device to make an unpopular girl popular. But she is still an insecure, and terrible person. That said there is more there for people who have lost a lot of weight, about how former fat people see their own bodies and their worth as people.
It's not good. It has good moments. But all in all it tries way to hard to be edgy. There is too much things just happening, and just situations that are just happening to have wacky things happen.
I'm about 3 episodes in and agree.
Loling about the gratuitous male toplessness, and the NSFW nickname for the shirtless guy.2 -
I actually really enjoyed this show. In fact, I thought it could have gone a bit further, been a bit darker. My only problem with it was that it seemed to dither between whether to be a teen comedy or a properly dark comedy. Focussing on the latter would make it way more fun.2
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I totally agree. The main character has turned 18 by the end of season one, so hopefully, they move on a little from the teen angle in season two. I'd definitely love to see it go darker.Floatingpencil wrote: »I actually really enjoyed this show. In fact, I thought it could have gone a bit further, been a bit darker. My only problem with it was that it seemed to dither between whether to be a teen comedy or a properly dark comedy. Focussing on the latter would make it way more fun.
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My fiance and I are both over 300 lbs but we enjoy the show. A lot of the time it feels heavily satirical, but I could see how it could be harmful to someone who's overweight, sensitive and has self esteem issues. Regardless, I dont think its worth demonizing. It's one of those "sounds like a you problem" issues for me.1
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Curiosity won me over and I finally watched. I was planning to watch one episode because I don't enjoy teen and high school stuff, but turns out it's not that. I actually enjoyed the mentor character more than I thought I would. I ended up watching it all and I still can't understand the outrage. I found it charming in a dark humor kind of way. Being fat was handled more like a background for the character than the main focus of the show. All kinds of people and personalities got "shamed". Can anyone who felt offended explain?2
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I half-watched most of this show and I can definitely answer it is neither. Lol. I agree with others, like it can't decide if it wants to be a teen drama or a dark comedy type show.1
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amusedmonkey wrote: »Curiosity won me over and I finally watched. I was planning to watch one episode because I don't enjoy teen and high school stuff, but turns out it's not that. I actually enjoyed the mentor character more than I thought I would. I ended up watching it all and I still can't understand the outrage. I found it charming in a dark humor kind of way. Being fat was handled more like a background for the character than the main focus of the show. All kinds of people and personalities got "shamed". Can anyone who felt offended explain?
A lot of fat acceptance types complained that it used a fat suit. However, I don't understand what they would have preferred the show did? Would they prefer they hired an overweight actor to play Patty, then go on a regime to lose a lot of weight? Or film the actress in all her scenes as a thin person, then get her to put on lots of weight, just so they could film the small handful of fat scenes afterward, for the beginning of the show? I personally think using a fat suit was the healthiest option for the actor.2 -
I haven't seen it yet, but I have seen a lot of ads on Youtube.
Anyone who has watched Sierra Burgess Is a Loser?2 -
I half-watched most of this show and I can definitely answer it is neither. Lol. I agree with others, like it can't decide if it wants to be a teen drama or a dark comedy type show.
I realize it's been a LONG time since I was a teen. But isn't being a teen both drama and, at least from the teen's perspective, a dark comedy?
It's not always an either - or relationship
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Ah. so a fat version of Prom Night?janejellyroll wrote: »It's a fictional series about a girl who loses a bunch of weight and decides to get revenge on the people who were cruel to her when she was overweight.
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Ah. so a fat version of Prom Night?janejellyroll wrote: »It's a fictional series about a girl who loses a bunch of weight and decides to get revenge on the people who were cruel to her when she was overweight.
But with less stabbing (I think).1 -
I watched the entire series in about a week. I liked it in a guilty pleasure type of way. Patty was a terrible person but so were most of the people. Bob (the pageant coach, Bob) was awesome. Basically everyone in the show had some sort of insecurity and those insecurities collectively caused chaos within that small town in Georgia, where image was important. Patty was the only one (that I remember) having the overweight issue. There were several secretly gay people, some drug abuse, Patty's mom was struggling with not being young and pretty anymore. It was dark and awful and I liked it.5
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I'm about 7 episodes in and here are my thoughts - it's trashy as Hell and I love it.8
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I’ve watched every episode I didn’t find it offensive.2
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I'm about 7 episodes in and here are my thoughts - it's trashy as Hell and I love it.
Exactly! This is a soap opera comedy, where everything and everyone is over the top and unreal and I love it!
And I honestly can’t understand the body shaming issue because they have actual realistic characters interact with the main and contrast, like the girl who was also plus sized in the pageant & dating her bff was very much a realism counter, showing that the characters and the situations are not following logic. And there are so many moments of “your logic is messed up”.
Maybe it’s just how the trailer was edited? But the show itself I think is very PC and ridiculously over the top. Think Scream Queens, Riverdale, teen-comedy-horror-soap. if those things aren’t your jam you won’t like it, but it’s not ever saying being fat is bad - it makes a ton of points to show that it’s how people treat fat people, and also the main character is not a good or bad person for being fat/thin. She doesn’t get any pity moral points for being fat either, she’s still terrible!2 -
I've seen the first two episodes and I'm enjoying the series. It's a cerebrally light, comedically dark, satire expressed through the teen/trash/soap opera milieu. It's painted in broad strokes, and some of the humor is very crass, but there are some subtleties here and there. It's entertainment and not much more, but what else should we want from entertainment to be?
(The one bothersome thing about it for me is that it recalls my childhood fantasy, as a real-life fat kid, of having to have my jaw wired shut for a few months.)1 -
I remember ed sullivan shows and I saw
Elvis's first live tv appearance.
Most modern tv series are completely incomprehensible to me, I just don't get where the characters are coming from actually.
Waiting for my Hugs box to fill up now.
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Rin Tin Tin? The Lone Ranger and Tonto, anybody?4
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I watched it. I haven't read many comments here but I don't feel like it's fat shaming. You see how her weight really affected many aspects of her life, and seeing her turn to food in hard times is very relateable.3
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estherdragonbat wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »I don't do high school/drama/romance stuff, so I haven't watched it. I did watch the trailer and my thoughts were "meh". I didn't read too much into it, entertainment is entertainment and nothing more. I don't expect any shows I watch to be factual, representative, politically correct, or have some deep message or philosophical stance. Some do have some of these elements, but that's not why I watch them. I watch them to be entertained, and the premise of this one didn't grab me. Simple as that. People usually read too much into stuff.
Well actually it seems like every single netflix show is trying to push some sort of agenda. They always include something "controversial" or a "hot topic", something that would piss off a hard-core conservative. Not trying to be political but I find it odd that every netflix show that I've watched is pushing an agenda. It can't just be entertainment for entertainment.
Some of the cooking shows APPEAR to be agenda free. (Or maybe they're just that subtle and insidious...)
It's a conspiracy to make us fatter.
Especially when it seems every TV in front of the cardio seems to be on The Food Network. Self-defeating prophecy if I ever saw one!1 -
Watched it and definitely not fat shaming. So tired of this outrage offended by everything culture we're living in right now.
The show is just a giant goofy over-the-top... thing. It shows that sure, she lost a lot of weight b/c of something that happened, but it didn't make her happier. But folks were too outraged over the damn trailer to bother giving it a watch.4
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