Netflix’s Insatiable has been under fire since the trailer first dropped and people caught wind of the undeniably problematic concept of the new show.
It’s hard to defend a series that features a thin actress in a fat suit portraying a high schooler who is ridiculed for her weight until she has her jaw literally wired shut, loses weight and takes revenge on her bullies. It’s fat-shaming at best and encourages eating disorders at worst.
But defend it they did. In the face of the enraged backlash that included a petition to cancel the show with more than 200,000 signatures, the cast and crew of Insatiable insisted the dark comedy falls on the right side of the discourse if we just give it a chance and watch the series.
Well, the series has been released on Netflix and the reports are in: Insatiable is not as bad as we expected ! It’s worse! Much worse!
https://twitter.com/kohlgrrl/status/1028619533416681473
The reviews are piling in and they overwhelmingly back up all the accusations directed at the show, plus more.
On top of the inexcusable weight-loss premise, we’ve got shallow plot points that fail to properly represent the queer and racially diverse cast, tone-deaf punchlines about sexual harassment and enough other faults to ensure you should never give the show the time of day.
https://twitter.com/harleivy/status/1028699332927733760
If you need any further convincing that Insatiable doesn’t deserve to be watched, we’ve got The New York Times‘ Eleanor Stanford commenting, “I totally agree that a show I was expecting — from the trailer — to be fatphobic turned out to be problematic in seemingly endless new ways. But I guess we should talk about how ‘Insatiable’ treats Patty’s binge-eating disorder — or fails to treat it in any meaningful way.”
In this @variety article, the star of Insatiable mentions that she listened to SAF to prepare for the role. We’re not sure how our show could inspire a thin actress to don a fat suit as we’ve discussed at length how this very act is incredibly harmful to the fat community. https://t.co/NkmVI83N7V
— she's all fat (@shesallfatpod) August 12, 2018
“This fantasy is gross.” Vox’s Constance Grady weighs in. “It is born out of violent self-loathing, out of the desire to hurt and maim and punish a body that our culture has decided is unacceptable.”
I’m sorry the show insatiable is actually disgusting and disappointing for a movie in 2018, please don’t watch it’s toxic as hell
— lauren (@laurenrosedawk) August 12, 2018
The reviews from critics and the vast majority of Netflix viewers who have given Insatiable a crack tell much the same story – It’s bad. And we can confirm it is in fact bad, so the best thing to do is just avoid watching the series all together.
It’s not something you need to hate-watch, or check out just to be across why it’s wrong. Honestly you can just save yourself the pain and watch something better.