''Insatiable'' is an American dark

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

television series created by

Lauren Gussis Lauren Gussis is an American television writer and producer, known for the Showtime series ''Dexter'', the NBC series ''E-Ring'' and the Netflix Original Series Insatiable (2018). She has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards. Early life ...

, starring Dallas Roberts and Debby Ryan. It is based on Jeff Chu's article "The Pageant King of Alabama", published in July 2014 in ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...

''. The first season premiered on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

on August 10, 2018. In September 2018, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on October 11, 2019. On February 17, 2020, Netflix cancelled the series after two seasons. The series received mixed reviews with most of the negative reviews coming from critics, who called the show "offensive" and "insulting", while the positive reviews from audiences, who praised the performances (especially Ryan, Roberts, and Alyssa Milano) and dark humor.

Plot

17-year-old Patty Bladell was bullied at school for being overweight, but after a violent encounter with a homeless man and a summer of liquid diet, she becomes thin and determined to exact revenge on her bullies at the start of her senior year. Bob Armstrong, a disgraced civil lawyer and beauty pageant coach, discovers Patty's potential and sets out to convert her into a

beauty queen A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

Cast and characters

Main

* Debby Ryan as Patty Bladell * Dallas Roberts as Bob Armstrong Jr. *

Christopher Gorham Christopher Gorham (born August 14, 1974) is an American actor who is best known for the ABC series ''Ugly Betty''. He has also appeared in such series as '' Insatiable'', ''Popular'', ''Odyssey 5'', '' Felicity'', '' Jake 2.0'', '' The Magician ...

as Bob Barnard * Sarah Colonna as Angie Bladell *

Erinn Westbrook Erinn Veronica Westbrook is an American actress, singer, dancer and model. She is known for portraying Bree in ''Glee'', Gabby Richards in the MTV series '' Awkward'', and Magnolia Barnard in the Netflix series '' Insatiable''. As of 2022, sh ...

as Magnolia Barnard * Kimmy Shields as Nonnie Thompson * Michael Provost as Brick Armstrong * Irene Choi as Dixie Sinclair * Alyssa Milano as Coralee Huggins-Armstrong *

Arden Myrin Arden VanAmringe Myrin () is an American actress and comedian. Myrin was a cast member on the Netflix series '' Insatiable'', playing the role of Regina Sinclair, and starred in the world premiere of Steve Martin's play ''Meteor Shower'' at the ...

as Regina Sinclair (season 2; recurring season 1)

Recurring

* Daniel Kang as Donald Choi *

Chloe Bridges Chloe Marisa Suazo Bridges, (born December 27, 1991), known professionally as Chloe Bridges, is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Zoey Moreno in the sitcom '' Freddie'' (2005–2006) and as Dana Turner in the Disney Channel ori ...

as Roxy Buckley *

Beverly D'Angelo Beverly Heather D'Angelo (born November 15, 1951) is an American actress who starred as Ellen Griswold in the ''National Lampoon's Vacation'' films (1983–2015). She has appeared in over 60 films and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for h ...

as Stella Rose Buckley * Jordan Gelber as Sheriff Hank Thompson * James Lastovic as Christian Keene (season 1; guest season 2) *

Christine Taylor Christine Joan Taylor Stiller (born July 30, 1971) is an American actress. She is known for playing Marcia Brady in ''The Brady Bunch Movie'' and ''A Very Brady Sequel'', as well as roles in films like '' The Craft'', '' The Wedding Singer'', '' ...

as Gail Keene * Michael Ian Black as Pastor Mike Keene * Carly Hughes as Etta Mae Barnard * Ashley D. Kelley as Dee Marshall *

Alex Landi Alex Landi (born September 28, 1992) is an American actor and model of Korean-Italian descent, best known for his role as Dr. Nico Kim on ABC's ''Grey's Anatomy''. Early life and education Landi was born in New York City. His mother, Nana Landi, ...

as Henry Lee (season 2) * Vincent Rodriguez III as Detective Rudy Cruz (season 2) * Caroline Pluta as Heather Kristina Pamela Kendall Jackson Johnson (season 2) *

Brett Rice James Brett Rice (born April 20, 1954) is an American film, television, and theater actor. He is perhaps known for his roles in the films ''Forrest Gump'' (1994), '' Remember the Titans'' (2000), ''Monster'' (2003), '' Super 8'' (2011), '' Foxc ...

as Robert Armstrong Sr. * Jon Lovitz as Father Schwartz *

Robin Tunney Robin Tunney (born June 19, 1972) is an American actress. Tunney made her film debut in the comedy ''Encino Man'' (1992) and rose to prominence with leading roles in the cult films '' Empire Records'' (1995) and '' The Craft'' (1996). Her perform ...

as Brandylynn Huggens * Drew Scheid as Gary / Kid *

William Baldwin William Joseph Baldwin (born February 21, 1963), Note: While birthplace is routinely listed as Massapequa, that town has no hospital, and brother Alec Baldwin was born in nearby Amityville, which does. known also as Billy Baldwin,is an American ...

(season 1) / Dana Ashbrook (season 2) as Gordy Greer *

Gloria Diaz Gloria Maria Aspillera Diaz (; born 10 March 1951) is a Filipino actress of film and television, model and beauty queen who rose to fame after being crowned Miss Universe 1969, becoming the first Filipino to hold the Miss Universe title. Early ...

as Gloria Reyes (season 2) * Tommy Dorfman as Jonathan (season 2) * Katherine Manchester as Becky (season 2) * Shannon DeVido as Shannon (season 2) *

Lance Bass James Lance Bass (; born May 4, 1979) is an American singer, dancer, actor, film, and television producer. He grew up in Mississippi and rose to fame as the bass singer for the American pop boy band NSYNC. NSYNC's success led Bass to work in film ...

as Brazen Moorehead (season 2) *

Lucius Baston Lucius Baston is an American actor from Queens, New York. He is known for best known for his roles in ''Atlanta'', ''Lovecraft Country'' and '' The Underground Railroad''. Early life The younger of two boys, Baston started entertaining at the ...

as Warden Winters (season 2)

Episodes

Season 1 (2018)

Season 2 (2019)

Production

A pilot for the series was ordered by

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

, but passed on before

picked up the series. The series was filmed in

Newnan, Georgia Newnan is a city in Metro Atlanta and the county seat of Coweta County, Georgia, about southwest of Atlanta. Its population was 42,549 at the 2020 census, up from 33,039 in 2010. History Newnan was established as county seat of Coweta Co ...

and Atlanta, Georgia . Season 2 was filmed from early-March 2019 to late-June 2019. Season 2 only consisted of 10 episodes, compared to 12 episodes in the first season. On February 14, 2020, the series was cancelled after two seasons.

Release

On July 19, 2018, the trailer for the series was released. The first season of ''Insatiable'' premiered on Netflix on August 10, 2018. On July 10, 2018, Netflix released the first teaser and the first images from the series. Prior to the show's release, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' reported on July 24, 2018, that over 100,000 people had signed an

online petition An online petition (or Internet petition, or e-petition) is a form of petition which is signed online, usually through a form on a website. Visitors to the online petition sign the petition by adding their details such as name and email address. T ...

on Change.org started on July 20, 2018, calling for Netflix to cancel ''Insatiable'', accusing it of " fat shaming". Lauren Gussis, the show's creator, defended the show, saying it was based on her own experiences as a teenager. Alyssa Milano stated on Twitter, "We are not shaming Patty .. We are addressing (through comedy) the damage that occurs from fat-shaming." As of August 27, 2018, the petition had over 230,000 signatures.

Reception

The series has an approval rating of 11% based on 56 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 2.68/10 on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

. The site's critic consensus reads: "Broad stereotypes, clumsy social commentary, and a failed attempt at wokeness make ''Insatiable'' hard to swallow."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

reported a score of 25 out of 100 for the series, based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. In negative reviews, Tim Goodman of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...

'' called the series "trite", "unfunny", and "a hot bloated mess", while Jen Chaney from ''

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...

'' called it "an equal opportunity trainwreck" replete with bad jokes about rape and pedophilia, and offensive stereotypes of

African-Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslav ...

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

, Southerners and

gay people This is a confirmed referenced overview list of notable gay, lesbian or bisexual people, who have either been open about their sexuality or for which reliable sources exist. The number of notables in the list is likely to be several times highe ...

. Reviewer

Linda Holmes Linda Holmes (born March 16, 1959) is a Democratic member of the Illinois Senate, representing the 42nd District since January 2007. The 42nd district includes all or parts of Aurora, Boulder Hill, Montgomery, Naperville, North Aurora and ...

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

said the show willfully misunderstood the realities of fat-shaming and the concerns of fat people like herself; arguing that being fat should be respected and treated with kindness: "Let me assure you: It is not satire. ''Insatiable'' is satire in the same way someone who screams profanities out a car window is a spoken-word poet." Writer

Roxane Gay Roxane Gay (born October 15, 1974) is an American writer, professor, editor, and social commentator. Gay is the author of ''The New York Times'' best-selling essay collection '' Bad Feminist'' (2014), as well as the short story collection ''Ayit ...

called the show "lazy" and "insulting" in a '' Refinery29'' piece, saying "Insatiable's greatest sin is that it suffers from a profound lack of imagination. The show cannot imagine that a straight man could truly love pageants and mentoring young women and be secure in his masculinity, or that a young lesbian could love herself enough to not fall in love with her straight best friend, or that a fat girl could be happy, healthy, and thriving without losing weight. Never does this show dare to imagine that maybe it was everyone else who had the problem when Patty was fat, not Patty herself. The show cannot imagine that perhaps, the most profound way Patty could seek vengeance would be to love herself at any size, to be seen by a love interest as lovable at any size, to see herself as beautiful because of, rather than despite, her fat body." In an interview with ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', star Debby Ryan stated that she listened to the body-positive podcast "She's All Fat" in preparation for the role. Responding via their Twitter account, hosts of the podcast Sophia Carter-Kahn and April K. Quioh stated: "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."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Insatiable 2010s American black comedy television series 2010s American comedy-drama television series 2010s American high school television series 2010s American LGBT-related comedy television series 2010s American LGBT-related drama television series 2010s American teen drama television series 2018 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings Body image in popular culture English-language Netflix original programming Television controversies in the United States Television shows about eating disorders Television series about beauty pageants Television series about bullying Television series about teenagers Television series by CBS Studios Television shows filmed in Georgia (U.S. state) Television shows set in Georgia (U.S. state) Works based on periodical articles