New UK show is ‘Survivor,’ but with disabilities
November 18th, 2009
It’s like ‘Lord of the Flies’ on crack, says one actor
From Time Magazine:
UK television executives have developed a new show in which six strangers are marooned in a remote locale and must struggle to survive. The catch: the show is fictional, but the actors have disabilities in real life.
“Cast Offs” is described as the “twisted brainchild” of producer Joel Wilson, and was originally envisioned as “as something broadly satirical that would poke fun at the way disability is generally viewed … We wanted to show the disabled were no more and no less f___ed up than anyone else.” Writer Jack Thorne, who has a disability, created a script in which the castoffs “soon reveal their true colors by endlessly complaining, shirking responsibility and squabbling with one another.”
Among the key plot points: a sexual relationship between a woman with dwarfism and a man who uses a wheelchair. The show debuts on Britain’s Channel 4 next week.
Earlier post: Opinion: British reality show shatters stereotypes
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December 15th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
From this brief synopsis of “Cast Offs” I have to say it sounds everything but satirical. Someone that claims they want to exhibit how “the disabled were no more and no less f___ed up than anyone else” is already treading on shaky ground and it seems as though he is really using this group of people as a laughing stock for the non-disabled world. Similar to Katelin, I think this series seems more akin to the freak shows of the late nineteenth and earth twentieth century. I would be curious to know how Jack Thorne feels he represents the disabled community. What kind of response does he expects to get with his new show as he has chosen to highlight their “endlessly complaining, shirking responsibility and squabbling with one another?”
December 11th, 2009 at 11:50 am
It is interesting that Wilson claims “Cast Offs” is meant as a satire of the way people view disability. I have to wonder whether this is true, or whether this statement is just Wilson’s pre-emptive defense against those who will surely claim the show is offensive. While showing that the disabled have both flaws and strengths (just, as Wilson notes, like everyone else) is a noble goal, the show’s description sounds more like a freak show of old than a ground-breaking satire. A show in which the disabled cast is written as “endlessly complaining, shirking responsibility and squabbling with one another” seems to have been conceived more as a spectacle for the “normal” viewers than any sort of statement about the way disability is viewed.