Comments on: New UK show is ‘Survivor,’ but with disabilities

By: Shanna

Shanna — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:53:05 +0000

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?”

By: Katelin

Katelin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:50:15 +0000

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.