Those who like to nitpick about political correctness will find something to hate about Insatiable, a cynical comedy that could be described as Fried Green Tomatoes meets South Park but is unique enough to be in a category all of its own. The series focuses on a teenager who suddenly goes from fat to skinny and decides to become a beauty pageant contestant.
Like the 2006 film Idiocracy, which was not well received by US audiences because it may have hit too close to the mark in its scathing satire, Insatiable is a misunderstood gem that appears too crass and over-the-top, but maybe it’s exactly the wakeup call we need.
Some critics are quick to look for violations of political correctness and take offense at its broad humour and its supposed fat-shaming, which Linda Holmes of NPR decries. In response to a scene where Patty (Debby Ryan) punches a homeless man for trying to take her candy bar, Holmes writes “protecting candy to the point of violence is sort of the ‘jump to light speed’ of ridiculing your fat characters — it shorthands their shameful appetites, their lack of rationality and discipline, their single-minded prey drive, and their infantile attachment to foods mostly associated with children.”
The show is definitely concerned with issues of body image and food disorders and does at times take things to cartoonish extremes. However, to me, this scene was not about fat people – it was about people who are driven to rage by others’ mistreatment. The candy bar is just the last straw. Patty loses her temper over it because of everything else she has suffered, from abandonment by her father to the constant bullying at school. She has reached a breaking point.
The fact that she can be violent, impulsive, mean, and vindictive is what I find so fresh and often darkly funny about this show. In a world (North America generally and the pageant world particularly) where women are still expected to be sweet, perky and constantly smiling, a young woman like Patty is a victim turned aggressor, a rebel who doles out just punishment to bullies and hypocrites with her outrageous antics.
Linda Holmes also scoffs at the pageant’s name, “Miss Magic Jesus”, which is precisely the type of quirky detail that makes this show funny, at least to those with an appreciation for the absurd.
Yes, it is crass and camp, but that is Insatiable’s style, not its substance. The supposed fat jokes may be offensive, but ultimately the show treats its characters in a sympathetic and understanding way. The main characters in Insatiable hunger for justice, for belonging, and for happiness, trying to fill an emptiness inside them that may never be filled.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3WFkymCmDc
“It’s really about good people who are making bad decisions based on that hole in them,” says the show’s creator Lauren Gussis, who previously produced the TV series Dexter. But I would frame it more as deranged people making horrible, unforgivable decisions—the cringe-inducing Season 1 finale was too much even for me, a devoted fan (season 1 spoilers ahead). Maybe I should have known it would end in murder since Patty nearly lights a man on fire in the very first episode, but I doubt anyone could have predicted that she would end up beating her ex-boyfriend to death with a crowbar while maniacally shouting, “I’m a good person!”
“If you’re looking for positive meanings, earned wisdom, or role modeling from ‘Insatiable,’ your hunger will go unsatisfied,” writes Matthew Gilbert of the Boston Globe. Very true, because the show is not about positive meanings. It’s about the self-destructive anger of the downtrodden.
Patty is determined to become a pageant winner, no matter the cost. Due to the corrupting influence of society which only fuels her own unhinged personality, the cost is often her own moral values. The fight for Patty’s soul is filled with hairpin twists and turns from her attempts to cheat on a Bible quiz to accidental drug use at her own baptism.
The religious subplot, which could have played out in a much more predictable way, is anything but stupid. The community’s main religious figure could have been cast in the role of the oft-seen hypocritical preacher who gives in to sin and corruption, but instead Pastor Mike (Michael Ian Black) is practically a saint who earnestly tries to help his parishioners. His only flaw is that he may be too forgiving and willing to give second chances. Presumably, he could have stopped Patty from entering the Magic Jesus pageant and thus prevented the disastrous chain of events that unfolded as a result.
Insatiable champions the outsider, be they overweight like Patty or sexually complicated and not easily fitting into a given category of ‘gay’ or ‘straight’ like her pageant coach Bob (Dallas Roberts).
But it does more than that. It also goes as far as humanizing the insiders. Even those who have achieved the highest status in the community, such as ‘cool Bob’, the successful lawyer with the outwardly perfect nuclear family, and his daughter Magnolia, the drug-addicted pageant queen, are miserable people living a lie. All are equally mocked, but all are seen as suffering human beings. This is a truly unflinching portrayal of American society, Insatiable must be cruel only to be kind.
The revolting picture that it presents may not be palatable to all, but it serves up well-aimed social criticism seasoned with witty comedy and outrageous farce. Those who are starved for a more complex and dark brew will love it.
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