A satire series about an overweight, bullied teen losing said weight, dealing with body dysmorphia and battling with her cravings for vengeance in beauty pageants already sounds like a packed contemporary tale. And that’s only the basic outline.

Insatiable earned an unfavorable reputation before the show was even released. Thousands of Netflix viewers signed a petition for the show to be canceled due to its flawed and debatably insensitive outlook on weight and body
image for teens in 2018.

However, the show’s questionable satiric point of view is not why the show maybe a failure after all.
Insatiable lives up to its name in the sense that the writers clearly weren’t even close to satisfied with their amount of gimmicky drama smushed into the 12 episode rollercoaster ride. The bullied becomes the bullier message it’s supposed to be portraying becomes completely lost in the mess of writing.

The show even begins with a straying far from innocent, crush Patty develops on her Lawyer/ Pageant Coach, Bob Armstrong. Although it could’ve added comical relief to the tension of accused molestation, it exceeds a definite limit for its attention in the show.

Nonnie and Patty, as if we needed more cliches, are the best friends of the show and they face problems as Nonnie develops intense feelings for her. Another theme of acceptance for the assumed societal outcasts is then introduced and it’s unexpectedly a perfect addition to the series as her coming-out scene is beautifully written and performed.

However, more characters of the show are revealed to be struggling with sexual orientation in a rather predictable way. The theme becomes redundant and there are too many topics fighting for the spotlight at one point.

The show’s inconsistency is overwhelming as it constantly switches from comical to serious in a matter of seconds. A satire has to stay focused on the original message and plot in order to be effective; there are random heavy scenes such as her trouble with wearing a bathing suit and even murder that leave viewers suffering with whiplash.

If anything saves the chance for a second season, it’s the performances by the strong cast.

Dallas Roberts is pleasantly hilarious as Bob struggles with almost every theme presented in this loaded story, and
Alyssa Milano creates substance for her supposedly shallow character, Coralee. Their hysterical southern craving for high society and class is one of the only solid aspects of the series that made this experience bearable.

The main character, originally intended to be the underdog, Debby Ryan is a little too consistent as Patty lacks character development with the progression of the show, however, that may just be due to the neglect in writing with
all of the other dynamic characters battling for screen time.

Despite the abundance of flaws, I was one of the many viewers guilty of being sucked into the drama resulting in binging the entire series.

Insatiable was misunderstood from the very beginning. However, it didn’t offer much in order to prove its criticizers wrong just as “Fatty Patty” can’t shake her inner demons either.