This is where you will be posting your "Analytical Blog Entries" for COM322. Below you can view an example of what is expected:
Cast Offs No Longer
Alright, I will be the first one to admit it—I love the Brits. There are several things that they have done right—including, but not limited to, fish and chips, Colin Firth, double-decker busses and the Beatles. Well now, one more thing can be added to that list: Channel 4’s mini-series Cast-Offs. The mock-umentary follows six characters as they try to be self sufficient in all but deserted wilderness. Each of the episodes follows one if the characters as they go about their business and reminisce about their lives. In a surprising and exciting twist, the show is not at all denigrating to the characters and does not speak down to the audience. Instead, it is an honest portrayal of people with disabilities. This is because all of the cast members and most of the writers have disabilities.
The goal of the series was to create an account that did not simply cater to the able-bodied audiences who were in search of a feel-good program, but for the fans with disabilities who wanted the realities if their lives to be the subject. “This is not something that’s really been seen before,” said Victoria Wright, the actress who plays a scientist with cherubism on the show in an interview for The Time, “showing as adults who drink, swear and have sex. I am sure there are going to be a lot of people saying, ‘My goodness, I didn’t know disabled people could do that.” This is an idea that might shock able bodied viewers. According to Kathleen LeBesco, a media scholar, the idea that the disabled might participate in behaviors such as drinking or sex without any regrets is unfathomable.
All of the actors in the show have disabilities that correlate with the characters they play, it was also written by people with disabilities. Alex Bulmer is blind and Jack Thorne has an allergy to heat that causes his body to become overwhelmed by the heat it produces. Casting for the characters, however, took place well before any of the writing occurred.
A profile on the show by Ben Hoyle revealed that in to write for the show, the writers asked the cast members about their lives. “what is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you because of your disability?” or “what are the best and worst things people have done because of your condition.” Questions such as these are what fueled the inspiration that was needed to create the show.
Considering that the show is considered to be a still taboo topic, the show does an excellent job of marrying entertainment with education. Western society makes many assumptions about the disabled people based on what the media reiterates to viewers. Many of these beliefs can be dispelled on a case to case basis but media has not taken the time to ask the necessary questions with a level of honesty of respect.
I will say this for people who are itching to hunt down someone with a disability and strike up a conversation. I am not my disability. I do not think about it all day every day and I do not sit in my room crying about the woes of my life. I would compare it to brushing my teeth. It is an everyday thing, I need tools to do it, but I don’t think about it all day.
“I hope that this will do for disability what Queer as Folk did for gay people,” said Joel Wilson, a producer for Cast Offs. “[It] should make people see that disabled people are no more and no less f***** up than anyone else.” It is a program that heads media in the right direction. If only such an idea would cross the pond.
