Netflix’s new dark comedy “Insatiable” is set in the Southern world of beauty pageants, but the controversial series also has roots in the Chicago area. Show creator Lauren Gussis said she drew upon her own experience dealing with bullies and an eating disorder while growing up in the north suburbs.
The 12-episode series, which premiered in August, is a “coming of rage” story that follows vengeful teenager “Fatty Patty” (played by Disney Channel alum Debby Ryan) as she teams up with a disgraced pageant coach (played by “Dallas Buyers Club” star Dallas Roberts) after she loses a lot of weight. Critics have called the show “an offensive mess,” “almost unwatchable” and “obscenely cruel” for perceived fatphobia, but Gussis said she has heard from many viewers who related to the issues raised on the show.
“From the beginning I had always said that if I touched one person, like if I made one person feel less alone, I had done my job, and it’s been like dozens and dozens of people have reached out to me saying that I did that,” Gussis told the Tribune by phone. “I had felt so alone for so much of my life that I wanted to reach out and use my pain to make other people feel connected, less alone, and to create a forum for discussion because out of the discussion comes community.”
Gussis grew up in Vernon Hills and Deerfield and attended Shepard Middle School, Deerfield High School and Northwestern University. She said she was abandoned by her friends “very quickly and seemingly without reason” while in middle school, and she lost self-esteem, struggled with trust issues, craved revenge and developed a binge-eating disorder that lasted into her 20s.
She turned to writing and theater work because that’s where she felt safe. After graduating from Northwestern in 2000, she worked on a local indie movie, “UP, Michigan!” before moving to Los Angeles. She served as a writer’s assistant on the WB drama “Birds of Prey,” the teen series “The O.C.” and the Fox soap opera “North Shore.” Her first staff writing job was on the NBC military drama “E-Ring.”
She ended up working on the Showtime serial killer series “Dexter” for several years until its 2013 finale. The following year, Gussis was handed a New York Times Magazine story about Bill Alverson, the so-called “pageant king of Alabama.” The idea for “Insatiable” was born.
“Anytime someone is so focused on fixing up another person, my question is, What are they avoiding themselves? And so that was the story that I wanted to tell — the story of a guy who kind of uses one of his pageant clients as an avatar to make all of his dreams come true. Then mutually, he becomes her white knight and saves her from herself,” Gussis said. “For me, the idea of Patty came largely from the idea that what if he picks somebody who is beautiful on the outside but maybe isn’t so beautiful on the inside?”
The CW network showed initial interest in the dramedy, but it eventually landed at Netflix. The 90-second trailer — which shows Patty being taunted by classmates until Ryan sheds her fat suit — immediately spurred backlash when it was released in July. A Change.org petition garnered more than 200,000 signatures from people who thought the series “perpetuates not only the toxicity of diet culture, but the objectification of women’s bodies.”
“I knew that this was going to hit a nerve, but I was surprised that people were reacting so strongly to a trailer without even seeing the show,” Gussis said. “There are some things in the show that have been misunderstood. But I’ve been really, really moved by the amount of love and support that I’ve gotten from fans.”
Body dysmorphia, sexuality, unhealthy relationships with food and dependence on external sources for self-worth are among the many themes explored on the show, which Gussis describes as an over-the-top “fever dream of revenge fantasy.” Gussis said she struggled with these same issues and learned that you don’t automatically become a good person when you fix your outside, you need to take a look inside. Patty’s unhappiness doesn’t disappear when she loses the weight.
Gussis said since the series premiered, she has heard from some childhood friends and acquaintances, including one who offered an apology. Gussis said she wasn’t harboring resentment toward that person, but the gesture made her feel “so seen in a way that I don’t think I had felt seen in that place before, and it was kind of remarkable.”
Netflix has not announced if there will be a second season of “Insatiable.” When asked if she would change anything about the first season in light of the criticism, Gussis stood by her work.
“The show is so much about wanting things to be different, and then the second they are different, then you want them to be different again. So I think for me, part of my work spiritually is loving what is,” Gussis said. “I choose to love it exactly as the way it is because it’s brought me to this place on this day, which is exactly where I need to be.”
tswartz@tribpub.com
Twitter @tracyswartz
