Over 234,000 people have signed a change.org petition that calls on Netflix to cancel their new series ‘Insatiable’ on the grounds that it among others mocks Christians, sexualises Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
The series is described by Netflix as “a dark, twisted revenge comedy” and was released on August 10. The petition’s signees, however, see its film in a less than comedic light, with Media Research Center’s News Busters accusing the producers for promoting “all kinds of sexual and gender identity exploration among minors and adults alike, to liberal issues like abortion.”
News Busters wrote, “having young, teenage girls pleading with Jesus and the Holy Spirit to have sex with them is definitely shocking and completely disgusting.”
Rated TV-MA to be “viewed by adults and unsuitable for children under 17,” the series is about a formerly overweight teenage girl name Patty Bladell (former Disney star Debby Ryan) who takes revenge on the students who once bullied her. After losing 70 pounds, the now skinny Patty enters the Miss Magic Jesus Pageant in which the winner dons a “crown of thorns.”
In the series, Patty is unknowingly filmed engaging in sex acts with her pastor’s teenage son inside a Noah’s Ark on the children’s playground. Thinking she’s pregnant, Pastor Mike (comedian Michael Ian Black) calls Patty and her father into his office for a meeting where he breaks the news that he cannot have an “unwed, pregnant teenager” representing Miss Magic Jesus, so he must strip her of her crown. Patty’s response is to assure her pastor not to worry because she’s decided to have an abortion.
Several LGBT storylines are also prominent in the series, including a transgender student and Patty’s best friend Nonnie (Kimmy Shields) who discovers that she has an obsessive crush on Patty and eventually kisses her. Nonnie later kisses a boy, too, but decides to start a lesbian relationship with a contestant in the Miss Magic Jesus Pageant who hit on her in the girls’ bathroom.
After watching her girlfriend’s lyric performance in the pageant, Nonnie enthusiastically tells her father (who’s seated next to her in the audience), “That’s my girlfriend.” He replies with an approving smile and fatherly hug around her shoulder. The sexual references to Jesus and the Holy Spirit in that episode were described by News Busters as “the most offensive scene of the entire show.”
The show’s creator Lauren Gussis told the Chicago Tribune in an interview that she drew upon her own experiences of being bullied in school and issues with overeating and body image for the series and was surprised by the backlash.
