Netflix cancelled Insatiable on February 17, 2020, after two seasons and 22 episodes. The show had already made its argument by then, and the argument was bad.
Lauren Gussis created the series, which stars Debby Ryan as Patty Bladell and Dallas Roberts as Bob Armstrong. It ran from August 10, 2018 to October 11, 2019. Its critical score sits at 2.5 out of 10, with a Metacritic mark of 25 out of 100. That number is not a mystery. It is a verdict the show earned in its first hour and never escaped.
Trailer, via Netflix.
Patty Bladell and the Wired Jaw
The premise is this: Patty is 17, living in the fictional town of Masonville, Georgia. A homeless man assaults her violently. Her jaw gets wired shut. She lives on a liquid diet and loses 70 pounds. Before her senior year, a disgraced lawyer and beauty pageant coach named Bob Armstrong takes her on.
That is the setup for a dark comedy drama about revenge. Patty wants to punish the people she believes wronged her. Bob wants to coach her through pageants. The show wants us to find this funny.
It is not funny. It is a machine that turns a teenager’s trauma into a punchline and then asks for credit for its honesty. Insatiable mistakes provocation for insight. It mistakes a shocking premise for a story.
Bob Armstrong and the Pageant Machine
Roberts plays Bob Armstrong, and the character is the show’s biggest missed chance. A disgraced lawyer who coaches pageants should be a study in compromise. Instead he is a device. He exists to move Patty from one revenge set piece to the next.
The cast around them is deep. Kimmy Shields plays Nonnie Thompson. Christopher Gorham plays Bob Barnard. Alyssa Milano plays Coralee Armstrong. Erinn Westbrook plays Magnolia Barnard. Irene Choi plays Dixie Sinclair. Arden Myrin plays Regina Sinclair. Michael Provost plays Brick Armstrong. Sarah Colonna plays Angie Bladell.
That is a lot of talent spent on a show that does not know what to do with it. Milano in particular is stranded. The pageant world should be the show’s engine. Instead it is wallpaper.
Two Seasons, 22 Episodes, One Note
The first season premiered on Netflix on August 10, 2018. Netflix renewed it in September 2018. The second season premiered on October 11, 2019. Then came the cancellation on February 17, 2020.
Twenty-two episodes is enough time to grow. Insatiable does not grow. It repeats. Patty’s rage deepens, Bob realizes how far she will go, and the show keeps making the same point with more force. Volume is not development.
The series is based on an article published in July 2014 in The New York Times Magazine. That is a real story with real stakes. The show takes that material and flattens it into a revenge fantasy with a body count and a laugh track’s rhythm.
What the Reviews Got Right
Critics called Insatiable “offensive” and “insulting.” Some praise went to the performances and the dark humor. That split is the honest read.
Ryan commits. Roberts commits. The problem is not the acting. The problem is the writing, which cannot decide whether Patty is a villain, a victim, or a hero, and so makes her all three depending on what a scene needs.
A show about a bullied teenager who turns to pageants for revenge could say something real about appearance, cruelty, and the stories we tell about both. Insatiable says nothing. It points at something ugly and waits for a reaction.
The Score
Insatiable is a 2.5 out of 10. That matches the published critical score, and it is the right number.
The show had a cast, a platform, and a source article worth adapting. It had two seasons to find a point of view. It never did. What it had instead was a premise it trusted more than its own characters.
The cancellation in February 2020 was not a tragedy. It was a correction. Insatiable is not a show that failed because it was too dark or too strange. It failed because it was empty, and 22 episodes is a long time to be empty in public.
KEY FACTS
– Score: 2.5/10
– Metacritic: 25/100
– Seasons: 2
– Episodes: 22
– First aired: August 10, 2018
– Last aired: October 11, 2019
– Cancelled: February 17, 2020
– Network: Netflix
– Created by: Lauren Gussis
– Based on: an article published in The New York Times Magazine, July 2014
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