Sunday, October 4, 2009

Conflicts with a new show on NBC

Earlier this year a new show called Community premiered on NBC. Its about a motley group of people who have made the choice to join community college. In the show there are the typical characters, the popular guy, the highschool drop-out, the advocate, single mother, token old guy, guy stuck in highschool and becasue of popularity a guy with Aspergers.

I don't have any problems with society recognizing different disabilities in the media but I do have concerns with how these people are portrayed. For example, this character was made fun of infront of his classmates when someone said he had "Ass Burgers". Would it not be seen as taboo if someone made a large racial slur on television? How come then, its ok to make fun of people with disabilities?

The other part of this character, Abud, is that many aspects, and quirks of Abud's character that are being defined as ASD are not ASD at all. If this show gets more popular, and the writers continue to show Abud as a person with Aspbergers could a populations view on ASD be skewed?

I will most likely continue to watch the show, the writing aside from Abud's character is pretty good but I also want to see what they do with this character.

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