4 Awesome TV Shows Featuring Disabilities: Netflix Edition
Lockdown can be boring. We’ve decided to help you get through the boredom by selecting 4 awesome TV shows featuring disabilities. These shows feature characters who have disabilities acting in a manner that is both realistic and compelling.
We have selected these based on several criteria:
- The nuance of the character portrayals.
- The acting talent on show.
- The sheer entertainment value of the shows in question.
Without further ado, here are our 4 awesome TV shows featuring disabilities.
All currently available to stream in their entirety on Netflix (UK). We hope you have as much pleasure watching them as we did.
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad tells the story of Walter White, a struggling chemistry teacher, who discovers that he has cancer and a limited time to live.
Driven to take care of his son, wife and new daughter, he ventures into the illicit production of crystal meth. While the show shines in the portrayal of a man’s descent into the seedy underbelly of the drug trade, it also excels in how it depicts Walter White’s son in one of the strongest examples of an actor with a disability has been cast in a role that doesn’t focus on his disability in anyway.
Stranger Things
Set in the 1980s, Stranger Things follows a groups of friends as they uncover sinister government conspiracies and meet a young girl with supernatural powers.
While Stranger Things got a great deal of critical acclaim for its storyline and acting, it also impressed viewers with the way the writers of the show incorporated Gaten Matarazzo’s disability—Cleidocranial dysplasia, into the show after his audition. This was significant because it lends credence to the fact that specifying that characters be non-disabled in casting requirements is slowly becoming a thing of the past.
Atypical
Atypical is not your everyday romantic comedy. It follows Sam, a teenager on the autistic spectrum, as he navigates the thrilling and confusing world of dating and relationships.
As if this wasn’t complicated enough, Sam also has to assert his independence from his doting mother, father and sister, and navigate what normal truly means in a world where nothing seems to be typical.
Maniac
This last entry on the list is by no means the least. Maniac is a funny, yet realistic portrayal of what it feels like to love someone with mental illnesses.
It follows Owen and Annie as they take part in a pharmacological trial that they hope will help them deal with their Paranoid Schizophrenia and Borderline Personality Disorder.
Maniac wins the creation points for its sensitive portrayal of the issues they struggle with and the challenges they face as they try to live life free of their demons.
If you prefer movies to TV series then check out our recent blog post on 10 disability aware movies to binge in lockdown.
