You won’t regret stealing your friend’s Hulu password to catch a glimpse of Hulu’s new original hard-hitting series Shrill.
The new show, adapted from the nonfiction book Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by writer and activist Lindy West, was produced by popular writers and actors such as Lorne Michaels, Elizabeth Banks, and Aidy Bryant who also stars as the main character herself: Annie.
You may know Michaels and Bryant from producing and writing for Saturday Night Live. You better believe their sharp and witty commentary is not lost on Shrill.
The show opens surrounding the life of the main character, Annie, a fat woman from the current day who is in the midst of her own personal revolution of body positivity and self love.
Although popular culture in America is becoming more and more accepting of all body types, Annie has to deal with constant fat shaming, whether implicit and explicit, in many aspects of her life.
From her soul-crippling job with her snobbish and perpetually condescending boss, to her relationship to a childish and undeserving boyfriend, and her poor connection with her mother, Annie is constantly reminded by others that her size is not only wrong or negative, but her defining quality.
They can’t seem to realize that she’s a passionate writer or a warm and welcoming friend. She is defined to outsiders by her “inability to control her weight” and throughout the short series we see her battle with these thoughts.
Our culture has always taught us that being fat is necessarily negative, and anyone who has experienced any level of fat shaming will be able to relate to the excruciatingly realistic encounters Annie has in her day to day life.
She is often confronted with the arguments from others that her weight must take a toll on her health, or that she is a prime example of the “obesity epidemic” in America.
The show brings to light that in reality, people are just uncomfortable with those who are different from them.
Annie teaches us that even if an individual’s physiology is different from your own, it doesn’t give you the right to shame them for it and then claim that you’re “concerned for their health.”
Also, how much other people weigh is just simply not your business. Case closed.
I really enjoyed seeing Annie’s journey and growth throughout the show, and how she has developed from being self deprecating and passive to being a bad b*tch who confronts her haters and begins to appreciate her body and mind.
I believe that she still has a lot of work to do on understanding her self-worth (that we will hopefully get to see in a second season), but I really appreciate the message that the show is trying to send and I believe that broadcasting this common and relatable story is a good step in the direction of de-stigmatizing being fat.
Personally, this story really resonated with me and my own self consciousness over my weight. Unfortunately there’s not a lot of representation of fat people in the media, whether it’s movies shows, books, the news, and so on, so it felt refreshing to see a show addressing someone who doesn’t just weigh 110 pounds.
Seeing a show like this makes me think that society is finally moving in the right direction regarding inclusivity and it’s exciting to see where the producers will take this series in the future.