“Blackish” TV show gets it all wrong

(What The Fast?!) #1

One of my favorite TV shows, Blackish, had an episode where the father figure gets diagnosed with Diabetes this week. This show tends to tackle tough topics and I was excited to see how they handled it.

I love that they talked about race and diabetes and I thought - oh wow, they’re going to really get after this! …then the episode went on to show him attempting to fast as alternative medicine mumbo jumbo. He then passes out and his wife (who is a doctor) goes on to tell him that diabetes is not curable and he needs to take care of himself by taking insulin.

I was so sad to see this!

(Jessica) #2

I was thinking the same thing watching that episode (also one of my favorite shows). I was really hoping to see a different message.

#3

Yes, I really hated how his wife emphasized that diabetes is incurable. And insulin as the first line of treatment is just ridiculous. This episode was nothing but a commercial (notice that the actual commercials were for diabetes drugs, too). I was really disgusted by the Disneyworld episode of Blackish because Disney owns ABC. They also did an episode of The Middle at Disneyworld. It’s the ultimate in product placement. I strongly suspect that there is a tie to a pharmaceutical company in their vast holdings.

#4

I just noticed that Anthony Anderson (Dre) is a paid spokesman for Novo Nordisk. Surprise, surprise.

(What The Fast?!) #5

Wow. Disgusting.

(JOE FABEETS) #6

I know he has diabetes in real life. I saw him as a judge on some cooking show my wife watches. He might just not know about keto. I think he would be a great person to reach out to and get him to switch to be a spokes person for the ketogenic diet. Because who isn’t one once they’ve tried it?

(What The Fast?!) #7

I thought it was weird that in the show, he tried fasting and made it look like a terrible, unhealthy idea. I don’t have T2D but it made me really sad to watch them hammer home the point that it’s “incurable.”

(Dameon Welch-Abernathy) #8

Remember who really controls the messages on TV: the advertisers, sponsors, underwriters, call it whatever you want. Given how many pharmaceutical companies advertise on TV, you should not be surprised that neither the entertainment or the so-called “news” are pro-pharma (or at least not anti-pharma).

(netposer) #9

Did anyone actually think the show would take a different stance on T2D?