The New Normal

Ah, the fall television season. We don't watch a lot of TV, in fact, we don't even own one. But I do watch some programs on the computer and recently started watching The New Normal, a new comedy from NBC. This is the story of a couple's quest to become parents-Bryan and David find a surrogate in Goldie, and we get to watch their relationship unfold. Goldie's school age daughter and bigoted grandmother round out this unusual "family."

Episode 3 depicted David, a doctor, as holding back his excitement about the new baby until the pregnancy was far enough along to be certain that the baby was healthy. As I watched him explaining all the tests to his partner and Goldie, I could feel myself becoming tense. I wondered where they were going with this, what would David and Bryan do if some of the tests came back positive. This is  a hot topic issue in the special needs world-the quest for a perfect baby. I plan to write about this issue in more detail later in the month, but it is certainly unnerving to watch a program created for entertainment-a comedy-brush the surface of such a complex question. The clip is here.

The show quickly went in another direction before I could get too upset. David and Bryan are harassed at a store by a horrible man who proclaims that its wrong for them to become parents. A short time later David tried to stand up for a man with Down Syndrome(played by Eddie Barbanell) at his gym. After punching the jerk who insultingly says "the retard's holding up the line," the man with DS shouts "Hey! I don't need you to fight my battles for me, fag!" David was understandably dismayed and offended.


I loved it.

I constantly hear remarks about how sweet and kind and loving people with DS are. But like any other stereotype, it allows people to see Hattie and others with DS as a generic label, instead of taking the time to really get to know an individual. Sure a person who has DS might be kind. Or they might be a jerk. Or, most likely, they are both of those things, and so many more, depending on the day they are having.

While I'm reserving the right to be pissed off if the show goes in a direction I don't like with the heavy use of prenatal testing, for now I am really enjoying the way the writers are using humor to take on all of our deep dark prejudices.