BOX SETS AND ON DEMAND

Insatiable (Netflix, Fri)

Simmons. Back then he was known as Rev Run (he’s an ordained minister) or DJ Run, a musician and rapper who found fame with Run-DMC. In 1983, he married Valerie Vaughn, but it’s his subsequent marriage to Justine Jones in 1994 that forms the basis of this new sitcom. The family appeared in the reality show Run’s House in 2005, but here we get to see a fictional take on their lives. The couple have kept their first names but changed their surname to Washington and the story follows what happens when Joey retires from the music business to become a house husband, enabling his wife Justine to begin a career of her own.

Controversy brings publicity, which means that you’ve probably already heard of this new series. It’s been criticised by some for “fat-shaming”; when we first meet her, the lead character is overweight and unpopular, but following an accident that causes her to have her mouth wired shut, she becomes beautiful and a possible pageant show queen. Written in bald terms like that, it may sound shocking, but this is a dark satire rather than a bright and breezy teenybopper show and, once you get past that basic premise, it turns into a tale of determination and revenge, highlighting the appalling behaviour of the bullies who made our heroine’s life a misery. Lead star Debbie Ryan has delivered a passionate defence of the series and, not unreasonably, hopes that people will watch before judging or condemning it.