On Sept. 21, ABC launched the pilot to their new sitcom “Speechless,” which follows the DiMeo family as they try to settle into their new home. This might seem like your run-of-the-mill comedy with an average family and average struggles. While I argue that the DiMeo family is an average family, “Speechless” is receiving a lot of attention for one of their main characters, JJ, a teenage boy with cerebral palsy.
“Speechless” does an incredible job of commenting on how society views disability and its impact on a family.
JJ, played by Micah Fowler, is a typical teenage boy with no mental limitations. Throughout the show, he often flips people off, although they may not be able to tell because he does not have fully mobile hands. He is limited in mobility and speech. Minnie Driver plays Maya DiMeo, the high-strung matriarch of the family determined to provide the best life for her son. Although she has good intentions, she has a tendency to make big scenes very quickly and schools across the state fear her. She starts screaming at a principal when JJ has to use the same wheelchair ramp used to take out the garbage. JJ’s little brother Ray, played by Mason Cook, has no disability. He’s frustrated that his mother’s quick temper but determination to provide JJ with a normal life cause him to have to move all the time with the family. Though he loves his brother, Ray wants to have a normal life, which he feels can’t happen with all the sacrifices he makes.
With these characters, “Speechless” challenges the so-called progressive views of a neighborhood. While the staff at the school boasts about inclusion for all, they fail to realize what the term means, since school lacks wheelchair access at events and the only ramp they do have is at the back of the school. When JJ first enters the class, his peers applaud him, call him an inspiration and ask him to become student president. JJ responds with, “Why? You don’t know me,” before he later tries to tell off his classmates.
The show brings up an interesting point about society. We have a tendency to treat people with disabilities as if they are incapable of doing anything that we do. JJ is normal child who happens to need a wheelchair to get around and an aide to help him speak. Going to school doesn’t make him an inspiration; everyone has to go to school. What he wants most is just to be treated normally. That same classroom was nervous to say or do certain things in front of him, as if being able to walk was offensive to someone who could not. Meanwhile, his family would make light of the situation. When his father said that someone had to stay in the car in one scene, he lightheartedly followed with something along the lines of, “Gee, I wonder who that’s gonna be.”
The show also does an excellent job at showing relationships between family when JJ chooses to sacrifice for his brother. When he sees that Ray is getting into trouble with kids at school, after getting in a fight with their mother about moving earlier that day, JJ protects his brother by creating a distraction. This again, poses an idea that we don’t get to see often in stories involving disability — the person with the disability does not always need to be saved.
“Speechless” is a new type of family comedy. It challenges stereotypes, makes hard subjects discussable and has the potential to do great things. The show airs Wednesday nights at 8:30 on ABC .
