8 reasons why you should watch Special on Netflix

We’ve curated a few reasons you should settle in and watch Special on Netflix. Our reasons are on-brand with the series itself: why you should watch, as told by a disabled LGBTQ person.

Having a Netflix account is a love-hate relationship. Sometimes they cancel your favorite shows (*ahem* One Day at a Time *ahem*). Other times, the streaming service tries to amend your broken relationship by released more inclusive, well-written, and just plain fun shows like She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Sex Education, and All American.

The latest reconciliation offering is Special. It’s special because the narrative isn’t really special, despite the fact that it centers around a story told from a perspective that’s severely underrepresented in mainstream media.

I’ll share several reasons why you should watch the series, if for whatever reason the trailer hasn’t sold you already.

Based on the autobiography I’m Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves by Ryan O’Connell, the book that’s been transformed into a Netflix original series is about a gay man with cerebral palsy, and it focuses on his love life.

Since Special is a sitcom about a gay disabled man, created by and starring a gay disabled man (O’Connell himself), why not have an openly gay disabled person break down some of the many reasons you should watch the series? In other words, me.

1. It’s created by and for gay disabled folks

While the series is about a gay man with cerebral palsy who hid his disability, a lot of gay disabled people can deeply resonant to the narrative at the forefront and background of the show. Whether you have an invisible disability, visible disability, or a disability with wavering degrees of visibility (or all the above), disabilities often make abled people feel on uncomfortable (or worse). Because of this or other reasons entirely, some disabled people hide their disability or refrain from saying they’re disabled, and Special expands on that idea.

2. But that doesn’t mean everyone can’t relate to the series

Special is just plain relatable. While the content is especially relatable for LGBTQ disabled people, there’s something relatable for every person to relate to. Unless of course, you somehow hate fun or quirky somewhat-biographical shows.

3. It’s an under-told story

We wish we could say there’s just one genre where disabled people are underrepresented. However, there are very few shows or films that even include disabled characters. Plus, we have to deal with the fact that many disabled characters in media are either villainized synonymously with their disability, or an abled actor portrays the character and misrepresents a specific disability (or perpetuates harmful stereotypes).

4. Helps destigmatize sex and disability

For whatever reason, there’s a long-running and untrue myth that disabled people don’t have fulfilling love lives or sex. As Special unearths O’Connell’s trials and triumphs using gay dating apps as a disabled person, the dating while disabled arc is almost too familiar for a lot of disabled people.

5. It helps fill a void in the virtually non-existent gay sex education

As O’Connell tells Entertainment Weekly, gay sex education basically doesn’t exist. (Granted, sex education, in general, isn’t in the best shape anywhere in the United States.) Regarding the lack of gay sex education (particularly the lack of gay and disabled sex education) in his own high school experience O’Connell notes:

"It was a different time on the internet, it was 2004 so there wasn’t going to be 2,000 Out magazine articles about it. It was really scary navigating the world of gay sex because I had no point of reference. So I hope even a gay teen can watch Special and go, “Oh, it’s okay. It’s awkward.”"

6. It normalizes disability discourse

Honestly, there are growing numbers of anti-disabled bills circulating through U.S. history. Implicit or explicit, ableism isn’t a new concept (unfortunately). While bigots can use ableism as a way to conflate ableist rhetoric with racism, homophobia, and sexism, discussing disability along with sexuality innately helps create some positive disability discourse.

7. Special is peppy and funny

Some of the lines might delve too much into dry humor so some. However, the realistic approach of the series offers a lot of the humor. Overall, the series features a genuine story that omits disability from the punchlines (apart from minor self-deprecating humor, but everyone is allowed to joke about themselves).

8. Watching it supports gay disabled representation

Special is an important step for gay disabled representation in pop culture. Although depictions of mainstream disabled characters are still overwhelmingly white, disabled representation rarely ever gets an opportunity to include other groups, such as LGBTQ representation.

Like the characters that represent us, disabled people are multidimensional characters. We have separate identities outside of our disabilities. Sure, some of us might be defined by our disabled identities (for various reasons that also change from time to time).

However, a lot of us have other identities, and those identities aren’t often mutually exclusive to our disabilities. Our other identities can impact our disabilities, just like our disabilities can affect our other identities. Using this Netflix series as a way to discuss the intersection of gay identities and disability is arguably a big step in mainstream television history.

Special is a beacon of visibility where disability and LGBTQ identities intermingle. Since a lot of series aren’t for disabled people and even more a dangerous mockery of us at times, Special feature stories and humor that are meant for disabled eyes and ears. There are a heck of a lot of disabled people in the world, and over a third of us are also apart of the LGBTQ community, so it’s about time we get more mainstream stories about us that are a lot less myopic.

Special is now streaming on Netflix.