Pages

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The myth of overcoming disability

Anyone else watching the PBS series Downton Abbey?

Being this is a historical series, it's not surprising that where a disabled character is introduced, someone decides to write in an episode about overcoming disability. It's reflective of those times.

Oh wait. It's still happening.

Anyway, there were hints of this in episode 1, where the staff debated whether the character could do his job properly and almost got him fired. In episode two, Bates, the newly hired valet with a leg injury from an old war injury, decides to try out a brace to "overcome his lameness".

I don't want to post spoilers, but the series seems to "overcome" the usual "overcoming" myth by the end of episode 2. By episode 3, Bates' disability is dealt with again in a relationship, so we'll see how that evolves.

You can watch episode 2 and the rest of the series here.

2 comments:

Emma said...

Downton Abbey was originally on over here and I've seen all of the first series (it was made by and on ITV here in case any Brits are reading this and wondering). It's great and yes, they do get to a very positive disability angel. I LOVE it for many things but especially for that.

Ruth said...

Emma,
Good to know that they stay positive with the disability issues. I'm enjoying this series very much :)