An advocacy group for people with eating disorders is protesting FX’s new show “Starved,” a comedy about people with anorexia, bulimia and other disorders.
The National Eating Disorders Association is organizing a viewer and advertiser boycott of the show, which it calls “appalling and reprehensible.” The series, created by and starring Eric Schaeffer (“If Lucy Fell,” “Century City”), follows four friends who have eating disorders and attend a “shame-fueled” therapy group.
“Eating disorders are illnesses, not choices, and certainly no laughing matter. For anyone who has battled an eating disorder, watched a loved one do so, or lost a child to the illness, it’s no joke,” Lynn Grefe, CEO of the Eating Disorders Association, says in a statement on the group’s web site.
“… More than tasteless, ‘Starved’ may be dangerous, leading some sufferers to identify with the characters, justify their own behavior and resist treatment.”
FX officials have not commented on the protest but they are standing by the show, which debuts at 10 p.m. ET Thursday (Aug. 4) and is scheduled for a seven-week run. Schaeffer, who portrays a compulsive eater and anorexic on “Starved,” has said he’s battled “eating issues” and addiction in the past.
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