Diabetes in Movies + TV: When Hollywood Nailed It + Failed It
As you probably already know, diabetes representation in the media is notoriously lacking. However, we’ve seen some great progress in the last few years . . . and some not-so-great. Here, we look at three recent examples of diabetes in the movies that nailed it and three that failed it.
When Hollywood Nailed it
The Baby-Sitters Club
The 2020 revival of The Baby-Sitters Club isn’t afraid to focus on Stacey McGill’s diabetes—in fact, episode three is dedicated to it! But what makes this representation so good is how the Netflix show also isn’t afraid to give Stacey a personality beyond her diabetes.
Stacey can be seen casually pulling out a juice box while babysitting, wearing a continuous glucose monitor and insulin pump and requesting a Gucci fanny pack to carry her supplies. It’s clear that her diabetes is more than a plot device, and Stacey is more than just her diabetes.
Purple Hearts
This 2022 Netflix romance film, which Beyond Type 1 reviewed in greater depth, follows bartender and aspiring musician Cassie who was recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. She finds herself struggling to afford her newly acquired medical debt and the ongoing costs of insulin and testing supplies. To get health insurance and survive, she makes a deal to marry Luke—an active duty Marine—and must maintain the illusion that the marriage is legit.
Purple Hearts demonstrates a clear thoughtfulness when it comes to its depiction of diabetes, and not just because a medical doctor served as an advisor on set to ensure accuracy. The film shows relatable everyday moments of diabetes that aren’t often depicted, helping normalize it and teach society about the life-threatening burden of diabetes management. Through highly entertaining drama, Purple Hearts successfully teaches viewers just how dire America’s healthcare system truly is.
The Resident
This 2018 medical drama often tackles issues in modern American healthcare. In season two, a patient with diabetes allows The Resident to focus on insulin pricing and the broader issues of access and affordability.
A young girl named Abby arrives at the hospital in need of insulin, later attempting to steal it. It’s revealed that her single mother can’t afford her insulin due to outrageous costs, and so Abby begins to ration her insulin to the detriment of her health. The episode is a striking depiction of the real consequences of skyrocketing insulin prices and a pointed critique of how wealth provides access to vastly different levels of healthcare in America.
When Hollywood Failed It
What Keeps You Alive
In this 2018 psychological thriller, a woman named Jules must fight for her life as her wife Jackie, who has diabetes, reveals murderous intentions. The representation here is questionable compared to the previous examples. There are several plot holes in the movie’s climax when Jackie is ultimately defeated after injecting herself not with insulin, but the deadly hydrogen peroxide Jules replaced it with.
First, Jackie never measures her blood sugar, so there’s no way she would know how much insulin to dose. Additionally, the fact that she tries to inject insulin implies that she is hyperglycemic (high blood sugar), even though the strenuous activity of trying to kill her wife would typically cause low blood sugar. But for Hollywood, it makes sense that a thrilling scene would take precedence over facts of reality. It’s probably more cinematic to watch the main character inject herself with a poisoned needle than drink some apple juice.
12 Feet Deep
It’s not hard to find another psychological thriller that values the thrill factor over the facts, because the 2017 film 12 Feet Deep does the same thing. The movie follows two sisters who find themselves trapped overnight beneath a pool cover. In addition to the danger of suffocating from chlorine, a major problem the characters encounter is that one of the sisters, Bree, has diabetes. In the film, she claims to need an insulin injection for low blood sugar, lest she slip into a coma. But insulin lowers blood sugar—an injection would only cause her to go into a coma faster—and it’s astonishing that the writers didn’t know that. Or maybe they did, and this is just Hollywood being Hollywood.
Virgin River
Much like 12 Feet Deep and What Keeps You Alive, it is clear the writers of the Netflix drama Virgin River didn’t do their research—or even a basic Google search. Following a nurse practitioner named Mel who moves to a remote town in northern California, the diabetes “representation” arrives in season one when Mel treats a woman with diabetes complications.
The woman mentions that she doesn’t use insulin anymore because she’s tired of the injections, but when Mel tests her blood sugar, it’s low. This is where that basic Google search would have come in handy—the woman should have high blood sugar because she stopped taking prescribed doses of daily insulin.
The bottom line
Though diabetes representation in the media has made some good strides in recent years, it is clear that we still have lots of room to improve. Here’s a good place to start, Hollywood—stop treating low blood sugar with insulin! Let your characters drink some apple juice.
