Netflix has unveiled the trailer for Special, its upcoming series based on Ryan O’Connell’s memoir I’m Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves. O’Connell also serves as creator, producer, and star of the show, which follows his journey as a gay man living with cerebral palsy, but not being entirely open about that disability.
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The trailer reveals the environment O’Connell faces, including his workplace, interactions with fellow co-workers and getting hit by a car, which as we learn, he blames for his disability. In an interview with Vulture, O’Connell also reveals his disdain for the misinterpretation of gay sex in modern films and wants to change this.
The series is based on “many of O’Connell’s real-life ups and downs growing up gay and disabled with cerebral palsy. When the rude curveball known as ‘his twenties’ happened, he was determined to take his life from bleak to chic and embrace everything that makes him exactly who he is. Why be normal when you can be…Special?”
In the show, Ryan leads his co-workers to believe that his disability is the result of being hit by a car and not something he was born with. “If you could get rid of the thing you hate most about yourself, the thing no one else understands, wouldn’t you do it?” he asks. “I was in the closet about being gay, and then I was in the closet about being disabled, and now…no more closets.”
O’Connell will star alongside Jessica Hecht, Punam Patel, Marla Mindelle, Augustus Prew and Patrick Fabian. Executive produced by Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory, Special will debut via Netflix on April 12, but in the meantime have a look at the trailer below.
#Peace.Love.Special
