The Specials

Genre

reality television

Country

United Kingdom

How it feels

Five young adults with intellectual disabilities live together in a house in Brighton. The series follows their daily lives, friendships, and romances as they navigate independent living.

heartfeltintimatewarmobservationalupbeatgenuinemellowsupportive

What happens

The Specials is a reality television series that follows the lives of five friends with intellectual disabilities living together in the same house in Brighton. The five young-adult housemates, Sam, Hilly, Lewis, Megan, and Lucy, aged between 19 and 23, include individuals with Williams syndrome and Down syndrome. The series premiered on its website on 2 September 2009 and ran until mid-November 2009, featuring weekly 10-minute episodes The series was originally made as a web-series, the show has since made the transition to television. The series received critical attention for its depiction of independent living for adults with intellectual disabilities. It was used in a Disability Studies course that focuses on media and disability at City University of New York in summer 2011. Michael Shaw of Tubefilter compared the series to The Real World, writing that "inner-house romance and friendship rule, minus the evil." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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