TV needs to do a better job portraying chronic illnesses

Salon.com

About 133 million Americans suffer from some kind of chronic illness. "Meanwhile, depictions of characters with chronic illness on television are sparse, and in the rare instance they are portrayed, the writing is frequently ground in inaccuracies," says Ashlie D. Stevens. "Mystery diagnoses involving these illnesses are often the main sources of episodic climaxes on shows like House and Grey’s Anatomy, which either ramp up the symptoms for drama, or make them more palatable for television audiences (I’m thinking of the episode of “Grey’s” that involved a patient with cyclic vomiting syndrome). But even worse is when chronic illness is invoked for laughs." That's why Stevens found some hope in this week's announcement that Modern Family's star Sarah Hyland and writer Emily V. Gordon are teaming up on an ABC comedy based on both of their lives. Hyland and Gordon are both chronic illness sufferers -- Hyland was born with kidney dysplasia and Gordon was diagnosed with Still's disease, which inspired her and husband Kumail Nanjiani's film The Big Sick.