"Special": A non-heartwarming short series about a "special" guy hooking up. With hookup butts and dicks

At first I wasn't interested in Special, about a gay guy with cerebral palsy, because it had one of those stupid Netflix one-word titles, and because I figured it was a heartwarming, gushing, "live every day to its fullest" warmedy, with lots of hugs and understanding.  Yuck.

But I dated a CP guy back in grad school. His legs and hands didn't work very well, but he had a massive upper body, completely cut, not an inch of body fat anywhere.  He got cruised constantly.  I figured, it wouldn't hurt to watch for the beefcake.  I could always fast-forward past the hugging and motivational speeches.

Ryan O'Connell, a writer and editor with credits including Will and Grace (the reboot), Daytime Divas, and Awkward, turns out to be not particularly buffed, but he is definitely cute.  Still, he was ashamed of his CP, and spent years trying to hide it, attributing his "limp" to a car accident.

His CP is obvious to me -- stiff-leg walk, random hand movements -- but I guess it worked.  He finally came out as disabled in a 2015 book, I'm Special and Other Lies We Tell Ourselves, which inspired Special (2019).

8 episodes, about 15 minutes each, shorter than the traditional sitcom because there's only a one-episode B plot and no C plots.   

Episode #1: Ryan Hayes, who has led a sheltered  life due to his cerebral palsy and helicopter-mother (Jessica Hecht), wants to break out into the world.  He gets a job -- an unpaid internship at an online magazine (he has an income from his CP) --and a new bestie with body issues of her own, Kim (Punam Patel).  He tells everyone the limp story. 

Episode #2:  At a pool party, Kim encourages Ryan to display his body.  He  almost hooks up with Keaton (Jason Michael Snow), but Keaton bails when Ryan turns out to be a bad kisser (hint: when you're kissing a guy with CP, his head should be below yours).

Bonus: Ryan's butt and partial cock

Episode #3: Ryan has sex for the first time, with a sex worker (Brian Jordan Alvarez) who is very understanding and even cuddles afterwards.

More after the break. Caution: explicit

Kyle Landi: Bodybuilder with grit, drive, determination, and a bulge. With some bonus dicks

 I don't usually do profiles of non-actors, but Kyle Landi has 364,000 followers on Instagram, 784,000 on TikTok, and 71,000 on Facebook, so I think he's famous enough.

Kyle was born in 2000 in Milton, Ontario, about 40 minutes from Toronto.  He was premature, with several holes in his heart that almost cost him his life. But he survived, and by age seven was following his mother to her home gym to work out.  

In 2022, he and his stepfather, amateur bodybuilder Joe Dominie, were in Las Vegas for the Mr. Olympia competition, when they noticed a pull-up booth at the fan expo.  Kyle ripped his shirt off and started doing pull-ups.  

That night he told his parents that he wanted to become a professional bodybuilder, so they started a TikTok account for him and uploaded videos of the pull-ups.  By morning they had a million views.

Less than a year later, Kyle became the first Down Syndrome bodybuilder to win a mainstream competition, the True Novice at the Pure Muscle Championships.  He also won the Spirit of Determination Award, sponsorships from WolfPack and YoungLA, and an opportunity to train with the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger at Gold's Gym.

At this point, you probably have three questions.

1. Is it ok to find him attractive?

Sure. People with Down Syndrome can date like anyone else.

More after the break.