When I first heard about the show
Atypical, I was pretty excited
to hear about a show that had an autistic main character, and the first thing that I looked at was how
accurate people felt that it was portrayed, and even though most of the feedback said that it was
stereotypical and clichéd I still thought I'd give it a chance because hey, every autistic person is different,
maybe I can relate to it... and
after spending two weeks trying to watch all eight half-hour episodes: I
think it's a good show... for
anti-vaxx moms!
To be fair Atypical as a whole is OK: The actors all give good performances, especially Michael Rapaport as the father.
The scenes between him and his children do have some emotional and heartfelt moments and some of the dark humor which I was looking forward
to the most does occasionally get a good laugh, but like pretty much everybody
I judge most the show based on the main character, Sam.
There are some minor nervous tics that are portrayed accurately like limited
eye contact, repeating certain words in his head, having trouble staying on topic.
But that's pretty much it, aside from that
He's as big of a stereotype as it gets!
He doesn't understand any sarcasm at all he says everything as literal as possible
and he'll say anything that he thinks of no matter how inappropriate it may be but, it's okay because
Somehow he doesn't understand the social cues. It's not his fault he grabbed a girl's hair
That was blowing in his face or brok into his therapist's house
just to give her a chocolate strawberries, or locked his own girlfriend in the closet because...
Well, honestly she was more annoying, but he still locked her in!
Now you might be wondering; Gee what to his parents, younger sister, therapist,
Womanizing best friend and the creepy girl at school with a crush on him do?
One thing and one thing only:
Enable him!
The light is so harsh in here! Do you want your sunglasses?
- No
Boop, Boop, Boop! Does that sound annoying?
It's annoying when you make it.
Everyone is so afraid to hurt Sam's feelings and instead of telling him the cold truth
they all try to give him constructive advice by twisting words around to sound more warm and less, well, critical!
You know I saw an episode on 20/20,
There's actually something called "Catfishing", and it has nothing to do with fishing.
And because they of course use phrases and sentences that are more vague and subjective,
Sam still carries things out the exact same way he would have done before if not something even worse.
And when someone does give him the harsh reality that something's not gonna go his way
he just breaks down and all of a sudden It's that person's fault even though everything
They said had logic, reasoning and that his behavior was completely inappropriate!
And the worst part was it's his therapist who snapped at him which pretty much shows the lack of progress that he's
accomplished from her as a therapist!
I give some movies credit like Rain Man,
Snow Cake or Adam where the main characters are a lot older and were raised as kids in a time period where autism
aasn't really understood but with Sam he's an 18 year old boy in the present day
and he has had access to therapeutic treatments throughout his entire life, so you would think he would have made some progress by now!
Now look I get that tough love lessons aren't always effective and are gonna be misunderstood by some autistic people,
but based on experience these lessons are necessary. When they needed to my parents sat me down
explained when certain situations weren't gonna go my way
and that there was nothing I could do about it, and after hearing that each time I
decided to focus on how I could get more comfortable with each situation as possible while still putting forward the needs of others.
I learned not to make every single conversation about something I liked and instead I asked other people;
What are you interested in, what are you like? Not every topic is interesting, mind you
but when it is, I get good interaction with people,
and it's ridiculous to see a character have an arc about wanting to find a girlfriend when
he doesn't even know how to find friends in the first place!
It also doesn't help that the show's style of humor is really inconsistent.
Pretty much all of Sam's jokes involve him saying something stupid or not noticing something important
and the joke is that it's just as normal behavior and supposedly
other autistic people's behavior even though so many side characters have these really exaggerated and cartoonish personalities.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not against jokes about autism in fact I've seen other shows
do jokes like that in an interesting and funny way!
South Park did an episode literally titled
"Ass Burgers" where the main character Stan is misdiagnosed a) because of how antisocial he's been acting and b) because of a flu vaccination.
Sounds like an obvious joke, right?
Well, then we see a special center where at first, all the patients with Asperger's are really... REALLY fucking weird!
They show the same social awkwardness that your son exhibits. Good morning Mr. Mathers!
Goodbye, Doctor! (Farting noise)
But, once they're out of sight;
All right Stan, listen up, we don't have a lot of time. You've been told Asperger's is real-
It isn't! it's just a front that we use to stay hidden!
-Wait, It's not a real illness? -Of course not! If there was a social development disease, you wouldn't call it "Ass Burgers".
That's just-that's just mean!
That, Is hilarious! The whole routine not only makes fun of how weird people think we are
But it also suggests the idea that as opposed to having a disorder,
we're just different as people.
There's one episode of The Boondocks that, very briefly features a boy with savant syndrome
who plays one game of basketball and literally only one game,
that happens to be a championship & single handedly wins, and gets a lot of publicity as a result. This joke pretty much
satirizes the way autistic people are glorified as geniuses and savants when really,
we're just smart human beings and that's all.
So with all that said about Atypical, are there any realistic portrayals of autism and movies and TV nowadays?
Yeah!
Very few but, there are.
Temple Grandin stars Claire Danes as the real-life animal studies professor and autism activist, and there are two things that make this movie effective.
Claire Danes gives such a natural performance that portrays Temple really accurately, even the voice feels like it's the exact same.
My mother pushed me to become self-sufficient.
I worked summers in my aunt's ranch. I went to boarding school & college.
Those things-those things were uncomfortable for me at first
but they helped me to open doors to new worlds. -The other is Mick Jackson's direction
Which shows in a visually unique way how an autistic person's mind may work;
how they analyze certain things, what they may think of when they misunderstand something. All of these are portrayed through distinct camera angles and
pictures that she imagines in her head to help motivate her to put her thought process into perspective.
The recently premiered show The Good Doctor's best thing going for itself is the honest and sympathetic portrayal of the main character,
showing once again thru the direction and thru Freddie Highmore's performance how he thinks about the human anatomy,
what his routines are and why he decided to become a surgeon?
Sometimes the message is a little too heavy-handed and Highmore's voice is a little too high pitched & robotic
but personally at the pros outweigh the cons.
And I never thought I'd say this but one of, if not my favorite
autistic characters is Billy Cranston from Power Rangers, Why?
Because the focus wasn't about his condition.
He had obsessive routines and strange nervous tics, but he'd break them if it was important.
He doesn't speak everything as literally as possible. He has a wide range of believable emotions and his autism wasn't his entire personality,
he was smart, polite, a capable martial artist,
And even though he didn't always know what to say, when he did, he bonded strongly with the other Rangers.
So if all that in mind, what does it take to make a realistic autistic character for a movie or a TV show?
Well first off, try to be distinct. Most of the shows and characters
I've talked about only feature high functioning characters or people with Asperger's syndrome. If you want to feel fresh
and new, do some research on low functioning or nonverbal autistic kids or child disintegrative disorder.
You can explore some serious and important topics like how they respond to therapeutic
treatments or how difficult it is for parents to support and/or pay for these treatments.
Plus, it's a good opportunity to show that even some people who are low-functioning are still capable in skills that are undeniably impressive.
The other major thing is probably the most important factor:
Involve autistic people in the formation of the character. I know a lot of artists back up their projects by saying they consulted with
psychologists and researchers, and while it is helpful, their studies
don't speak for everyone on the spectrum.
It may be tough to ask the difficult questions about how hard things can be sometimes or to describe how their thought process works?
But if you observe them carefully you can come up with believable routines
And if their topic of interest is interesting encourage them to talk about it more,
they'll trust you if you show a common interest. To get a sense of what people with Asperger's are like, Diane Kruger
consulted with WrongPlanet creator Alex Plank.
Asking him some undoubtedly uncomfortable questions that were necessary to understand his condition.
And she watched him on set to see what tics she could replicate for her character.
If we want realistic portrayals of people on the autism spectrum,
we need to make our voices heard. If you're also
unsatisfied with how we're portrayed nowadays, make your voice heard, make a video explaining what you don't like about how it is nowadays.
Do a rant on a message board or something like that. It's one thing for
"Neurotypical" or "normal people", whatever you want to call them.
It's one thing for them to represent us in a certain way when they don't do that much of their research,
but it is up to us to make it clear: That's not okay!
Guys thanks as always for watching
and what do you think about people on the autism spectrum in movies and TV nowadays or their characters?
Are there any I missed, whatever you think be sure to let me know in the comments below, be sure to LIKE, subscribe,
Check out my other reviews at noperfectmovie.com, and once again, Thank you all very much for watching! Take care!