Atypical is a Netflix Original series first released on August 11, 2017. The first season consists of eight episodes, each between 30-40 minutes in length.
The series protagonist is autistic Sam Gardner (Keir Gilchrist), a senior at Newton High School in the fictional Webster, Connecticut. Sam lives with his mother Elsa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a hair stylist, his father Doug (Michael Rapaport), an EMT, and his sister Casey (Brigette Lundy-Paine), a sophomore track athlete. The series is an exploration of life at home and school for an autism family, and Sam’s endeavor to understand the world around him. Sam’s special interests are Antarctica, penguins, and wildlife.
The central conflict is Sam’s search for a girlfriend. He has a crush on his therapist, Julia Sasaki (Amy Okuda), but begins exploring with quirky fellow senior Paige Hardaway (Jenna Boyd). He receives bad relationship advice from his friend Zahid Raja (Nik Dodani), a wannabe womanizer and coworker at Techtropolis, a Best Buy copycat. Rounding out the cast are Evan Chapin (Graham Rogers), Casey’s love interest, and Nick (Raul Castillo), a bartender Elsa begins an affair with.
I know that this show, like any television show, is a family dramedy watching ridiculous stunts that wouldn’t happen in real life, and the autism piece drives and explains the drama, or is played for laughs. But in doing so, we are served a caricature of autism. Sam is funny because he’s weird, not because he’s witty.
In general, I found Atypical season 1 to portray autism stereotypically and not very positively, namely that Sam displays a very limited grasp of social rules for his age. Yeah, I know this is part of the autism equation, but autistics can be educated in these matters, and Sam is implied to have received such an education, and there’s little to show for it. His actions were cringy to watch (more on the specifics later).
As an example, Sam is frequently shown to not know the meanings behind common words and phrases. Something was said to him about throwing curveballs and he said, “Why would I want to throw balls?” Unless he had genuinely never heard this turn of phrase before, autistics do know symbolic meanings and figures of speech that are commonly used and have a singular meaning (trickier is gauging one person’s implied meaning).
However, I am pleased to report that there are other aspects of autism that are very accurate. Keir Gilchrist’s acting is overall very good (as an aside, Gilchrist is not autistic, but the actor who plays an autistic teen on the show, Anthony Jacques as Christopher, is autistic). Sam’s interior narration is a window into autistic perceptions and thought processes. Because so much of autism is internal perceptions, this is a very important addition to the show. Similarly, Sam’s investment in and thought linking with his special interests is on point, and he is shown at least briefly to have a true talent for drawing. His reactions to sensorial stimulation and unexpected events, his stimming and panicking are also done very well.
From here, I’ll discuss one of the worst parts of the show: Sam’s parents. They are terrible at parenting. I have no doubt that they love their children, but at best they are ill-equipped to raise an autistic son. After Sam’s initial diagnosis, Doug left the family for several months and during the show, Elsa begins an affair. In both these cases (heavily implied, in Elsa’s case), this was due to the pressure and challenges of having an autistic son. I know it is difficult to have a special needs child, but is that really what healthy adults do?
Autism is shown to both burden and burn out Elsa, and she’s resigned herself and Sam to a son who will “never do certain things” and “always need certain things.” But strangely, it’s almost as if she doesn’t want more for Sam. She sometimes checks in with Julia, who encourages Sam to reach out of his comfort zone and try new things, and she’s also suggested Elsa see her own therapist. Once out of Julia’s sight, Elsa flips the bird. I mean, really?
The worst part about them though, is how overprotective they are. I’ll draw from the most notable example. Spoilers for the final episode are below.
In the final episode, Sam has decided that he does not love Paige. He really loves Julia, and wants to pursue a relationship with her. The episode begins with Sam having a meal with Paige’s family at a restaurant. He turns to Paige and breaks up with her, telling her it is because he doesn’t love her and he walks out.
He decides it’s time to confess his love to Julia, so he drops in on her unannounced, with a box of chocolate-covered strawberries, and says that he is in love with her and wants to date her. She is not pleased, to put it lightly, and is very angry and upset with him. Sam walks away from this very upset and distressed, and I don’t know if it is because her reaction, the fact she said no, or both.
Here’s the thing though. His parents evidently don’t admonish him about any of this. In fact, they’re angry with Julia, not him. This is a prime example of the poor parenting coming from these parents. They’re inclined to protect Sam from distress, but doing this gets him into trouble. His actions can be not only rude (even by arbitrary standards), but hurtful, like what he did to Paige. Sam needs to be counseled about the actions he takes. Taking some social skills classes isn’t enough—his parents also need to be active in encouraging his prognosis. They’re both too avoidant and overprotective at the same time. They are not preparing him well for adulthood.
As an aside, Julia the therapist is portrayed with more than a few implausibilities. She is 26-27, already has a Ph.D., is a professor of “clinical psychology”, and practices individual psychotherapy (in her university professor office, I might add). Doug finds out from Sam early on in the show that he has a crush on his therapist, and this should have been a major red flag that would compromise the integrity of their therapeutic relationship. But because Sam insisted that he needed to keep seeing Julia, Doug buried the issue, another bad parenting move.
As a final verdict, I found the storylines uninteresting, the depiction of autism too exaggerated for my liking, and most of the characters unlikeable, except for Paige. Some viewers might find her annoying, but I thought she was sweet, accepting, and responsible. She would be great for Sam. Another thing I did like was the cinematography and the music.
Autism accuracy: 2/5 Acting: 4/5 Cringe factor: 5/5 Overall rating: 2.5/5