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Atypical (on Netflix)

11 replies

Yukbuck · 11/08/2017 22:54

Anyone see this? I'm just watching it now (on ep 2) and it's making me really sad. Has anyone seen it and has it touched anyone else like this?

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MrSlant · 11/08/2017 23:43

Just watched the first episode because I saw this. I cried but not because I was sad exactly but because I saw parallels with my eldest son and could enjoy the positives that it showed. My son is well into the spectrum and also has an obsession, similar to the main character but it was wonderful to see the portrayal of a nearly adult ASD child and the challenges faced. Plus the mum who has lived it for 18 years and the different out looks from her and her husband Thank you for bringing it to my attention..

Yukbuck · 12/08/2017 10:21

Thanks for giving it a watch. I cried in the second episode when there is a group picking on him. He's just so sweet.
I did enjoy it too though.

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jay55 · 12/08/2017 12:16

I'm half way through.
I feel so much for the mom, she's done all the years of hard work and now Sam is less difficult everyone is jumping in.

Mostly I love the dorky inappropriate friend, he's a terrible friend to Sam and I love how terrible he is at helping. But he's an amazing friend for not setting any limits on Sam.

MrSlant · 12/08/2017 14:04

Wasting a sunny Saturday on Netflix now. I want to cry for the mum so much, she obviously shares so many of her son's traits but to a lesser degree. So hard to accept change when you have a mind like that! I love her routines comment.

This is the most honest portrayal of an 'atypical' person, and how it affect family, that I've ever seen. I really hope it helps people understand the condition more.

toomanyeggs · 12/08/2017 17:56

It's trite.

May contain spoilers

I feel for some aspects of the parents. Dh failed to bond with dd and I doubt he has told anyone at work, so I get that! It's hard to feel for the mum, I think they have made her into an exaggerated, laughable character. I mean, getting thrown out of a shop for shoving for an assistant? How many of us have shoved a shop assistant?

Once again, it's male on the spectrum, he doesn't understand boundaries, he doesn't understand other people, he has no empathy, the only way they can think to introduce him to the female form is to send him to a strip joint!!

Then there is the younger sister who is often ignored, but is always there to help if there is an issue...so much so that she is the one taking the crisis phone call (when he goes missing at school) when she is in an important interview.

The mother is so self involved that she has an affair, and she screws that up!

Not to mention his bloody useless therapist (who, by the way, they turned into a ditzy, jealous girlfriend who does nothing but cry and phone stalk her ex when he leaves), dancing with him in a parking lot, over sharing personal information, not understanding that he can't read social cues and so is shocked when he thinks he is in love with her, which leads her to completely bawl him out. Yet her forgetting to maintain a professional distance is what lead to that!!

MrSlant · 12/08/2017 18:12

Funny you should think that when it mirrors a lot of my life (apart from the strip joint. Hopefully). Actually the latest bit that had me crying was about empathy but from what you have written I am an episode ahead. Children on 'the spectrum' often have an excess of empathy when they understand the emotion someone else is having. My eldest son donated all his electronic toys to a boy who'd lost all his stuff in a flood. When I told him what had happened he had tears in his eyes and immediately wanted to help.

Women on the spectrum, in general, are much better at learning how to cover it up, see the mum in this series, there are a number of clues I've spotted that she is also not NT which has been really well written in.

As for siblings, my younger sons got literally a third shared of my attention for a lot of their younger years and DS1 wasn't allowed out on his own until DS2 was mature enough to accompany him. It was nice to see a public meltdown as well. I've had a police man come over and not allow me to take my son home until he was sure I wasn't the cause of his distress (I think he thought I was kidnapping him?).

Apart from that though it's a drama, there for entertainment, it has to be a bit trite because normal life without the accelerated drama of all the various scenarios would be dull as hell.

Interesting to see it through different eyes!

jay55 · 12/08/2017 18:23

toomanyeggs agree that the arc with the therapist was awful, turning her into an unprofessional mess was horrible. And letting Sam down gently or telling him he needed to change therapists could have easily have lead to the meltdown.

toomanyeggs · 12/08/2017 18:33

I get it that it could have gone that way, regardless with the therapist, I was just shocked that they had to portray the females characters the way they did.

I spotted that the mum wasn't NT too, but I still don't think that making her have an affair was the best they could have done with her. They turned her into a spare part, even having dad become the "hero" in the end.

The mum = had an affair
The therapist = failed to stay professional, turned into a jealous heap because the man left
The striper = enough said

I understand the some of it does mirror people's lives, I just wish they would change it up a bit. I don't think it will raise that much awareness, because it is pretty much the same as most (if not all) the programmes featuring autism.

MrSlant · 12/08/2017 18:35

YY jay, any change when he was already so wound up would have probably done that. I really wonder where it is going with her story arc.

I'm going for a bit of a 'Gilmore Girls' early storylines with the sister Grin

msrisotto · 20/08/2017 18:39

Love this programme! The characters are so loveable and there are some brilliant moments in it.

flutterworc · 22/08/2017 20:11

Just massively binged this today - complex character and engaging plot. Quite interesting how much I recognised as identifiable in not just family and friends, but also students I teach. Already ready for the next series!

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