If you think of every human-being that exists on this planet (and outside), you’ll find they’re all different from each other: they can have certain similarities, some common things in their lives, but, in general, no one is like the other. People with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) follow the same rule, specially because there are different diagnosis into this one spectrum, such as Autistic Disorder and Asperger Syndrome – every individual is affected differently and to varying degrees.
The original Netflix show Atypical was renewed for the second season in September of 2017, and was highly anticipated for a couple of different reasons: the first season was well-received and it talks about a very important subject to be brought up. As much as it’s important to talk about the autism spectrum, the show seems to speaks more towards people that don’t know much about the condition, rather than the ones who already have or had an experience with it.
It’s a very well-intended series that tries to shine some light towards this subject, but it definitely feels as though the writers chose the most obvious behaviors and intensified them to a point where they were even more obvious. The main character, Sam Gardner, is on the autism spectrum and if you pay close attention to all the signs, you may notice that he could be diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome to be more specific, which is considered by some professionals as a less severe form of autism.
As said before, no person is like the other, which means Sam’s behavior is definitely not the same as every other person with Asperger Syndrome or ASD in general. Sam’s actions and thoughts can be similar to others, but are not necessarily the same or on the same extent, specially because, if you know someone with ASD, doesn’t matter the specific diagnosis, you may feel as though the series don’t really show them in all of their colours.
Some days can be good, some days can be bad, some people can be less affected by sounds and more by lights, some can feel the need to be organized, some don’t really care about that. Every single aspect of autism is different in each individual.
Now let’s talk about season two in specific. With ten episodes in total, the series expands its horizons: whilst the entire first season had Sam as the center, this season, other than focusing on Sam, it pays much more attention to his family and their issues.
If you’ve watched ‘till the end of the first season, you may remember the very awkward scene at the end with Sam and Casey’s parents, Elsa and Doug, and, with that said, you can definitely expect some drama surrounding the Gardner family. Plus Casey starts attending a prestigious private school where she feels like she doesn’t quite fit and Sam has to deal with more changes than he has had to in his entire life.
Other than the family drama, you’ll be able to see a lot of growth and self-knowledge from the characters. Without giving away what happens exactly, let’s just say change can make people grow, understand themselves and see through their own mistakes.
Now let’s talk about the characters.
Not only is Sam’s sister getting into a new school, Casey (Brigette Lundy-Paine) is leaving a public school, where she has a friend, a boyfriend and protects and keeps an eye out for her brother. Mainly because she was the quickest member of the track team of her school and broke a record, she got a scholarship to Clayton Preparatory, the new private school where she doesn’t know anyone and is instantly disliked by the track team captain. Plus she has to deal with the guilt of being the one who exposed her mother’s infidelity to her father – with the note on the whiteboard – and that can be a heavy thing to carry around.
Image Source: IMDb
Sam and Casey’s parent, Elsa (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and Doug (Michael Rapaport) have struggled since Sam’s diagnosis, specially with Doug leaving for 8 months a few years after the “discovery”, on the second season they’ll reach the breaking point. With Elsa’s betrayal and her not-needed over-protectiveness over the entire family (mainly Sam), she starts feeling left out and as if she doesn’t have a place anymore. Not knowing what to do and how to fix things, Elsa feels completely lost and desperately tries to do whatever she feels that will patch things up. Doug, after feeling so much guilt for leaving and not being so close to Sam, begins to talk, help and just be there for him, besides continuing to be Casey’s “safe person”, whilst trying to administer everything that happened.
Sam’s therapist, Julia (Amy Okuda), has to work through her own personal problems, specially big life changes – if you’ve watched the first season you’ll understand this. If not, go watch it, I’m not telling you – and issues with Sam and his parents. Paige (Jenna Boyd) does her best to be by Sam’s side but still living her own life.
Image Source: IMDb
And obviously, Sam (Keir Gilchrist), like so many others, has to figure out what to do after graduation, whether he is going away for college or staying at home and just keep on working. For someone this age, the future holds a lot of options, but when it comes to someone with ASD, these options can be a little bit more limited. People with Asperger Syndrome usually have difficulties in social situations and tend to have a bigger interest in a specific subject – penguins and Antarctica in Sam’s case – but normally they’re not delayed at the intellectual level.
This is why I, and some other people, think this is what Sam’s diagnosis is. By saying that, I wanted to show that he may not have such a difficult time when it comes to his life after high school in comparison to people with other forms of ASD – you’ll understand why I’m saying this when you watch the second season.
As much as I think this is an incredible series for trying to show what ASD is, I have to say that it definitely lacks a couple of things. They don’t show every aspect of the spectrum and they fail to show that most families struggle to adjust after the diagnosis – what can be seen watching Elsa and Doug almost ignoring Casey to talk about Sam, making it seems like, if you have a sibling on the spectrum, you suddenly become invisible. However, in reality – and this is one of the things the show almost gets right in my opinion – the siblings can become even closer, because the need to protect is most likely always there.
On the second season, to sum it up, they show Sam going through a phase of independence search, and that shows his lack of delayed development in most aspects, except the social aspect. Elsa trying to repair her marriage, Doug doing his best to be somewhat of a solo father and Casey finding her way in a new school.
Honestly, I wrote some things related to the ASD aspect of the show because I think it’s important to understand that some things are shown correctly, and some aren’t. This is a very summed up right and wrong list, and by knowing them you can kind of see what to expect from the show by yourself, since it begins to have slight changes that may fix some of those mistakes a little. It also starts to show the entire family more, whilst Sam grows up and doesn’t need or want all the attention on him. Maybe it’s a metaphor made by the writers, as long as Sam wants his independence, the show will not focus only on him.