(Iris Gogeon et Marie Richard)
In this text, we will talk about Atypical which is a TV serie on Netflix. A third season has been released on November 1st. We wanted to talk about this serie because we think that it is relevant. In fact, it deals with autism and the consequences in a family. The main character’s name is Sam Gardner and he is a high functioning autistic person. He is really smart but his reactions and attitudes are often inappropriate with the situations.
To our mind, this serie is a good example to see the real life of a family « with a person who is not socially normal » compared to the expectation of society. The interactions and roles between the different members of the family and outside the family are really interesting to analyze.
Furthermore, the younger sister, Casey, seems to protect her brother a lot and forgets to live her life. She is focused on his needs. The parental couple also relies on the younger sister to help his brother at school and in all the situation in his life. She narrows herself even self-restrains to go to a school in a field she wants because her mother is really worried about her leaving home and leaving Sam alone at school. She feels a lot of culpability while Sam wants to be more independent so she shouldn’t be worried.
We also see a couple facing difficulties. On the one hand, Doug and Elsa have a son who needs much attention and on the other hand, they seem to drift further apart. They don’t have time for each other and they forget their personal identity as a man and a woman.
Sam is supported by a psychologist, Julia who helps him dealing with teenager’s problems such as love and social relationships. Sam is particularly fond of penguins and knows everything about them. He does a lot of methaphors between real situation in life and what he knows about penguins. It is really interesting to see how it can be a really invasive trouble and how the family is affected by this trouble. Everything turns around Sam and his autism. The reaction of others at Sam’s behaviors is also really difficult for the family to live with at some moment.
In our opinion, the serie wants to show teenage with autism because there are a lot of documents about children but when they become adolescents and adults it isn’t easy to help them especially when they look for jobs and with their social relationships.
There are a lot of positive critical analysis in this serie because of the way it encourages people to think about what is normality and how we can live with difference. There are some people who also criticize the serie negatively because the autistic characteristics are far removed from stereotypes and the actor is not a real autistic person. We think that a real autistic person couldn’t figure out all the lights, noises and everything related to a place where a film is shot. In fact, we acknowledge the playing of the actor who is fabulous. Moreover, we believe that the serie wants to introduce what autism is for people who absolutely don’t know a thing about it. It would explain why the traits of Sam are really obvious and also it can be the case in real life. Even though, we think that it is a relevant serie to watch as a future psychologist.
Vocabulary :
Rely on = compter sur
Narrow = se restreindre
While = alors que
Overrated = surfait
To drift further apart = s’éloigner encore plus
Be far removed from = être très éloigné de