Atypical looks at Sam Gardener, a 19-year-old who’s autistic. Season 4 comes out on 7/9/21 for it’s final season on Netflix. In Season 1 and 2, it depicted his navigation through high school, and in Season 3 his journey as a Freshman in college. Among other topics discussed in the show look at Sam maintaining a relationship and other aspects of his journey on the autism spectrum.
I truly believe that Atypical is the best 30-minute show on Netflix right now and continue to recommend this show without reservations. I hope I can one day be able to join a similar show as a former actor and/or current autism consultant.
Note: Spoilers ahead. 🙂
I love how I could relate in several ways to Sam’s character. It makes me feel less alone as someone with autism knowing our entertainment industry are putting the spotlight on our autism community. Growing up with autism, I also started college at 19 and it was a dream come true. After years during my adolescence of being told by experts that I would be lucky to graduate from High School one day, I truly saw getting into college as a milestone that I could do anything I wanted in this world.
Here’s what I also loved about Season 3 of Atypical
The fact they brought up reasonable accommodations & disclosure
As a life coach and mentor to those with special needs, disclosure is often a frequent topic that comes up when it comes to receiving accommodations on a college campus. For Sam, accommodations are brought up several times including after having challenges with note taking in one of his classes. While Sam went against receiving accommodations, it brings up the personal choice each individual has to decide for themselves. When I was in college, I disclosed because of not only needing the reasonable accommodation of extended time on tests and a private room for all tests because of my ability to be distracted easily but also needing a recorder for all my classes because of having dysgraphia (a handwriting disorder).
It also brings up the perspective of the parent. When Sam decides to skip his first disability support specialist meeting and his parents notice his challenges, his mom takes the reins and is reminded by Sam’s college that ‘he needs to come reschedule the meeting himself.’ When I was a Freshman, it was such a weird feeling at first to need to self-advocate for myself, but it was an important step for me towards becoming an independent adult.
The mention of a statistic that ‘4 out of 5 students with autism don’t graduate from college within 5 years.’
I appreciated the honesty of this statistic on this show. It shows that, not only is it important for colleges to be ready to include people with autism at their colleges, but that some people with autism may need additional time to finish college. When I was starting off in college, I took only 4 classes to ‘get my feet wet’ as I dealt with that transition. Looking back now, I wish I spent additional time in college so I could take less classes to avoid ‘burnout’ and focus more on internship and job opportunities.
The continued role of people with autism in the show
In a review I wrote of Season 1 of the show and looking at things I’d like to see them do for Season 2, I’m happy to say that they did indeed hire a full-time consultant who’s on the autism spectrum and have hired multiple actors who have autism as well (one of our autism scholarship winners in Tal Anderson, a 22-year-old woman with autism had a role on Season 3). While some statistics indicate that only about 1% of disabled actors play disabled characters on Television, this representation continues to be excellent to see.
My name is Kerry Magro, a professional speaker and best-selling author who is also on the autism spectrum that started the nonprofit KFM Making a Difference in 2011 to help students with autism receive scholarship aid to pursue a post-secondary education. Help support me so I can continue to help students with autism go to college by making a tax-deductible donation to our nonprofit here.
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My name is Kerry Magro, a professional speaker and best-selling author who is also on the autism spectrum that started the nonprofit KFM Making a Difference in 2011 to help students with autism receive scholarship aid to pursue a post-secondary education. Help support me so I can continue to help students with autism go to college by making a tax-deductible donation to our nonprofit here.
