Seth on Top Chef Just Desserts: Neurodiverse or just a jerk

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I was fascinated by Seth, a contestant on the new Bravo Top Chef Just Desserts. He eliminated himself after having what looked to me like a couple of autistic meltdowns. The most amazing of these happened when he was trying to make a "Red Hots" flavored ice cream. It didn't freeze and he fell to floor in tears because he made it as tribute to his mother. And this big strong, handsome man said, in tears, on TV: "The red hots were for my mommy." He also did things like putting pots and pans on his head to "hide" from other contestants.

I made this video to try to express my complex reaction to Seth on the Show. I has music that's blocked on YouTube, so I have to host it on my site. I apologize if you want to watch it and you have trouble.

The Red Hots Were For My Mommy Video

I was reacting to these things:
* Morgan making a big deal over bonding with Seth over the fact that they are "both heterosexual males" while both exhibit behavior that would cause many people to reject them for acting "gay"
* Seth's inability to be flexible, which causes him to break down and makes a reality show like this one a really awful fit
* Seth's willingness to act like a child
* the rejection and disgust that his behavior brings out in other contestants
* his astonishing honesty in being willing to say that he cannot promise that his behavior will change.

I'm very interested to know if any of you watched the show, and if you related to Seth. I did.

I have not seen the show but what you've described does not sound like NT behavior.

You have a You Tube video. My mum watches that or something like it, I'll have to ask her if she's seen it.

I lot of the people on "Just Buggin" seem very ASish.

It's a "reality" show. I find it hard to take anything whatsoever seriously on any of them. Too much is staged, and most of the contestants are there for the attention factor than anything else. Actors, most of them, and a lot not very good. Some though, are VERY good, and end up on main stream old style shows that actually admit to being written fiction. Seth may just be a great actor and very good at drawing attention to himself with "odd" behavior that isn't real.

I absolutely agree about the fictional nature of reality to TV. I just think that if a real Aspie went on a reality TV show, it might go like this: meltdowns following the inevitable "twists" and ostracism from NT contestants who see them as obnoxious distractions.

I admire Seth's honesty is admitting that his behavior might be beyond his control. It is fearless and uncompromising, just like we can be at our best.

I would bet in most cases a true Aspie or Autistic wouldn't even make it far enough for filming. I would bet the meltdowns and evidence of not being able to deal with national TV would show up long before they were accepted for actual filming nearly all the time. There are exception, of course, to any "rule" we might think of, but evidence suggests that exceptions to this particular one are extremely rare.