"On the Spectrum" HBOMax show

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From Yes who also gave us Fauda and Shtisel. There's a US version on Amazon but this is about the Israeli version.

The premise is 3 autistic people in their 20s or early 30s live in a group flat. One is female (I suspect that would be unusual IRL). The actors are NT however the voice actors for the English dub are autistic Americans, I mention they're American as I believe Canadians tend to dominate the voice-acting profession.

Anyway, the impression I get from this is that all the autistic characters are going through a major crisis, like this is the first time they've come up against their failure to intuitively grasp the unspoken rules of society. Each one seems one step away from either being sent to prison for stalking or home invasion, or being raped (in the case of the female character). I mean they seem like hopeless cases TBH. I would think anyone seeing this, being unfamiliar with the autism community, would mostly feel pity. And some people might even think it's supposed to be funny. One gets the impression that all 3 should be under near constant supervision.

Having said this, I ask you to take note of the rating this gets on IMDb — 8.7!! I suppose the typical IMDb member finds this show "uplifting".

I have seen only a couple episodes of the US version. My reaction to that is it's even worse. In that case, the actors are on the Spectrum but in my opinion an actor with autism will have no problem playing a character written as NT and I don't care a great deal about the representation issue plus autism manifests so differently between one person and the next. It's not the same as casting a genetically "normal" person to play a character with Down Syndrome or vice versa.

Has anyone else seen this?

No, but I reject the premise--why would an autistic person want roommates??

$ ^{Or a shortage thereof.}

This was my reaction to the Israeli series
“ I have completed watching the first season. This is not a review but a very general overview. Since there has been no replies I am going to assume nobody has watched it.

There are two options to watch this. In Hebrew with subtitles or dubbed in English by Autistic actors. Both options present distractions the latter the mouth movements not conflating with what is being said.

This is not another ‘The Good Doctor’ or ‘Big Bang Theory’, the characters live in a group home and thus can not be stereotypically “high functioning”. They are “Aspie” in the that they do use language and are verbal. Their lack of understanding of social dynamics are comical at times but do land them in serious trouble at times. There are situations that will be all to familiar and this I assume triggering for some WP members. The tension between their councilors desire to protect them and their desire for Independence is a theme. Like some WP members one character has a desperate desire to be normal. On a personal note as I watched this often I saw the mistakes and anticipated trouble ahead an thus at first concluded the characters were more severe then myself. At some point it dawned on me that this was my 60 something self reacting that my 20 something self was not literally more higher functioning then the 20 something characters on the show.”


When I was going to Asperger support groups back in 2013-2014 the number 1 issue was men very upset that they were getting in trouble because they were unintentionally creeping women out. This was before #MeToo.

As for women there is a lot of material in professional and autistic spaces documenting how women because of literalness and lack of understanding of non verbal communication are more likely to become victims.

The problem is not that these problems are not real it is that every trait gets crammed in to every character and there is limited to to show these traits leading to the characters displaying often exaggerated traits all the time. But this is not limited to autism representation it is inherent to the format.

This is the thread for the American series. There are reactions from professional reviewers as well as WP members.

These two series are not meant to be uplifting or inspiration porn. They are dramedies.

Thank you for that overview. So in the other thread I believe you said it's a reality show. I saw that somewhere else, but it's not true. This is a fully scripted drama and all characters are portrayed by professional actors.

So I just finished watching episode 7 and in that episode the show seems to take an entirely different direction. It's as though they brought in all new writers.

I only saw a couple episodes of the American version so I have no idea if something similar happens in that one.

Yes, I understand rent. I just mean it's very hard practically, even if there are benefits.

You are welcome


I did, my bad, I'm sorry.

Depends on the people. If the roommates keep to themselves, some people like having people around so long as those people aren't constantly demanding attention. Others prefer total solitude.

^I apologize if I came off as too literal. I wasn't trying to say that autistic people can't have roommates, or wouldn't seek them out to ease a financial burden. Just, that this seems like a stretch. I get the feeling the show does this to make it more palatable to NTs, and more dramatic to audiences in general. Not because it's the most realistic situation. But, I have not seen the show.

Now I have finished the show. Like I said, it suddenly gets better in Ep. 7 but I fear many viewers will quit before getting there. By the end I would say this is the best treatment of autism I have seen in a scripted show (I haven't seen The Good Doctor so I can't compare to that). In fact I think it excels in ways that you would need to be on the spectrum to appreciate i.e. it shows the characters as having a legitimate place in society, whereas most such shows would present the caregivers as heroes — that is not what we are given here. I don't expect everybody else to have the same reaction.

Now I understand the IMDb rating.

I guess to save money.

What's money?

Were these men upset about any incidents that occurred among the group members themselves, or perhaps in another adult autism/Aspergers support group, or just incidents that occurred outside these groups? I ask because 2013-2014 is about the right time frame for the beginning of the feud I briefly described as example #2 in this post.