Jason Katims’ New Amazon Series 'As We See It'
ASPartOfMe
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15 Feb 2022, 8:52 pm
‘As We See It’ shows life on autism spectrum and hardships we all face when growing up
Violet also has trouble finding love, Pien adds. “Everything you learn about the world is through magazines, television, movies, right? Everything that I watched would inform how I'm supposed to be. I would watch all my friends all dating and losing their virginity. There's a sense of … loneliness. Just because you have differences doesn't mean that you don't feel the need to have connections, right?”
She notes, “There's so many parallels between Violet and myself to cross that threshold into normal adulthood. … The world tells you this is the way it's supposed to be. And so she's just trying to find her rite of passage. Why can't she have a boyfriend or date like a normal person?”
Pien says before she was married, she went on dates and felt compelled to act in a socially acceptable way. Eventually, she got tired.
“You hit a certain point [where] you have to be yourself when you're dating somebody eventually. So I would have people be like, ‘You're so different,’ she says. “So partly, that's on me because I'm hiding myself throughout the world or trying to date as somebody I'm not. And then they're like, ‘Who is this person and I don't like you.’ So it's just perpetuating that constant rejection over and over.”
I'd be tired of acting. My face would have a flat affect. … My voice [would] go monotone because I'm not trying to put on [a] character. There was also a sense of PTSD. … [I thought] I can't act proficiently through life and something really bad is gonna happen. That fueled a sense of anxiety.”
Even Pien’s parents pushed her to hide her autism too, she shares, which made her feel inherently dysfunctional. As a result, Pien says portraying Violet and seeing loving and accepting parents and caregivers in “As We See It” was a healing experience.
“Here I am on set with people like Jason and it’s like, ‘God, what kind of parents are these? How lucky are their kids? Who are these people?’ It was this level of loving acceptance that me, as autistic Sue Ann, never got to receive. I found myself valued and worthwhile in the character as I play Violet. It's really such a cathartic, healing journey in so many ways.”
Looking back, Pien says she’s reframed her mom’s desire to keep her autism a secret. She sees it as her mom trying to protect her.
“That's what love is to her. Love to my mom is protecting me, maybe because she has a lot of fears that I innately do not have, right? We're so different.”
Pien has even realized that her dad is on the spectrum. As a kid, Pien says she would often ignore or blow off her dad’s quirks.
Pien says similar situations have happened to her.
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
It is Autism Acceptance Month
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
09 Mar 2022, 3:36 am
I’ve now seen all 8 in the series and can say it’s both one of the best portrayal of autism and also one of the most depressing.
At the end I almost longed for a superpower character like in “the accountant” than the mirror that was in front of me via the tv screen
Rather it was the all too real reality of real everyday life for those below the top 5% who can mask easily and live independently.
I don’t think anyone can watch this and claim autism is a gift or pretend not a disability for many.
The NTs portrayed spend most of the time trying to deceive to “protect” the autistic people in their lives, sugar coating their condition at times. It seams their motivation dump them in a home of some sort to free up their life (maybe many autistic people have found this from their parents or siblings? )
It drifts into absurdity with jacks relationship at the end.
Every older man should know women don’t do charity sex or charity relationships ever yet the series portrays just this
The central narrative is generally the burden of autism on those who have it and others around them including the everyday problems and dangers it causes.
The contrast between ordinary NT life and disabled Autistic life is obvious to see
It also shows what can happen when you deceive autistic people for their own protection, that they find out in the end and it causes a lot of stress. Maybe that’s part of the origins of the Neurodiversity movement just a giant deception designed to shield the harsher reality of life with ASD only to realize later as reality comes crushing down as it always does
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ASPartOfMe
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09 Mar 2022, 10:01 am
I have just finished season one also.
Past autism representations have been hampered by problems with the Rainman stereotype, putting every autistic trait into one character and having them display them in a limited time period, and the NT savior. There was no Rainman and having three autistic characters eased the lets show every autistic trait all the time problem. Each of the three autistic characters had very different personalities and different traits.
Like the Israeli series On The Spectrum from which As We See It was taken from I often anticipated the problems the characters would get into before they happened leading to thinking they are exaggerating them for dramatic effect. As with On The Spectrum I remembered that these characters live in a group home and thus are at different “level” than me.
NT saviors are good hearted people trying to do the right thing but often are harming the autistic characters. The saviors, the writers and the audience mostly think these saviors are doing right by the autistics because they are looking at things through NT lens. It is claimed he audiences end up empathizing with the “heroic” NT’s and the autistics become props. This series has three NT saviors. In a major break from the past the NT saviors are just as f****d up as the autistic ones and know it. This should ease making the autistics “less than”.
All of the autistics at varying degree express a desire to be “normal”. Although painful for me to watch that is a very real thing that no show about autistics desiring to be authentic should leave out. But all of them? In my eight plus years communicating with other autistics the desire to be normal is anything but universal. That said I must remember that I am in my mid 60s and these characters are in their 20s. No matter what neurology people my age generally are more accepting and realistic about themselves than twenty somethings.
As autistics we want perfection but no show can come close to that. This show is a significant step forward not only for the actual show but the autistic participation at all levels.
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
It is Autism Acceptance Month
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
09 Mar 2022, 3:56 pm
Past autism representations have been hampered by problems with the Rainman stereotype, putting every autistic trait into one character and having them display them in a limited time period, and the NT savior. There was no Rainman and having three autistic characters eased the lets show every autistic trait all the time problem. Each of the three autistic characters had very different personalities and different traits.
Like the Israeli series On The Spectrum from which As We See It was taken from I often anticipated the problems the characters would get into before they happened leading to thinking they are exaggerating them for dramatic effect. As with On The Spectrum I remembered that these characters live in a group home and thus are at different “level” than me.
NT saviors are good hearted people trying to do the right thing but often are harming the autistic characters. The saviors, the writers and the audience mostly think these saviors are doing right by the autistics because they are looking at things through NT lens. It is claimed he audiences end up empathizing with the “heroic” NT’s and the autistics become props. This series has three NT saviors. In a major break from the past the NT saviors are just as f****d up as the autistic ones and know it. This should ease making the autistics “less than”.
All of the autistics at varying degree express a desire to be “normal”. Although painful for me to watch that is a very real thing that no show about autistics desiring to be authentic should leave out. But all of them? In my eight plus years communicating with other autistics the desire to be normal is anything but universal. That said I must remember that I am in my mid 60s and these characters are in their 20s. No matter what neurology people my age generally are more accepting and realistic about themselves than twenty somethings.
As autistics we want perfection but no show can come close to that. This show is a significant step forward not only for the actual show but the autistic participation at all levels.
Apparently all 3 characters are autistic:-
https://www.distractify.com/p/as-we-see ... ors-autism
Yes you are correct, im a little bit younger than you (not that much) there is a wide difference between a 20 something & someone near retirement age.
Being 20 something for most NT people is all about starting out in life, career, love, independence, travel and life experiences.
Things i myself enjoyed in smaller amounts than NTs but are completely closed off for those further down the spectrum, i suspect that causes resentment for many & the desire to be "normal".
I suspect by 65 its largely about accepting oneself and enjoying the time you have
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"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends upon the unreasonable man."
- George Bernie Shaw
23 Mar 2022, 6:07 pm
I watched this and I thought it was pretty good, and one of the best representations of autism that I've seen so far. It's nice that there's characters with varying issues and levels of independence, and I found that I could relate to each character for different reasons.
I have heard some people don't like how the characters behave and think they are just as*holes, but the reality of autism is that not everyone with it has impeccable emotional control or a good grasp on how to recognize the needs and emotions of other people. I've met a lot of people that are like Violet, Jack, and Harrison and that react to things they way they do, and I'm glad that the creators weren't afraid to show those types of reactions and issues.
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02 May 2022, 9:10 am
The Israeli series this was taken from was reality TV, they were actual autistic residents of an actual assisted living facility. The people who dubbed that series in English were autistic. If any of the housemates in the American version are NT actors the whirlwind that will ensue will make the reaction to ‘Music’ seem minor.
I apologize, the actors playing autistic characters in the Israeli series were NT, so the series was scripted.
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
It is Autism Acceptance Month
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
