http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/face+autism+seem/4652376/story.html

The new face of autism: as seem on TV

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Ben Kaplan, National Post . Apr. 21, 2011 | Last Updated: Apr. 21, 2011 4:07
AM ET



To mark Autism Awareness Month, this week in Wellbeing we're looking at all
aspects of the littleunderstood disorder. Today, Ben Kaplan on how Hollywood
is rewriting autism.

A few years ago, you would have to squint pretty hard at your television
screen to find accurate, or really any, portrayals of autistic characters.
While NBC's Parenthood -starring Peter Krause, Monica Potter and Max
Burkholder as Max, their eight-year-old autistic son -is the only show on
the air now that directly addresses the disorder, other programs such as
Community, Bones and The Big Bang Theory feature prominent characters with
Asperger'slike symptoms.

"TV wants to portray real life and it wants to reflect the issues and the
textures of the lives we're all living now," says Meeta Agrawal, television
editor at Entertainment Weekly. "It's at its best when it gives us a
portrait of life that we can relate with. For a family drama and autism, I
think it was only a matter of time."

Parenthood, which wrapped its second season on Tuesday and has many viewers
hoping NBC will again renew the series for a third season, comes by its
autistic character honestly. Jason Katims, the show's executive producer,
has an autistic child, and when he began fleshing out his program, it only
made sense the mental illness would be reflected in the show.

"You're also seeing families dealing with unemployment, teen sex and
rebellion, and this is another layer of a real-life drama," Agrawal says,
adding that Burkholder does an extraordinary job of portraying the
behavioural ticks of the neurological disorder. "Good TV is relatable, and
the way Max is acted definitely creates compelling TV."

Compelling television is also found on shows such as Community, Bones and
The Big Bang Theory, where the autistic-like characters are funny, but in a
unique, and even challenging, way. In a universe with myriad entertainment
options, perhaps the real reason we're seeing Asperger'slike syndromes on
television isn't because network executives have an honest desire to
represent a mental disorder. It might just be they're trying their hardest
to create interesting characters that are both new and finely drawn.


"Across the board, we're seeing TV writing that draws on the specific
nuances of each character -it's not enough anymore to deliver a punchline
and get a laugh track," Agrawal says. "Specificity is the one thing you see
in common across all of the best shows of today."

With autism and Asperger's very much a part of society at large, maybe the
question isn't why are there so many autistic characters on television, but
rather: What took Hollywood so long?

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