Netflix's Atypical is not the first TV comedy to have a main character who is Autistic, but it is the first show to give Autism such a prominent place. In a way, this new show comes to correct some of the errors its predecessors (most notably, The Big Bang Theory) have made when portraying characters with Autism. Yet, as it has been pointed out by people with personal experience in Autism, it falls short in some fundamental ways.
Even viewers with no personal experience in Autism will find in Sam (Keir Gilchrist) a familiar portrayal of a character in the spectrum. Sam is the kind of high functioning person with Autism that we have seen before in movies and television. His major problem in season one is that he often comes across as rude and struggles to find a girlfriend at age 18.
