Aspergers in TV and movies

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Who have you seen as diagnosed or probable aspies in film and tv? I found Ray Romano very watchable in Parenthood. I also enjoy Doc Martin on PBS.

While the characters may have been conceived as Aspies, it is just as likely that it is only "flat acting" by someone who is uncomfortable in front of a camera.

Well...we have stereotypical Aspies (though the producers deny it!) in "Big Bang Theory." Sheldon seems the epitome of the socially-clueless Aspie. The other male characters are less oblivious, but definitely Aspie-like. There's a mixture amid the female main characters. One is quite NT, the other two are Aspie-like to some extent.

About 2009, a movie named "Adam" was made. It depicted a person who seemed explicitly Aspie in many respects. Some people do not like the portrayal--but I think it was fairly well done.

In "Back to the Future," the main character's father (especially when he was a teen) seemed the classically "nerd" type. He seemed oblivious to social cues, and had science fiction as a "special interest." He grew up to have a successful marriage and to be gainfully employed.

Hm, I have not seen Adam. Maybe I'll make a point of it.

Sheldon is definitely autistic. They can deny it all they want. I have known physicists that were JUST LIKE THAT!

Fnord, no, in the portrayals I cited, it is definitely not just lame acting, because I have seen both of those actors in other roles that were quite different. And assuming they follow a script, rather than ad-libbing 100% of the time, the things they say could only be from someone with social deficits. Doc Martin calls his patients stupid to their face, and more.

"Parenthood" is the only TV series I know of with characters explicitly identified as aspie. Agree that Ray Romano was quite good in the series( which I only started to watch a couple weeks before it went off the air).

However characters "suspected of being aspie" are legion. Dr. House, and the Girl who stars in "Bones" are both commonly latched onto as suspected aspies.

But the best drawn aspie character IMHO is "Brick": the little brother in the sitcom "The Middle" who (at least when he was younger in the early seasons) lept out as being "just like me" when I was his age even though he is never id'd as being aspie.

I saw Martin Clunes in a horse documentary once. He seems to be a compassionate and jovial fellow, while Dr. Martin Ellingham is a total jerk with an onion for a heart.

The family wasn't so dysfunctional. The parents were able to keep jobs, and to pay the mortgage on the house. Maybe they had a few quirks--but the were raising the kids successfully. The kids weren't starving.

These are all TV-series with a main character I relate with :

Silicon Valley




Mr Robot




House MD





Sherlock





Bones