I watched The Bridge and I was disappointed

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Last night I saw an email about the TV show "The Bridge". I was excited at the prospect of seeing a protagonist identified as autistic on a mainstream TV show. I was hoping to see something close to Goren on old episodes of Criminal Intent, but what I saw reminded me more of Big Bang Theory.

I was most disappointed by the character's lack of curiosity. Other people may have varying opinions, but I cannot recall her looking for a single detail beyond what any average TV detective would have. I am hoping that over time it will become clear why the character is a detective and what makes her good at what she does, but right now she just seems uptight, mean, and eager to look at dead bodies.

Maybe this doesn't have much mainstream appeal, but I have always wanted to see an openly autistic hero in a movie or TV show. What I feel ends up happening with autistic characters is that autism is used as a vehicle to inject some sort of difficulty into the story. Whenever a character is said or implied to be autistic, it is when they are having difficulty with something or acting strange.

I know I don't really post on here but I felt like I needed to vent, and I don't really talk about autism with my friends/girlfriend/family because I feel like it comes with a lot of stigmas that I would rather avoid.

When it comes to autism in the movies, most of the portrayals leave me cold. "My Name Is Khan" was a joke. "Snow Cake" wasn't much better. I did the Korean film Marathon. That was spot on. I haven't seen The Bridge because I don't have cable.

Character development is next to impossible in the first episode of a series.

Judging from the ads for the show, she's getting at least a 3rd of the attention, so I'd say that Alex has done great work on this show.

The detective is spot on. The Diane Kruger did a good job.

It is crime drama or real events that were fictionalized that is main story. Autism is a secondary story about the char.

The setting is where I have problems with. In my experience living El Paso it is not open minded to people with Autism or Psychological disorders. If Sonya Crowe during her interview with a husband of victim would never have gotten a Detective badge in the City of El Paso if she display the lack social skills for the HR. Unfortunately Sylvia co-worker in Police Department has the same mentality of the people of this city. People in El Paso do not like people who are mentally different they are they did as the police officer did talking about how weird the person is. In Texas it is the same.

Juarez most of the current events that were mention of the Bridge are true. There been 300 hundred bodies of women ranging 17-24 found in desert and this is overlooked by the Drug Cartel War going on. As gruesome as the portrayal was it is currently happening.

One of the reasons we may never find an autistic hero in the movies or tv is because we aren't consumer friendly. To display symptoms of Aspergers is often to appear uncaring, devoid of empathy, stupid, obssessed (I'm sure there's one too many "s"s in obssessed but - hey - enjoy the irony!)
The thing is that, while we are the generally honest, trustworthy, intelligent etc people that society SAYS they want, we are in fact s**t at appearing to be so. More irony!
In other words, to display our most commonly experienced symptoms is to make someone less consumer-friendly. UNLESS! The time and expense is taken to demonstrate both how we feel and react when things get too much but also the effort we put into using coping strategies to try to make sure they son't and to try to "fit in".
Maybe if higher profile Aspies like Alex Plank or Temple Grandin were to make a nuisance of themselves we would perhaps see something like this in the future.
Until then, all we will see is more of the same - characters that tackle part of but not the most significant parts of what we experience.

On the whole, I have to agree with this bit from Salon.com: