The A word

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http://www.sundance.tv/series/the-a-word

I cringe whenever I see something like this come up, for autism or transsexuality.
From my perspective, this kind of exposé is not positive, providing "awareness" and "understanding" and "normalising" autism by dramatising it in some TV show and likely, symultaneously generalising and oversimplifying it, and over-dramatising it. I find it exposing and it attracts attention to me that I work hard to avoid.
I don't want people around me watching something like this and suddenly becoming experts on autism and how to treat autistic people, assuming we're all the same because that's how it was on some unrealistic drama. That or start the same kind of crap we see on this site too much - because I may not fit all the stereotypes they see on TV, then I mustn't really be autistic, or I think I'm in some way "special."
I'm very private, and my life is compartmentalised. The idea that people see these programs and decide it's open season to pry into my personal life as an autistic person is not appealing.
To me, this is not real awareness. Not real positive exposure on the challenges of autism. Not advocacy, not practical help. All it does is reinforce stereotypes about autism for entertainment.
It sounds bad but I wish popular media would leave issues like this alone, because they'll never render it accurately and it just creates more misunderstanding for real people.

I watched 'The A Word' and thought it was okay as far as it went, although like you (and others on WP) I was seeing it from an AS viewpoint, not as an NT. It was just one child's story, and therefore quite limited. In fact it was more about the boy's family and other people's reaction to the fact that he had autism, rather than about him. As such it showed them up in a pretty poor light. For what it's worth, the National Autistic Society had quite a lot of input into the making of the series.

As you say, the media don't portray autism very accurately. Interestingly enough, there was an article in 'The Guardian' after the series finished, which made the very valid point that it's all very well putting autism on TV, but society still doesn't get it in real life. On the other hand, unless people have it explained to them properly, the misunderstandings will continue.

It's ironic how everyone is always quoting "If you've met one person with autism you've met one person with autism", and when something like this comes up it's all "The media never represent autism accurately". Don't you see the two statements are contradictory?

Regardless, I live in the UK and saw this when it was aired and it's not actually about autism at all; it's simple a family drama where the catalyst for the drama and conflict is a boy with autism. Much like how War and Peace isn't actually about Napoleon's invasion of Russia, it's just a family drama that takes place at that time in history.

I actually found it quite interesting, and the range of characters was fairly wide with the most interesting being the boy's mother. As the series unfolds the boy's condition morphs her into quite a selfish and horrible person, trying to show the more wider-reaching effects of a child with a disability, and how it affected different family members in different ways.

So yeah, maybe watch it before you pass comment, it's not really about autism, it's not trying to educate or teach, it's just a rather unique drama.

Many indie movies are intended to be a circus, with a sad ending, and are not for purposes of advocacy.

While it may sound anti-social, I find that it is usually least stressful to coordinate around my niche interests.

I haven't seen it but from what I already know, it seems like a complete and total waste of time. I don't need for someone to correlate a child's experiences to mine when I'm an adult in my mid 20s ...

Not at all, because their portrayal reinforces stereotypes. Their portrayal doesn't depict autism as a spectrum, as diversity within diversity - they represent it as a fixed laundry list of cliched symptoms and that is inaccurate portrayal. There was talk for instance that because the boy laughed and made eye contact, he couldn't be autistic. There are some autistics who do make eye contact, some don't. It's not just a question of autistic = no eye contact. It's simplistic.
And yes, it also doesn't help that he's a cute little kid, yet again, and that makes autism somehow endearing. What's forgiven as cute and quaint in kids is rarely viewed so positively as adults.

How can you show diversity with a single person?

"there was talk...that because the boy laughed and made eye contact, he couldn't be autistic".

And yet, he was. That's not reinforcing a stereotype. It's someone claiming a stereotype, then being told that their view is wrong.

I actually think there were deeper representations, too. I think Joe's granddad was possibly also autistic on a milder end of the spectrum, but of course at his level he would have not been diagnosed if he recognised it in himself. Which is how it is for many autistic adults - they show the traits, but not enough to get noticed. Just enough to make life difficult, make them seem awkward and cause friction. I don't think his behaviour was any coincidence.

Personally, I really liked the show. It helped my husband to understand my autism better, even as an adult. In fact, I saw a lot of Joe's behaviours in my childhood self. He wasn't the stereotypical (as I've heard it put) 'rocking in the corner autistic'.

^

You're right, the stereotypes still persist. Interesting what you say about Joe's granddad, it's exactly what I thought - and he was the one who first took Joe to a psychologist. I think he saw something of himself in his grandson. It was probably his way of facing up to his own issues. In fact there was quite a lot of awkward behaviour altogether among many of the adults in the family. Joe's father was in denial about something, quite what I'm not sure, and then there was his mother ...

Of course, a single series can only show so much. If it tries to cover everything, it will end up just being a check-list of 'typical' behaviours. It would be better if characters with ASC appeared as children in some of the main TV soaps, and were allowed to develop naturally over a period of years. The public's perception of several minorities has been changed in this way.