“Atypical” is a coming of age Netflix original tv show that broadcast the life of a teenage boy named Sam Gardner, who is on the autism spectrum. He is obsessed with the South Pole, Antarctica, and all about penguins. The series was created by Robia Rashid, with the first season being produced on August 11, 2017, with a total of eight episodes. The series now has a total of three seasons with the newest released on November 1, 2019.

The main character Sam Gardner from Connecticut, is acted by Keir Gilchrist, an 18 year old Sam who has a desire to find romance while juggling with being on the spectrum. In order for Sam to start dating, he has to learn to be more independent which affects the rest of Sam’s family greatly. This mostly affects Sam’s mom, Elsa, who is  played by Jennifer Leigh, who also takes her own life-changing path.

 One of the most important people to Sam in this show is therapist Julia. Julia is played by Amy Okuda and is broadcasted as almost the backbone for Sam. Her being the one to encourage Sam that if interested, to start seeking for romance. Sam’s mother, Elsa, initially feels that Julia has to much power over Sam, which starts conflict between the two of them. Julia then recommends Elsa to deal with some of her own issues with a therapist. Although, Julia and Sam’s father Doug’s relationship has a different dynamic. Julia manages to bond with Doug through discussing Sams issues and Doug’s new approach to be more involved in his son’s life. Sam’s father, Doug, is played by Michael Rapaport, who has struggled to connect with his son his whole life due to his autism. 

Sam’s sister Casey, played by Brigette Lundy-Paine, is seen as the over protective sister who lets no one hurt her older brother. She receives a track scholarship to a prestage school and still continues to look after Sam and develops a spark of love interest herself with boyfriend Evan.

The person who seems to connect to Sam the most is best friend Zahid. Zahid, acted by Nik Dodani, sees Sam as just another normal human he works with. Zahid is portrayed as the fun goofy best friend that cares deeply about Sam and helping him on his journey to find romance with the ladies. 

In the newest season, season three, Sam begins college and is trying to learn what success means to him while dealing with the pressure of growing up and being more independent. The season has 10 episodes, each being about thirty minutes long. During this season, Sam is still a virgin, but now with minimal emotional glitching standing in his path. This season also broadcasts Sam’s on and off relationship with ex girlfriend Paige, who heads off the college in Maine. Still struggling with Paige’s absence, Sam’s life becomes complicated in a new way when his one true friend Zahid, finds love. 

While Sam is learning to be more on his own, sister Casey, is still battling her new strange love triangle between boyfriend Evan and private school track team bestie, Izzie.

Back in season one, Julia was oblivious to the fact that Sam had developed a crush on her. Julia then, of course, stopped working with Sam, but season three shows her becoming more involved in Sam’s life again while accepting the fact of being pregnant. 

Sam’s parents start to have a more civil relationship with one another after the mistake made by Elsa that changed the whole dynamic of the family. 

For the most part in the series, people in the world except Sams eccentrics to a nearly saintly degree, this is why the shows reviews showed backlash saying that the show did not show the reality of the perspective of being autistic. Season three showed a more realistic view from Sam and the daily struggles he faces with his disability. 

The show is a very heart filling comedy that is intriguing and can get any person hooked. Once you start watching the show, it is hard to stop staring at the screen. No matter how good the series shows the reality of being autistic, everyone should try to watch this series to get a better understanding on how disabled or austic people live their life.