well i can say

- absolutely horrific autistic representation, sam’s only personality was his autism or his terrifyingly sexist obsession with either banging his therapist (how inappropriate can you get) or banging some random girl. a few things about sam were relatable, and they did at least try in a few places - like mentioning that autistic people can have empathy and explaining that it’s not that simple, but without throwing low empathy people under the bus. but mostly, watching sam was really painful. he felt like a caricature instead of a character. his expressions and mannerisms were very forced, his speech was repetitive (seriously, nobody talks about their special interests /that/ much, they made it look like he literally couldn’t relate to anyone or anything without relating it to penguins and it was... bad). sure, there are autistic people like sam, tbh of course there are. of course there are sexist assholes like sam who can only talk about one thing and are obsessed with banging girls and don’t see them as people (seriously, even when he was empathetic bc he broke that girls heart (and oh boy, that girl.) it was still more about the fact he wanted to bang her than that he actually cared. just... everything about him sucked. he was unlikeable, unwatchable... when will we get decent autistic rep? when will we get someone that isn’t sam? - the girlfriend. at first i thought she was quirky and cute. then it just seemed like she had a creepy autism fetish. the less i say about her and her weird enabling of locking women in closets the better. - the mom is the actual worst but i’m glad they framed her cheating more as A Bad Thing and not totally understandable bc of how much of a burden her kid is - that being said i still would like to say how the mom was completely unnecessary. if they wanted to write a show about autism and focus on that they should have had two loving supportive parents imo. i feel like a lot of people are going to side with the mom - casey!! i have nothing but good things to say about casey. really nice breaking of gender roles, really nice to see a girl who’s massively into sports (and excels at it), nice to see a girl who doesn’t pluck her eyebrows or wear make up. sure she wore a pretty dress and did her hair at the end, but it wasn’t sexualised - her dad was the one who told her she looked pretty, her boyfriend barely commented on it. i thought that was really nice. casey also seems like the most.. individual, well-defined character. clearly loves her brother while simultaneously being pissed off with him, hates her mom (rightfully) but occasionally is shown to be soft with her, loves and has a great relationship with her dad but still struggles with him and acts out (again, understandably). casey is just.. so great. i love her. she’s probably the only reason i managed to watch the whole show. - evan. what a wonderful boyfriend, what a great guy. again, nice breaking of gender roles, without it being stereotypical or done for a laugh or attention. he’s sweet, he’s soft, he deeply cares about casey, he’s not afraid to stand up for her but isn’t aggressive about it, he fully supports her moving away to fulfil her dreams even though it means he might lose her, he tells her he loves her and doesn’t expect anything in return. casey and evan were written so brilliantly and honestly i wish the whole show had just been about those two, because i love them a lot