What I’m Watching February 2022

Single Drunk Female (Freeform)-Sofia Black D’Ella (displaying some of the same anti-social tendencies of her Sabrina character from The Mick) hits some of the same notes as Netflix’s “Maid” did last year (shining a light on those women at the bottom of the US socio-economic ladder without a safety net). If you haven’t seen “Maid”, you’ll likely find this ground-breaking, but I assure you, there’s a show that covers this territory better.

As We See It (Amazon)-The story takes place in the Bay area with three autistic people with wildly different wants of life and situations sharing a house under one roof with the guidance of their ridiculously awesome life coach Mandy (Sosie Bacon). Half the appeal is watching Mandy show understanding, commitment, and love in ways that I’m not even capable of in the presence of other autistic people, and I’m on the upper end of the spectrum myself. The story progresses well and trisects with the three central autistic characters diverging towards different paths of which the other two are only marginally aware of.

As someone who is both on the upper end of the spectrum and spent most of my life either unaware that I was on it or actively denying I had it, I can imagine these desires — impatience at people dumber than you, defining your adolescence by sexual experience, the desire to grow up, how desperately you might need a friend if you don’t get out much — as relatable to anyone. The difference is that an autistic person might have a greater barrier to processing these problems.