This is riveting television.
It will make you smile and it will bring tears to your eyes. As a matter of fact I'm holding back the waterworks right now.
You know someone on the spectrum. Even though they may not even know it themselves. But in the last thirty years incredible advancements have been made.
The spectrum... Usually with every little thing taken away, something is added back in. You'll be wowed at Subodh's mathematical skills.
So that's what this show is about, people on the spectrum dating, many for the very first time.
Do you remember the first time you went on a date? Remember your anxiety? Somehow this show gets it right better than any movie. There's anxiety, wishin' and hopin', and a fear of playing the game.
We've got Dani who not only has an undergraduate degree, but a master's too. She seems so competent, but the longer you're exposed to her the more her issues are revealed. The diagnosis. It wasn't until she was nearly an adult that her aunt realized she was on the spectrum. And usually this is a relief, it explains so much.
Like the people making fun of you. You're trying your best, but you just can't read the signals. But you want what everybody else does, love.
Boys don't talk about it. They say they want a girlfriend, and then they shuck and jive and you realize you'd better start cracking jokes too or you'll become a pariah. You don't want to be sensitive around the guys, you'll be labeled a sissy and ostracized. Hopefully you find your people, but some people never do. And then there are others who yearn to be accepted into a group that in truth they'd rather not belong to. But the inner desire to be accepted, that never goes away. And everybody is sensitive, they just might not show it.
As for the girls? Sure, they can be catty, but they're also supportive. They dream, they fantasize, they know what they want and even articulate it, but getting it? That's harder.
And even harder if you're on the spectrum.
The signs start coming early. You get kicked out of pre-school. You have trouble making friends. Everybody tells you to fly straight but you don't know you're not, you just know you're not approved of, and that feels awful.
Hopefully you can get into a special program tuned to your needs. But frequently you have to have money and tenacious parents. And with both parents working outside the house and the hurdles you need to jump to get government assistance, it's hard. And then you become an adult and no one cares about you anymore, you're on your own. And if you can work at all, you can't pay your bills. Just pull yourself up by those bootstraps why don't you!
And it is a spectrum. They no longer call it "Asperger's." So there are people on both ends of what I describe above, highly functional and less functional, but one thing is for sure, you never detach from your parents, who worry about how you'll survive after they die.
Loneliness. It's the scourge of America. That's what's great about the internet, you can find your people. Sure, there's a lot of hate, but those who decry screens are denying the need to connect, to talk. Of course this connectedness comes at a price, hate and showing off, but all progress comes with negatives, you've just got to adjust your vision, because the past is never coming back.
So the six episode series starts with people who are yearning for love, but they don't know how to get it. There are coaches.
And then they dive in.
Will the other person accept their autism?
This is a big issue for Dani. And Kaelynn too. Once the boys find out who they really are, will they dump them?
There are so many interesting plot twists, but in this case they are real.
Maybe you can't watch this. Because you can't own your feelings. You can't own your needs.
And on some level it's painful, because you see where your own inadequacies are, none of us are perfect.
But the humanity shines bright! In a country where everybody's trying to become rich and famous, in truth most people are just living their lives, and the penumbra is ultimately irrelevant, it all comes down to the personal, your feelings.
It's conversation, it's touch.
One of the things I like most about being in a relationship is the floor. What I mean by that is when you're involved with another person your feelings only get so low. But if you're alone...you can sink to the point of suicide. You're bouncing off the walls. And not everybody has a community around them. And as Chris Rock says, you get married because you don't want to be the oldest guy in the club. Yes, you age out of a lot of behaviors. And if you're old and single... It's a couples world and some will include you as a third or fifth wheel, but you don't always count on it and after the conversation you go back home alone.
You'll breeze through the series in a day. Because you're instantly invested, you want to know what happens.
We're all looking for truth. And in most reality television there is none.
But that's at the heart of "Love on the Spectrum U.S." WATCH IT!
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