Driving by his deep will of having a beautiful girlfriend, Sam, a young guy suffers from the autism spectrum, does his best to have one, as he does researches on how to date a beautiful girl, the thing that leads his mother to do her best to help him and does not break his heart, so she struggles against coping with the situation.
This family is really hard to dislike, and they become people remarkably easy to root for, thanks in large part to writing that is more empathetic and believable as the show unfolds, and a simply fantastic ensemble.
Sam's disarmingly blunt, awkward yearning for adolescent affection and connection gives a sweet John Hughes gloss to a series that can make you laugh out loud then choke back tears with the manipulative panache of This Is Us.
With a couple of actors' actors -- Leigh and Rapaport -- and Gilchrist at the helm, "Atypical" still manages to mostly stay on track. It's a good newcomer with the potential to get better.
Watchable but inconsistent, the half-hour series dilutes its genuine pathos and strengths with characters and situations that seem to have parachuted in from a different show.
With a TV landscape increasingly littered with unlikable characters, gratuitous violence, and true-crime dramas, a smart show about good people just trying to help one another is a breath of fresh air.
[Rashid's] wise choice to expend as much effort on the characterizations of family members as on Sam himself has expanded the show from a fundraising infomercial to something much more wrenching and complex.
The best parts come when Sam and sister Casey (Brigette Lundy-Paine) have heart-to-hearts and whenever he gushes his vast knowledge and love of penguins. Now streaming on Netflix.
Atypical presents a point of view and a lead character that are, well, atypical in the TV landscape. But its sweetness and predictability make it a little too typical to be great.
Chronicling the 18-year-old life of a young man on the autistic spectrum, "Atypical" does a fine job capturing choice insights into our protagonist's mind, but its overarching story is as predictable as they come.
