“Love on the Spectrum” gives the promise of reality television

You know the story: The star surprises the fan in the Talk Show, and the crowd online will go crazy, sending a viral clip. But when a polite actor Jack Black surprised Tanner Smith at “The Kelly Clarkson Show” in April, and especially poignant And cheerful alchemy was conjured up.

“Jack! Jack! I am very excited that I finally met you,” Smith exclaimed when they embrace. “You are so handsome, you look good, Jack!”

“I love you in the series and I can’t wait for the next season,” said Black Smith, referring to the Netflix series “Love on the Spectrum”, which recently ended the unforgettable third season. “I am so glad to achieve this success,” said Black. “Meeting you personally is also really amazing to me.”

Smith is a beloved star in itself. Online – his handle, TannerWiththe_tism, nodded cleverly because of autism – he has about 2.5 million followers. This is a number that is not unusual among its cast members, all of which are autistic.

On viruses clipOne of the commentators called Smith “one of the most handsome people who walk on the ground.” Another wrote: “It was the moment when humanity remembered what love, truth and presence really look like.”

“Love in the spectrum”, a series that Smith made celebrated, follows him and his colleagues from the cast, when they arrange and establish relationships, often with others who have autism.

In the whole series, they managed to make almost unimaginable: provide the promise of reality of television, offering thrilling entertainment, while piercing the trick of what reality TV became. The program is good to watch, but calling it a TV would be a reduction. This gives the authenticity and heat of the species without distortion of saccharin or wandering.

This season, viewers began a up-to-date relationship when Pari Kim and Tina Zhu XI Caruso shared a kiss in the garden, the first each of them had with a different woman (over a year later they are a couple). And the viewers saw the end of the relationship when Dani Bowman and Adan Correa parted shortly after the first anniversary of dates because of various beliefs about sex before the wedding.

“I’ve always wanted an intimate relationship,” says Bowman, Crestfallen. “Instead, misery.”

What once was a species similar to the document, reality tv mutated for decades in often indulgent or guilty watching, defined by franchises such as “real housewives” and families such as Kardashiania. Viewers now not only accept their gambit, but often accept and appreciate it.

The magic of “Love on the spectrum” is that its cast members do not have real pretend by their nature. This is not only the main cast, but also about their families, friends and social networks – and all love, science and frustration related to their movement by the world. Instead of the tokenism of the television past, the series tries to explore the depth and width of their various experiences.

When Connor Tomlinson shares regret because of the lack of opportunities to kiss Georgie Harris, his mother and brother calmed him down that he was on the right track and should be exquisite towards himself. His self-reflection-“I just panicked”, we hear how he speaks later-he is in a noticeable contrast with the excess of reality dates, in which participants move towards intimacy and even marriage.

An autism spectrum disorder, as it is officially called, is as extensive as its name suggests and is marked with a mixture of social and communication problems, repetitive behaviors and patterns of thinking, which differ in severe. An autistic child can simply fight social guidelines, while a child with a sedate case may be non -verbal. There is no blood test or brain scanning to determine who has autism.

Cian O’Clery, co -creator and director of the series, who can often be heard in the series, asking cast questions based on “Love on the Spectrum” on his popular Australian documents of the same name. “We care about the people we are shooting”, O’Clery said Vanity Fair in April. “This is an extremely diverse population and you can’t put on someone because he has a diagnosis of autism.”

After season 3, he debuted in April “Love on the Spectrum” quickly landed among the 10 best programs in all streamers, According to NielsenAnd remains a constant element of the 10 most -watched Netflix television programs. It was renovated This week for the fourth season.

The success of the series appears at a time when Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Social Welfare, focused on autism as a problem with eliminating. At the beginning of this month, he announced a up-to-date database for research on the “primary causes” of autism and called autism “possible to prevent” and “epidemic” and even promised Find the cause until September.

“They are children who will never pay taxes” Kennedy said in April. “They will never work. They will never play baseball. They will never write a poem. They will never go on a date.”

But outstanding people with autism, including the stars of the series, have He pushed himself to his statementsEven the alopecia of the idea that autism is a condition that requires repair.

Bella Ramsey, nominated for Emma Star of the hit drama HBO “The Last of Us”, He talked to Vogue In April, diagnosing autism during the filming of the first season of the series. Ramsey called the diagnosis “releasing” and said: “There is no reason for people not to know.”

And this year’s long -term juggernaut “Survivor” CBS Eva Erickson, the power that performs a doctorate at Brown University, She shared her autism Diagnosis with its competitors.

She said how, when she was teenage, they told her parents that she would never live independently or have a job. Recognizing that he certainly has its struggle, she never perceived her autism “as an obstacle to success,” she said. “This is not something to circumvent, it’s just a part of who I am. It’s nothing wrong with that.”

For viewers, vision is believing. The stars of “Love on the Spectrum” showed one of the most personal parts of their lives and stand out not only, offering a affluent representation of life with autism, but also by filling our screens with increasingly uncommon goods: honesty.

At the end of the season, Abbey Romeo Serenades, her three -year -old boy, David Isaacman, with a moving song she wrote. “He sees colors as numbers, now I know them all / he learned how my mind works, we started to fall,” he sings, referring to his synesthesia. There were some members of their family nearby, who, like many watching at home, were dried with their eyes.