Hollywood Psych: Difference between revisions

* Almost every attempt to portray more severe Kanner's autism tends to be a cutesy-poo [[Very Special Episode]] about a Mother struggling with her non-verbal child. The aim is usually to either find a cure, show people how angelic (or axe crazy, it depends on the writer) autistic children are or just highlight the turmoil these families go through. Good luck trying to find anything that has a non-verbal autistic person as the main character. This is perhaps one of the worse examples, as non-verbal autistic people are often, despite appearances, perfectly aware of their surroundings, and perfectly capable of rational thought. However, this doesn't sell as well, so it rarely comes up in any form of media, and as a result, most people think that low-functioning autism = no awareness whatsoever.

** ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' managed this, with a kid who was totally non-verbal but who House managed to prove was very aware of the world around him.

* ''[[CSI]]'' is guilty of this trope due to one episode misrepresenting Asperger's Syndrome.

** However, ''CSI'' also had Gil Grissom, who is charming and personable to his co-workers, but socially withdrawn, focused on scientific minutiae, and has described himself as a "ghost". It was hinted at least once that Grissom had Asperger's, and certainly displayed a more realistic array of the symptoms than most overtly-labeled TV portrayals.