Television series

Atypical

Name: Atypical
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Family
Released: 2017
Cast: Keir Gilchrist, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Michael Rapaport, Amy Okuda

Coming-of-age

A Netflix half-hour dramedy that splits its attention between Sam, an autistic teenager chasing his first girlfriend and a life outside his mother's orbit, and the rest of the Gardners as they quietly come undone around him. It's gentler and funnier than its premise suggests, occasionally saccharine, but genuinely tender about how families reorganise themselves when one person starts changing first.

TVMaze rating

4.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like warm, sharp family comedy where the humour grows out of an awkward kid's blunt honesty and the parents' panic, and you don't mind the laughs landing alongside a lump in the throat.

Skip it if you want a tightly plotted thriller or prestige drama; this is a looser, chatty series that circles the same family worries across its seasons and can feel repetitive when it pauses for another lesson.

What it asks of you: Four seasons of half-hour episodes, easy to binge in a weekend, with a light touch that shifts into quieter, more reflective stretches. It asks for patience with its characters rather than close attention to any puzzle.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Sex Education2019

Same warm, hormonal, half-hour Netflix engine — awkward teens, an overinvolved parent, a school full of misfits — but sharper-written and braver about sex, shame and identity.

But Broader ensemble means less time with any one character; if you came for Sam-style focus you'll miss it.

Everything's Gonna Be Okay2020

Josh Thomas's show has an autistic teenage character too, but folds her into a filthier, weirder, more emotionally reckless family comedy that never softens its edges.

But The humour is more transgressive and the grief storyline underneath is heavier than Atypical ever gets.

Speechless2016

A network sitcom about a family built around a disabled teenage son, written with real bite by a writer with a disabled brother — funnier and less precious than you'd expect.

But Multi-cam sitcom pacing and laugh-adjacent rhythms feel old-fashioned next to Atypical's Netflix polish.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Atypical

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Love on the Spectrum2019

It's Atypical's exact premise — an autistic person seeking love — but stripped of fiction, structure and punchlines, so you feel the same story land completely differently.

An Australian documentary series following real autistic adults as they date, told with enormous gentleness and zero condescension — the show Sam's storyline is quietly gesturing at.

But No scripted safety net or jokes to soften things; real people's real awkwardness and heartbreak, unfiltered.

Please Like Me2013

Josh Thomas again, earlier and gentler — a coming-of-age comedy about mental illness, family and dating that shares Atypical's habit of finding jokes inside real sadness.

But Slower, more Australian, more meandering — it wanders where Atypical keeps a plot moving.

Parenthood2010

A sprawling family drama that includes an autistic child storyline among several others, and does the messy, loving, exhausted parent dynamic better than almost anything on TV.

But Six seasons is a real commitment, and it leans hard into tears-every-episode sentimentality.

The Fosters2013

A blended, big-hearted family drama about difference, identity and growing up that shares Atypical's instinct for taking teenage feelings completely seriously.

But Aimed a bit younger and more soap-operatic, with plotting that occasionally strains credulity.

Everything Sucks!2018

A one-season teen comedy set in the 90s that nails the specific ache of being an outsider looking for your first real connection, with the same gentle, funny tone.

But Cancelled after one season, so it ends on an emotional note without full resolution.

This Is Us2016

For the family-ensemble side of Atypical rather than the Sam side — a big, structurally clever drama about how one household's choices ripple across decades.

But Far more melodramatic and manipulative with its reveals; go in ready to be worked on emotionally.

The Good Doctor2017

If you want more of an autistic lead navigating a world not built for him, this medical drama gives that same premise a slicker, higher-stakes procedural shape.

But Hour-long medical drama beats replace sitcom warmth — different genre entirely, less about family.

Rain Man1988

Same central question — what do we owe someone whose mind works differently, and what does that cost the people around them — asked thirty years earlier, in a completely different register.

The film that put autism into mainstream pop culture decades before Sam existed — a road-trip drama about a brother forced to actually see the sibling he's ignored.

But Its portrayal of autism is dated and narrower than Atypical's, and some of its assumptions haven't aged well.

A Silent Voice: The Movie2016

Swaps sitcom comedy for animation and swaps autism for deafness, but it's the same engine: a teenager who communicates differently, and the people who have to learn to actually listen.

A quietly devastating Japanese animated film about a former bully seeking forgiveness from a deaf classmate, handling difference, guilt and connection with startling emotional precision.

But Subtitled anime with a heavier, sadder tone than Atypical ever risks — this one earns its tears the hard way.