In step with the search for greater realism in television storytelling, the representation of people with disabilities on TV has also slowly abandoned the banal clichés and pieties typical of an earlier time, as explained by Superabile's investigation. Production companies, with American ones at the forefront, have in recent years made the panorama of TV series very interesting on this theme.
Across the ocean, indeed, the serial terrain is always very fertile: the third season of Atypical has just been released on Netflix, the series starring an autistic boy who attempts (successfully) to show the relational challenges of an adolescent and his disability, revealing the various points in common of both his natures. Highly praised by critics, it manages to describe with simplicity and realism what are the daily challenges of an atypical family.
More courageous was instead the Abc network, which since 2016 has offered the general public Speechless, an irreverent family comedy in which the eldest son, JJ, has cerebral palsy and can communicate only through a special pointer on a keyboard. The novel aspect is found in the irony and cynicism with which the family (and JJ himself) relates to disability, a premise for reflections that are anything but banal. The audience unfortunately did not reward the series, which was cancelled after its third season due to low ratings.
Also worth noting, not so much for the quality but for the initial premise, Special, a miniseries released last spring also on Netflix. Semi-autobiography of screenwriter Ryan O'Connor, it tells of his double discomfort as a homosexual person and someone with disability in the working and relational world. In order to hide having childhood cerebral palsy, Ryan exploits the misunderstanding of a car accident he had shortly before as the cause of his condition, aware that for others it is easier to accept physical disability than mental retardation. It is not so much fiction, rather, it is sadly real.
This year, even Rai took up the challenge, launching Everyone Is Perfect: a six-episode fiction dedicated to the eventful adventures of Rick, a boy with Down syndrome who finds work in a chocolate shop, where he will meet a group of boys like him. Although the typical flaws of fiction frequently resurface in the miniseries, we like to see the noble aspect of this initiative, namely that of raising awareness among the general public on themes often silenced on TV: the search for employment, affection and independence of people with disabilities, told in a romanticized but plausible key. Last Christmas's fiction adds to a series of television initiatives that suggest growing interest in the theme of disability: the rerun of Hotel 6 Stars – a reality show that tells the training internship of a group of people with Down syndrome in a hotel in Villasimius –, the new program by Paola Severini Melograni Or Maybe Not, where an attempt is made to debunk some common misconceptions, and the miniseries The Body of Love, dedicated to the affectivity of fragile people (we discuss it here).