The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Thursday, April 5, 2018 — 3B

There’s a saying in the autistic 

community that if you’ve met 
one person with autism, you’ve 
met one person with autism. 
Autism spectrum disorder is just 
that: a spectrum. It manifests 
in drastically different ways 
in different people. This can 
present 
real 
challenges 
for 

writers, actors and directors 
looking to tell stories about 
autism on screen. If the autism 
spectrum is so broad, how could 
any 
fictional 
representation 

come close to capturing the 
autistic experience? What would 
an accurate depiction of autism 
even look like?

The 
good 
thing 
about 

television is that there’s no 
other form of entertainment 
that allows an audience to spend 
as much time with characters 
as they develop, to encounter 
those characters in a variety of 
emotional states and situations 
and to come away with a 
nuanced understanding of who 
those characters are. The small 
screen seems like the best-suited 
medium for creating complex, 
layered portrayals of autism, 
and a recent wave of shows with 
autistic 
characters 
suggests 

audiences might start seeing 
these more often.

Last 
week, 
“The 
Good 

Doctor,” a medical drama about 
a surgical resident with autism 
and savant syndrome, ended 
its first season on ABC as the 
most-watched drama on network 
television. Dr. Shaun Murphy 
(Freddie 
Highmore, 
“Bates 

Motel”) is a brilliant surgeon 
whose mind works in fascinating 
ways. In each episode, we 
see 
visual 
representations 

of 
his 
brain 
as 
he 
pieces 

together anatomical diagrams 
and 
snippets 
from 
medical 

school textbooks to arrive at 
unconventional diagnoses. It’s a 
sweet, if mawkish, celebration of 
difference, but there’s something 
troubling about the way Shaun’s 
autism is framed throughout.

In the pilot, the hospital’s 

board of directors convenes to 
discuss their concerns about 
Shaun’s hiring. Empathy and 
communication, they say, are 
crucial for doctors to have — 
doesn’t Shaun’s autism make 
these impossible? The hospital 
president Dr. Glassman (Richard 
Schiff, “The West Wing”) quickly 
emerges as Shaun’s sole defender, 
delivering an impassioned plea 
on his behalf — the first of many. 
“Yes, he has autism,” Glassman 
cries. “But he also has savant 
syndrome — genius-level skills in 
several areas!”

The pop culture fascination 

with the autistic savant isn’t 
new, and it carries with it the 
uncomfortable implication that 
autism is some sort of flaw to be 
compensated for. Are people on 
the spectrum without savant 
capabilities 
less 
worthy 
or 

valuable? On “The Good Doctor,” 
the constant sentimentality can 
make these stirring speeches 
seem compassionate. Beneath 
the 
surface, 
though, 
they 

feel capitalistic — insensitive 
conceptions of human worth as a 
function of productivity.

“Atypical,” a Netflix comedy 

which aired its first season in 

August 2017, is decidedly less 
schmaltzy, but falls into a few 
unsettling 
tendencies 
of 
its 

own. The show centers around 
Sam (Keir Gilchrist, “United 
States of Tara”), an autistic high 
school senior who decides to 
foray into the world of dating. 
It’s a family show, with all of 
the usual trappings of the genre 
— high-strung mom, dopey dad, 
neglected sibling — but to its 
credit, it isn’t the sensational or 
glamorized version of autism 
“The Good Doctor” is. “Atypical” 
is quite honest about what it 
means to be Sam, and what it 
means to be a part of his family.

Where 
the 
show 
really 

stumbles is its humor. Too often 
it feels as if we’re meant to be 
laughing at Sam, as if pieces of 
his personality are punchlines. 
It 
raises 
some 
interesting 

questions about how comedies 
should go about handling autism. 
Character-driven 
comedies 

have long used their characters’ 
idiosyncrasies and quirks as 
fodder for jokes. But what 
happens when those behavioral 
idiosyncrasies are symptoms? 
How should writers navigate 
that balance in a way that isn’t 
needlessly cruel or judgmental?

On “The A Word,” a lovely 

drama on the BBC, the jokes 
are plenty, but they’re never 
at the expense of Joe (Max 
Vento, “Cotton Wool”), a five-
year-old in Northern England 
recently diagnosed with autism. 
The show is a smart, tender, 
fabulously soundtracked portrait 
of the joys and frustrations of 
raising a child with autism. 
At times, “The A Word” could 
focus a bit more on Joe and a bit 

Ezra Fields-Meyer & the 
engaging art of animation

MAITREYI ANANTHARAMAN

Daily Arts Writer

“I am an expert in Disney 

and other animated films. 
When people tell me their 
birthdays, I can tell them what 
movies were released on those 
days.”

Ezra Fields-Meyer has been 

making animated videos since 
he was 12 years old, having 
loved animation from a young 
age. He also draws pictures 
using 
online 
tutorials 
to 

guide him and finds art to be 
soothing for his autism, which 
he was diagnosed with as a 
child.

One of Fields-Meyer’s first 

videos, 
“Alphabet 
House,” 

stemmed from his interest in 
letters, numbers and shapes. 
In the video, every letter of 
the alphabet lives in a house. 
The letter “F” climbs to the 
top of the house and falls, and 
several of the letters take him 
to the emergency room. When 
“F” returns home, all the 
letters celebrate and tell him 
not to climb up again.

It’s clever and charming, 

with 
funny 
dialogue 
and 

colorful 
animations. 
But 

when Fields-Meyer posted the 
video on YouTube in 2008, he 
didn’t know it would lead to 
something larger.

“One year later, a bestselling 

children’s book author and 
illustrator 
named 
Tom 

Lichtenheld saw my video 
on YouTube and he thought 
the idea would make a great 
children’s book,” Fields-Meyer 
wrote in an email interview 
with The Daily.

Their book, “E-Mergency!” 

was published in 2011, and it 
follows the story of the letter 
“E” who becomes injured and 
has to be replaced by the letter 
“O.”

“It took a couple of years to 

publish and it was an exciting 
and thrilling experience to 
become a published author at 
age 15,” Fields-Meyer wrote. 
“It was inspired by my ideas 
from ‘Alphabet House,’ but 
Tom did most of the work. He 
is very talented!”

Now, Fields-Meyer makes 

flash-animated 
videos 
at 

Exceptional Minds, a non-
profit animation and visual 

effects school and studio for 
young adults on the autism 
spectrum. Exceptional Minds 
helps him learn the computer 

skills and techniques needed 
to create animations.

This doesn’t come without 

its 
challenges 
for 
Fields-

ARTIST
PROFILE

IN

NITYA GUPTA
Daily Arts Writer

Courtesy of Tom Fields-Meyer

Courtesy of Tom Fields-Meyer

Meyer. His autism can make it 
difficult for him to focus in art 
classes, and he stresses about 
scheduling events.

“I have a lot of anxiety about 

certain things,” Fields-Meyer 
wrote. “For example, I worry 
about whether I’ll be able to 
make it to movies or other 
things I follow. But doing art 
helps me calm down. Also, it’s 
fun and it makes people happy 
when I share them on social 
media.”

In the future, Fields-Meyer 

hopes to continue creating 
his own animated films and 
collaborating 
with 
others. 

He’s also considering working 
as an animator as well as some 
other options.

“I love children’s books 

such as ‘Dr. Seuss,’ ‘Curious 
George,’ and ‘Eric Carle,’ and 
I would like to create more 
children’s 
picture 
books,” 

Fields-Meyer wrote.

Individuals on the spectrum 

often face difficulty entering 
the 
workforce. 
According 

to a 2015 report by the A.J. 
Drexel Autism Institute, 58 
percent of young adults with 
autism were employed. This is 
significantly lower than their 
peers with disabilities, as 95 
percent of young adults with a 
learning disability, 91 percent 
with a speech or language 
impairment, 91 percent with 
an emotional disturbance and 
74 percent with an intellectual 
disability were employed.

Art 
therapy 
and 
art 

in 
general 
have 
become 

increasingly 
recognized 
as 

potential treatment options 
for people on the autism 
spectrum. 
Art 
provides 
a 

medium for communication 
and may help children tolerate 
new stimuli as they become 
exposed 
and 
desensitized 

to new textures and smells 
for their artwork, like using 
paste-covered 
newspaper 

strips to create a paper-mâché 
project. 

“I use certain tools when I 

draw my pictures that calm 
me down — such as colored 
pencils, markers and even the 
paper,” Fields-Meyer wrote. 
“Just sitting and doing it 
calms me down and makes 
me feel good. It also calms me 
down when I play games on my 
iPhone or I listen to familiar 
songs from Disney and other 
animated films.”

Fields-Meyer isn’t the only 

artistically 
inclined 
person 

in his family. His father Tom 
wrote human interest stories at 
People Magazine for 12 years. 
His last article was about his 
relationship with Ezra, which 
he eventually turned into the 
novel “Following Ezra: What 
One Father Learned About 
Gumby, Otters, Autism, and 
Love From His Extraordinary 
Son.”

“I 
thought 
it 
was 

unbelievable that he wrote 
down stuff that happened with 
me that I actually remember 
and it was so exciting to have 
it remembered in a book. I 
also thought it had lots of 
funny and amusing parts and 
it helped people understand 
autism,” Fields-Meyer wrote, 
reflecting on the experience 
of reading his father’s memoir.

When 
Fields-Meyer 
isn’t 

making animated videos or 
drawing, he can be found 

visiting museums, theme parks 
and 
zoos, 
teaching 
online 

and reading books to kids in 
preschools 
and 
elementary 

schools.

“I love reading books to 

young kids because it makes 
me feel good when they get a 
reaction from the stories they 
hear — they laugh or smile 
at the pictures or words or 
they ask questions,” Fields-
Meyer wrote. “I love being 
with young kids and teaching 
them.”

Regardless of what Fields-

Meyer is doing — whether 
creating 
animated 
videos, 

reading to children or making 
other artwork — he maintains 
a positive outlook on his life 
and disability.

“Even though I have autism, 

it’s totally OK and it’s a really 
good thing because despite 
the disorders I can do certain 
things not many others I know 
could do. I have a photographic 
memory of certain things and 
I remember all kinds of things 
since I was a little boy. If I 
meet you, I can ask you when 
your birthday is and tell you 
what film was released on 
your birthday or what movies 
came out the year you were 
born,” Fields-Meyer wrote. “I 
like certain things that other 
people don’t like as much — for 
example, I usually like sequels 
better than (or just as much as) 
the original movie. And I like 
some movies better because 
they are more colorful and 
high tech and more modern. 
Sometimes I talk loud but I 
don’t mean to but that’s OK. 
I don’t think it’s bad — it’s 
totally fine. It’s the way I am.”

The representation of autism in modern television

TV

less on the sordid personal lives 
of his relatives, but the show is 

often at its most engaging when 
it uses a wider lens to examine 
the way communities respond 

to disability and interrogate 
their own prejudices. It’s all 
done with such a light touch that 
“The A Word” never feels like a 
PSA or a “Very Special Episode.” 
The nuance brings to mind the 
underappreciated “Parenthood,” 
which 
offered 
audiences 
its 

own measured, groundbreaking 
portrayal of Asperger’s — one 
that still remains a favorite of the 
autistic community.

For all the strides made in 

autism representation recently, 
there’s still so much room for 
improvement. The prevalence 
of “autism headcanons,” fan 
interpretations of undiagnosed 
TV characters as autistic — 
Brennan on “Bones,” Sheldon 
Cooper 
on 
“The 
Big 
Bang 

Theory,” 
Abed 
Nadir 
on 

“Community” 
and 
Benedict 

Cumberbatch’s “Sherlock” are 
just a few — speaks to the real 
desire for a broader range of 
identities and experiences on 
screen. 
Television 
characters 

with autism have been, for the 
most 
part, 
high-functioning, 

straight, 
able-bodied, 
white 

and male. Stories about autism 
should aim to be as diverse as 
the real autistic community. 
One way to achieve that? Start 
including people with autism 
in the making of these shows. 
Not just as interview subjects or 
informal consultants, but in the 
writers’ room and in front of the 
camera. Our TV will be far better 
for it.

ABC

Art therapy and 

art in general 

have become 

increasingly 

recognized 

as potential 

treatment options 

for people on the 

autism spectrum

Start including 

people with 

autism in the 

making of these 

shows

