Such a huge amount of TV, and especially Movies, are geared towards a neurotypical audience.

As an autistic kid growing up, the only actor I ever cared about was Brent Spiner (Data, from Star Trek). I never watched the original series as a kid, but after watching it as an adult, Data was obviously carrying on a role started by Spock, another all-time great. Maybe they both count as rare role models for ASD folks?

My favorite movie is this non-movie called Gizmo! (1977). (It’s free on youtube among other places.) It’s mostly a collection of old black and white footage of weird inventions. It definitely has neurotypical folks in mind as part of the audience, giving them lots of weird things to laugh at, but I could watch or scroll through info about random unique contraptions for days.

  • I think the movie I admire the most is The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, because it’s just the most beautiful film I’ve ever seen. But in terms of my ADHD, it couldn’t be any further away from apt. It’s a glacially slow movie that’s damn near three hours long, so shouldn’t be able to hold my attention the way it does, but fuck me is it beautiful.

    I sometimes bring up the last ten minutes of it on YouTube, and sink back into the familiar melancholy of Bob’s final years, wrapped up in the stunning score from Nick Cave.