Atypical (Season 1) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]

Atypical is both a mildly serious drama where we see the hurdles a family with an autistic teen has to jump over to give their kid a fair go, and the way people in regular society treat someone who is different. But it's also a comedy when we view the interactions a lot of the time.Atypical is an obvious cashing in on popularity of the Sheldon Cooper character from The Big Bang Theory along with The Good Doctor's success with its autistic character. But this character is way closer acted like Sheldon. In fact this could easily be the transitioning years between Young Sheldon and Big Bang. So Teen Sheldon it could well be unofficially called. Except there's a different (and more realistic than the one on Young Sheldon) family he lives with. Keir Gilchrist (United States of Tara) plays Sam Gardner, a teen (who in one of the final episodes of Season one we learn is 18) with autism. Paying homage to Big Bang he's got a best and well only friend in episode one, who goes to his school and works in the same electrical goods store who is a combination of Raj (India heritage) and Howard (thinks he knows everything about women but it's obvious doesn't). Sam also has a similar hairstyle to Sheldon, wears T-shirts with childish characters on them (in his case whales) over the top of long sleeved shirts as soon as he gets an opportunity to buy his own clothes, and many other subtle nods to Big Bang.But the show is its own thing too. Jennifer Jason Leigh (Single White Female) plays Elsa, his mother who is overprotective and identifies herself to others as Sam's mother, which is something her husband Doug (Michael Rapaport - Remember the cop who dated Phoebe on Friends?), and daughter Casey (Brigette Lundy-Paine - Margot vs Lily) definitely notice. The family have their own issues and make up a bigger part of the storylines than the Cooper family on Young Sheldon do. So the show isn't totally revolving around Sam.It's a comedy in that the reactions of Sam which aren't the way non autistic people behave are fun to watch as they were with Sheldon. Sam is blunt, calls people out, and doesn't have social queues, so is a joy to watch. He also is obsessed with penguins and to a lesser extent other Antarctic inhabitants and facts.There's only eight episodes in Season One, not sure why they didn't just combine this and the second season which has just ten episodes in the one DVD collection. But with region 4 DVDs anyway, you've got to buy the seasons separately. There's no extras of anything other than the eight episodes which is a bit disappointing.