Love on the Spectrum Season 1 Review

Cast (from left to right/top to bottom): Kelvin, Maddi, Jimmy, Sharnae, Andrew, Chloe, Mark, Olivia, and Michael

Rating: 4/5 

Synopsis: Love on the Spectrum is a dating reality show about various young adults on the autism spectrum who are in a relationship or in search for a romantic partner.

My Thoughts: Now, I’m typically not the person to bother watching dating reality shows, let alone reality shows in general. However, when Netflix released the trailer for the show a little over a month ago after acquiring the international streaming rights to it, I was pretty excited to hear about a series dedicating to not just a token but an ensemble of real-life autistic adults. At the same time, I held a modicum of skepticism lest this turned out to be yet another mind-numbing alibi to overglamorize and/or misrepresent neurodivergent individuals as lopsided stereotypes. July 22 marked Netflix’s premiere of the series which was coincidentally timed on the day of my birthday which I assumed to be a gift or curse from the streaming gods/goddesses.

    Thankfully, this 5-episode present was not a cheap sham and worth my 3+ hours of my life. Like I’ve stated in the synopsis, the show depicts the lives of atypical couples and singles who want to be in a relationship. Most of the single ones receive advice and guidance from relationship expert Jodie Rogers who I’d consider a helpful and sincere person albeit a skosh too condescending at times, a point I’ll return to later on. The cast is an eclectic melting pot of personalities with varying orientations, special interests, wants, and needs thus reaffirming the saying "If you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism". These would be top 5 favorite personalities on the show:

1. Michael - He’s the somewhat bluntly honest yet extremely empathetic guy who happens to be great at reading social cues and gestures, something he’s trained himself to do, helping him be a more supportive partner.
2. Chloe - She’s a timid yet sweet person who has a strong liking for animation and superheroes. Too bad she only appeared in about 2 episodes with the second appearance being a brief retrospect.
3. Mark - A friendly gentleman with a love for paleontology.
4. Thomas & Ruth - One of the sweetest couples I’ve seen. Ruth’s a partially deaf autistic with nerdy little quirks along with boyfriend Thomas who works as a bus driver due to his love for mechanics.
5. Olivia - I admire her passion for theatre and felt bad when she talked about difficult it was for her to find anyone who shares reciprocal feelings towards her.

    Notwithstanding the show’s optimistic tone, it does not try to sugarcoat the difficulties these people go through and paint everything as pitch-perfect. In fact, some of the cast are still searching for that special someone by the end of the series and do have their awkward moments during dates which makes the interactions feel raw and genuine for the viewer. An example of this would be Michael’s date on the second episode leaves earlier than expected due to a case of sensory overload in the upscale dining setting. 

    For all the praises I’ve given, I still do have a few quibbles I would like to address. First, since season 1 has a mere 5 episodes and focuses on so many people, a lot of the cast members didn’t get as much screen time as I would have liked. This includes Chloe and Kelvin more or less. In addition, like I briefly mentioned earlier, while I did see Jodie Rogers as a supportive and helpful person, there were instances where she seemed to be making too many patronizing generalizations. For instance, when Andrew’s first date did not come under pretense of going through her own personal problem, Jodie told him that it was likely a sign that she wasn’t interested in him. Though it might be the case, it seems like the wrong first impression to draw out of it. Finally, my last complaint is that there was a lack of racial diversity since the sole non-white person in the main cast was Kelvin who’s Japanese-Australian.            

Final Thoughts: Love on the Spectrum is a beautiful, awe-inspiring show I highly suggest giving a watch if you’re looking for some lighter but still down-to-earth fare which respectfully portrays neurodivergent people. I hope these relationships are explored further next season.