Where to find it: BBC iPlayer
Length: Two 1-hour episodes
Synopsis: Autistic mission doc
Recommendation rating: 2/5
What I like about it: autistic people
What I don’t like about it: not very informative, self-important host, inspiration porn
Review:
Chris Packham hosts this BBC documentary in which he meets four autistic people and helps them make a short film about their perspective, which they then show to their friends and family. Despite many encouragements to understand autistic people, it doesn’t do a great job of explaining us, preferring ambiguous statements about how we’re all different. Occasionally hilarious, such as using VFX to show autism as some kind of Iron Man-esque superpower, but more often manipulatively ‘uplifting’ or uncomfortably intrusive.
Mostly, the show and its host seem to have a higher evaluation of their importance than I do and spend most of the time talking down to the audience, assuming they will have many negative impressions of autistic people. Thankfully Packham, patron(ising) saint of autism, is here to realise for us that people who don’t speak are still people.
Content notes (may contain spoilers):