You may fall headlong for ‘Love on the Spectrum’
Unscripted series looks at dating for young adults living with autism
“Tiger King” already seems like a relic of the gaslight era — that is, the beginning the COVID-19 times, when we all started feeling like Ingrid Bergman in “Gaslight.”
Back in March, as the world was waking up to its top-down role in making this pandemic as long and contagious as possible, the pulpy seven-part Netflix series served up a tall glass of Florida sunshine schadenfreude, mixing outlandish criminality with poor human/feline cohabitation choices. It hit the spot and suited these animalistic times. Four months later, I’m through with predictions. It’s no use guessing who may or may not be interested in a seriously heartwarming Australian dating series about a fantastically diverse group of young adults living with autism spectrum disorder.
But it deserves a big North American audience. “Love on the Spectrum,” first broadcast in Australia in 2019, is pretty irresistible. I’m in agreement with whoever wrote the headline for the Melbourne-based online publication the New
Daily: It’s the “gorgeous show making ‘The Bachelor’ look boring.”
It’s easy to fall for it, even if you find some of its unscripted storytelling techniques less than trustworthy. The subjects’ search for love and romantic companionship, as they navigate dating experiences that, for some, are their very first, don’t need much editorial flourish. The people on screen are so naturally charismatic and compelling, they aren’t helped by an insistent, impish musical score, or zippy editing rhythms heavy on the cutaway reaction shots, for dramatic or comic emphasis.
Some of the touches, in other words, belong to reality shows far less interesting than this one. The subjects directly address the camera operator in many scenes. Series director Cian O’Clery is the main (and unseen) operator, offering words of comfort or encouragement when things get daunting for those on camera.
We meet Michael, 25, whose mission is “to become a husband.” Chloe, 19, speaks in episode one of the difficulty of reading emotions, while 22year-old Ruth, who is deaf as well as autistic, greets the camera by introducing her boyfriend of four years, Thomas, her fellow “aspie.”
Some of the series regulars are in long-term relationships; others, such as dazzlingly quickwitted Maddi or studious Kelvin (both introduced in Episode 2), have yet to find someone.
When Maddi rehearses an upcoming dinner date with her parents (dad plays the bartender, mom is the date), we experience it from Maddi’s perspective. She’s graced with a genuinely loving family, though the scenario role-playing, designed to alleviate the stress of a new social interaction, has a way of engendering its share of stress in the bargain.
How fully you fall headlong into “Love on the Spectrum” will depend on where you sit on the disdain spectrum regarding reality TV. However broad its parameters, the genre’s brazen demands require that the audience suspends both its disbelief and its belief, simultaneously. The success of a second- or third-tier reality show (let’s assume at least a thousand tiers) lies in rolling with the lie in order to get to the just desserts.
The fakery levels came as a mild shock to me back in 2008 (I was an idiot). When “Top Chef” filmed a Chicago block party episode on my block, our crestfallen neighbours told me precisely how the show’s staff stocked their “ordinary” refrigerator with everything the chefs needed to “find,” “spontaneously,” on camera a little later. Should’ve seen it coming, but still: shameless.
Happily, “Love on the Spectrum” doesn’t push its contrivances that far, even if Ruth, at one point, does mention a particular date scenario as seeming “very a la ‘The Bachelor.’ ”
O’Clery, a co-producer of the show, worked on the Australian version of the unscripted series “Employable Me,” featuring a neuro-diverse lineup of people seeking work. On that show, O’Clery told mamamia, he realized the seldom-discussed romantic dreams of those on the autism spectrum speak to everybody’s experiences.
“Love on the Spectrum” found a large and appreciative audience in Australia. It’s catnip for Netflix: The streaming giant struck gold with its unscripted Ken-and-Barbie dating melees “Love is Blind” and “Too Hot to Handle.” “Indian Matchmaking” debuted last week. Season two of “Dating Around,” Netflix’s inaugural foray into this broad genre, premiered earlier this summer.
In an interview with the New Daily, Ruth of “Love on the Spectrum” spoke out against reality-TV mainstays such as “The Bachelor” and “Love Island,” noting that the shows’ images of the loveworthy excluded entire swaths of the population.
“Neurotypical and able-bodied ideals are often portrayed as perfection,” she said. “And of course they’re not.”
“Love on the Spectrum” premieres on Netflix on Wednesday.