“EVERYTHING’S GONNA BE OKAY,” FREEFORM
Nicholas is an Australian entomologist who loses his father and becomes the guardian for his younger American half-sisters, Matilda and Genevieve. He is thoroughly unprepared and unqualified, but that doesn’t stop him from doing his best to stumble up to the job. The show is shaggy, sweet, sardonic and unforced. “I always just say it’s people waking up and trying their best to have a nice day at a difficult time,” explains Josh Thomas, the show’s creator and star. Matilda is on the autism spectrum, as is Kayla Cromer, the actress who plays her, but don’t look for any Very Special Episodes.
The reviews:
“Without doing it in a manufactured or disingenuous way, ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Okay’ has the freedom to follow any path it chooses,” Indiewire’s Steve Green enthuses. “Playful in the face of gloom and inquisitive in the face of foregone conclusions, to have a trio so ready to handle anything makes this show’s future as exciting as its beginning.”
AV Club’s Shannon Miller notes the “messy and enchanting” action “results in a deeply funny comedy teeming with heart, wit and a refreshing level of humanity.”
The scoop:
Thomas recognized how important representation was for the neuro-diverse community and was nervous about letting anyone down, “but the response has been really great,” he says. He also took time on set to check in with Cromer and other neuro-diverse actors to make sure they were comfortable and had what they needed “to set them up for success. And then I thought, ‘Why don’t I do this with everybody that we work with?’ ” So he did.