Alphas (SyFy)

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^ My problem is the same as the Bill/Gary situation. Aspies don’t have the intuition that NTs assume that we do. Bill assumed that Gary would know that he wasn’t promising that Gary could drive right then, and Gary felt that Bill had lied to him. This happens to me a lot as well in my daily life dealing with NTs.

^I think Bill was tricking Gary on purpose.

Just because the aliens share a trait (photosynthesis, heat conversion) doesn't mean that they are identical or that they execute the trait in identical ways.

And an exobiologist would be particularly sensitive to variations within a species.

This is what caused me to try and adapt. My being Autistic shines through despite this though, as I often miss it when I am the one it is happening to. As an observer, I will catch things, but many times no harm was ever intended, it is just me reacting as a prey animal would: everything is a potential threat. And then my aloofness kicks in, and I am vulnerable once more...

Yeah Bill was manipulating Gary in the start, but the episode ends with Bill keeping his word to Gary--not because Rosen or anyone made him. One of the great things about that episode was how Bill came around to respect Gary more as a person, and not just the autistic kid everyone has to babysit. Bill's warming up to Gary--it's all part of Bill's bigger story arc. Bill needs to accept himself and his own Alpha ability as a good thing, not a curse that got him kicked out of the FBI (and in this last epi, the thing that makes him scared to have kids). Bill's taking baby steps toward his own self-acceptance, and learning to respect Gary and other Alphas is part of that.

In the last epi, they had a small part where Bill fetches Gary the drink he asks for, and Bill brings back different things to make sure Gary gets what he wanted. Bill wouldn't have done that in the beginning of the series. He'd bring one drink and tell Gary to take it and deal with it. It shows that it's BILL who's adapting to Gary, not Gary having to "toughen up."

This is why I'm loving the series. It's so incredibly nuanced in how it's handling these issues. I also liked in this last episode the conflict Rosen had between keeping his promise to Skylar, to leave her alone, and his obligation to his government supervisor who was insisting they take Skylar into custody before someone else got her. Rosen wants to help teh Alphas, and he wants to government to accept the Alphas, But he's finding out that the government doesn't share his same good intentions. That's why I LOVED what Rosen does with Skylar's invention in the end. Rosen wants to see the Alphas be self-determining, not end up pawns for whomever would exploit them, and he'll do something like that for them. I thought that was just awesome.

I like this show, people like Gary relaxes me, i don't know why though.

Wow, tonight's episode SUCKED. What a disappointment. They had done all this great work developing Gary as a validated PERSON and then turned it around made him into a punchline (apparently the writers think you'd have to be desperate to go to a social event with a HFA person as a date) as well as Rachel's little "wise in his simpleton ways" buddy. UGH! What little screen time Gary had in this episode, he was barely above a cliched mix of Rainman and Forrest Gump.

There were plenty of other problems with tonight's episode:

--previously, Rosen has made strong stances for Alphas' right to be self-determining, yet he couldn't stand up for the people Jonas was influencing and manipulating in the same way? He was bumbling buffoon in this episode, and that he resorted to what he did was cliched and melodramatic in a way that this series had so far avoided.

--Rachel's character is on the verge of being unsalvageable. She's wimpy and whiny and she doesn't stand on her like the other characters. Everything about her is too "fragile." Even when she's right she can't seem to grow a backbone.

--Nina and Hicks' getting it on was 100% gratuitous. It added nothing to the story or to Hicks' and Nina's development and made the future of their budding romantic relationship seem like a joke I don't want to hear.

--If Nina "pushes" Bill one more time, Bill needs punch her unconscious. That's the ONLY way another "Nina pushing Bill" scenario can acceptably play out that this point.

--This series needs to stay away from religion altogether. It's not what its target audience tunes in for. Stories like this one worked for The X-Files, but not for this series.

But the whole thing about Rachel having to be "desperate" to ask Gary to accompany her to her sister's engagement party rubbed a raw nerve for me, a raw nerve I think a lot of us have: how many of us have been treated like that? Like the idea of us being someone's date "for reals" was just laughable at best? I had hoped it was a set-up where Rachel redeems herself with Gary at the end, but that didn't happen, So it was just a joke at Aspies' and HFAs' expense.

I agree with most of your criticisms but I have a little different take on a couple of points.

Using Gary as a last resort date was uncalled for but afterwards back at the office Gary was adamant with Rachel about getting her to confront her dad over his health issue. Gary was displaying empathy by not dropping the issue until Rachel promised to take action. He cared that Rachel do what was required to help her dad. It seemed to me that the writers clearly wanted to show that autistics have empathy even if it is displayed in a different way. Unfortunately I doubt that few NTs watching would pick up on this.

Rachel has been a weak and whiny character but at the end of this episode she did step up. I think her character grew a little in this episode.

Nina's ability of pushing people is already getting old for me. The writers need to expand on that somehow.

This show isn't a wish-fulfillment fantasy. People really think that of HFA's. Nina's spent her whole life as a shallow person who gets whatever she wants. Is it a surprise that she sees an HFA as a dating choice of desperation?



Religious people rarely respond to logic. Rosen was a hostage, staring down the barrel of an alpha "gun" (the mind-control) and did the best he could with what was essentially a wild and out-of-control animal.

BTW (not a critique of your critique ): He starts the episode saying he's made a conscious choice not to use a gun. That's like choosing not to use a hammer. It's a tool. If a situation arises where you need a particular tool or there's only one usable tool available, you're a fool to not use it. That's just ludditism.



You've just described me. I guess I'd make a lousy TV character.



Alcohol reduces inhibitions. I suppose the writer's thought was that the mind control drug had a similar effect. What's odd is that we don't see other characters in the background also dropping inhibitions. That's the poor writing. Either everyone drops their pants or no one does.



In this case she was doing so against her will, so he can hardly blame her, any more than he's responsible for switching his allegiance to the pastor.



So I'm not the target audience? I love such stories. How the brain interacts with religion and why is a fascinating subject. For example, in the real world MRI's have localized a part of the brain responsible for certain kinds of religious experiences.



It was the attitude of the characters, not the writer. And this isn't wish fulfillment theater. I don't see the girls turning into angels in one episode. At least I hope the show doesn't turn into that kind of cliche.

You are missing the point of my anger. It's not about wish-fulfillment (which I think is an insulting, glib dismissal of my objections BTW). It's about the simple fact that this show's creators and writers set a standard of themselves to treat this character respectfully and to not like a collage of symptoms or to use his autism in a way that's demeaning to him as a person. But I think they did demean him as a person in this episode. In previous episodes Gary was seen being assertive, being self-possessed and participating in things on his terms. They took ALL of that away from him in this episode. Instead of the engaging young adult man who was discovering himself on his own terms that we saw in earlier episodes, Gary was treated like a punchline, a prop and a child. This is exactly what the show's creators said they would not do.

And I can see if you are someone who thinks pessimistically and cynically about how other people see us on the spectrum that you could rationalize this the way you did. But I'm not that person. I know I could just resign and say "Yeah it's just how people see us and Nina's a swallow b***h" but I'm a realist who knows, if you want acceptance, you damn well be ready to stand up to crap like this every time it get hurled at you.



Your words, not mine.



WOW you love your cutesy terminology don't you? And it is the writer. Speaking AS a writer, I know the writer is GOD in these cases. They control everything about everything in the story. And I love how you blame fictional "girls" for their own fictional behavior, rather than the male writers who created them--I won't tug on that thread, but combined with your snide comments about Nina, you probably can guess what I'm thinking.

There are many, many ways this could have been handled creatively, intelligently and respectfully without it being "wish fulfillment" bullarky, OK? The writers simply failed to make that effort.



I just didn't see this as a very good representation of empathy. I would have love it if it had been, but I didn't get that out of that scene. I saw it as Gary playing the "special" kid who surprises us with his insight, a la Forrest Gump. It seems they were trying to build on Gary's previous own character development, which I thought had be very good and very organic up to that point, but it just didn't work for me, They just couldn't stay away from making Gary seem "special" like it was unusual for someone like him to be that insightful. Again, I don't see that as Gary showing empathy--just Gary playing the "special" person. I just cringed through the whole scene. And I LOVE Ryan Cartwright. I can't believe one of his performances made me cringe like that. It's totally made me not want to see him again in anything for a long long time.

I didn't like the last episode....why did that Hicks-Nina scene last for so long (10 minutes I think)?
It didn't add anything to the plot, more so...it actually cut some valueable moments which could have been used either for character or plot development.
They did use Gary as a comic relief in this episode, didn't they?
Anyway, I hope the next episode is better and sticks to where it had left every character in development.

Next episode is tonight.

I started from the very beginning when it first aired. The first episode was a little bit of a flop to me in a way. It reminded me too much of an episode of Heroes. I seem to remember a person or people being manipulated in a similar fashion.

I kinda see Gary like me a little bit, but not very much.

What about that episode where this guy made everyone fight each other. I thought that was a pretty intense episode. I love seeing that.

I liked the last episode; it was definitely better than the one before.
They already added more to the story line like there are other people; other than Red-Flag who want to meddle in this issue.
I'm not sure if I understood it well but that's how I understood it.

Besides, this episode was an office episode, they never went outside.

My favorite parts of this show all involve Gary admonishing Bill, who needs to work on his listening skills.

I liked the office episode too. Invisible assassin chick and the guy who played Data were interesting.

Last edited by Mack27 on 14 Sep 2011, 11:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

I don't get why you're seeing it that way. The writers aren't telling the audience how to feel or explaining how they feel. They're just showing how some people feel. Do you really want the show to ignore the problems we face? Wouldn't it feel inauthentic if Gary didn't face some patronizing attitudes and manipulative behavior even from people who care about him? I've been hurt by people who care about me. It's not intentional, but not everyone understands or automatically does the right thing. And as far as Gary's assertiveness is concerned, even when I make gains in that department, I can still on occasion slide back into old habits or find myself in old situations before I even know what happened. It seems like you want this show to always show the positive rather than always show the realistic.