Consulting on TV Autism Representation
It’s a little bright in here,” the doctor says, shutting off the lights in the examination room in a busy ER. She also takes the time to turn off a device that’s beeping and close the doors to the rest of the bustling emergency room. “Sorry—the, uh, ER can be kind of noisy.”
“I agree,” the patient replies.
That moment of understanding between a resident physician and a patient who was autistic, in HBO Max’s The Pitt, was originally conceived by Wendy Ross, a professor at Thomas Jefferson University and the director of Jefferson Health’s Center for Autism and Neurodiversity.
Ross served as a consultant on the first season of the show, giving input into a character the showrunners were planning—a female doctor with autism. Ross said she connected with the writers and producers on an hourlong Zoom call, during which she suggested a scene in which the doctor communicated with a patient who was autistic more effectively than another non-autistic doctor had.
She had one overarching tip about the character, Mel King, a spunky second-year resident played by actress Taylor Dearden: “Especially if it’s a woman, that they should make it really subtle” that she is autistic, Ross said. “A lot of women don’t even know. They should definitely not make her a savant.”
Indeed, the show doesn’t confirm whether Dr. King is autistic, but fans have noticed that she exhibits a lot of traits of autism, such as self-soothing, enjoying repetitive tasks and missing social cues; plus, her sister is autistic. (Dearden has said in interviews that she thinks of the character as having ADHD, like herself.)
Ross said she’s grateful she had the chance to shape an accurate autistic character in what has since become an incredibly popular TV show, winning five Emmy Awards for its first season. The show wraps up its second season tonight.
“Representations in TV and movies and media are very important because they reach more people than the news or other didactic information,” she said. “Explaining the nuances of demonstrating them in a story line is very powerful.”
