Netflix has released a new trailer for the second season of Atypical, and fans can check it out below!
The series follows the life of Sam Gardner, an 18-year-old from Connecticut with autism, who announces in the first season that he wants to start dating.
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It stars Keir Gilchrist as Sam, and Jennifer Jason Leigh as his mother and Michael Rapaport as his father. Brigette Lundy-Paine, Amy Okuda, Graham Rogers, Nik Dodani, Jenna Boyd, and Rachel Redleaf also star.
In a 2017 interview with Vulture, Gilchrist opened up about the show and his role in it. Specifically, he spoke about the show being a “comedy” that depicts the daily life of someone living with autism.
“I think the thing I worried about is if it’s labeled ‘comedy’ too much, people will think that we are making a straight comedy. That isn’t the case at all,” he said. “This is a really thought-through, heartfelt drama. I definitely hope that that’s the case. I can only hope people find something in Sam and the story that is inspiring and helps them.”
“I hope for people on the spectrum it’ll be cool to see a main character on a show [who’s autistic],” Gilchrist added. “Hopefully they can relate to a lot of Sam’s experiences, obviously not all of [them], because everyone’s different. In general people need to be better represented on TV, and it’s happening on all ends of it.”
The actor also shared that he did a lot of research before taking on the role, and that he gives a lot of “credit to Robia [Rashid],” the show’s creator.
“She wrote the script. We talked a ton and I did research and I watched movies and I read books,” Gilchrist explained. “She gave me a really helpful book called The Journal of Best Practices, which is actually featured on the show. I know Robia used it a lot when writing because it really helps you get into the mind of who is on the autism spectrum.”
It’s a great book. We also had experts. At no point was this, ‘Do whatever you want.’ I was never willing to just rush into something — if I was unsure, then I wanted to get Robia’s advice,” he continued. “And if we were both unsure then we would call up the experts.”
“We really tried to make sure we never got ahead of ourselves and rushed into something without thinking about whether that was right for Sam, specifically, because Sam is not representative of everybody on the autism spectrum,” Gilchrist went on to say. “He’s one person that is on the autism spectrum. He’s a very specific character.”
Fans can catch up on the first season of Atypical on Netflix right now before the second season debuts on Friday, Sept. 7.
