• Replies 70 replies
  • Subscribers 40 subscribers
  • Views 5911 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Patience on Channel 4

Deleted User

Did anyone watch 'Patience' on Channel 4 last night?

It's the UK remake of the French series, 'Astrid et Raphaelle', featuring a young autistic woman who works in criminal records. She has a photographic memory for cases and tries to insert herself into investigations.

Unlike the French series, the UK one (filmed in York) features autistic actors in all of the autistic roles. I've watched the French series, which I really enjoyed. 

My initial impressions of Patience is that it looks and feels quite different, and I really liked Ella Maisy Purvis as Patience. It seemed a much more natural performance than Sara Mortensen in Astrid.

It's on the Channel 4 streaming service and the second episode is on TV at 9pm tonight.

Parents

  • I've now watched all 6 episodes. If you haven't watched it all yet - spoilers ahead!

    This is what I thought was good, or what I identified with:

    It's good that the main autistic character is female - as autistic characters in movies, TV shows or books are mostly male.

    It showed Patience writing down a plan of what to say in a phone call. (I do this in my head - for emails, text messages & face to face conversations as well)

    It showed her shutting down, quietly crying, having to escape from a situation, and doubting her own abilities in several scenes, which I identified with and it showed the more subtle signs of autism.

    It portrayed how neurotypical people not giving clear unambiguous instructions to autistic people can cause real problems.

    There were other autistic people in it, not just the main character, which showed that we are all different. Although Patience had been lucky in having her skills valued in the workplace by a senior colleague, others were undervalued or struggling in the workplace.

    This is what I didn't like, or didn't identify with:

    The crime plots were difficult to follow, and the first story showed people ending their own lives, which could be traumatic for sensitive viewers.

    Patience sent down crime files to Bea that had not been requested, because she determined that they had information in them that related to a case. But that was not protocol and autistic people are usually rule followers. I would have emailed Bea with my findings and asked her if she wished to see the other files.

    The maze like mouse cage that she kept the mice in at her workplace - I felt sorry for the poor things, they looked too cramped. She's supposed to be an animal lover, so I thought it was inappropriate.

    I was confused by her giving Bea a birthday present of a thimble, which was ridiculed by Bea's colleague. I get that they were trying to show how some NT people don't understand the intentions of autistic people and Bea did say she understood that it was symbolic of being protected from harm, but I still don't understand it as the only harm it protects from is being pricked by a needle and there was no indication Bea liked sewing. I would have bought her an umbrella as she never seemed to have one when it was raining.

  • in reply to Lotus
    Lotus said:
    autistic characters in movies, TV shows or books are mostly male

    I can’t actually think of many except Rainman, which was based on a real person who wasn’t autistic.

    Lotus said:
    crime plots were difficult to follow

    This is true and a consequence of trying to compress the originals from Astrid down into a small number of shorter episodes. Things were much clearer and better explained in Astrid.

    Lotus said:
    present of a thimble

    This was handled differently in Astrid and made more sense the way they did it.

    This all said, I liked Patience a lot. It’s probably the most realistic presentation of autism that I’ve seen in a drama.

Reply
  • in reply to Lotus
    Lotus said:
    autistic characters in movies, TV shows or books are mostly male

    I can’t actually think of many except Rainman, which was based on a real person who wasn’t autistic.

    Lotus said:
    crime plots were difficult to follow

    This is true and a consequence of trying to compress the originals from Astrid down into a small number of shorter episodes. Things were much clearer and better explained in Astrid.

    Lotus said:
    present of a thimble

    This was handled differently in Astrid and made more sense the way they did it.

    This all said, I liked Patience a lot. It’s probably the most realistic presentation of autism that I’ve seen in a drama.

Children
  • in reply to A

    Sherlock always said he was a 'high-functioning sociopath'. It was other characters who decided he was 'a bit Aspergers' and they used it in a disparaging sense to mean emotional coldness. 

  • in reply to Lotus

    The Good Doctor is absolutely horrendous though and obviously written by people who don’t have a clue about autism.

    Sherlock was never explicitly stated to be autistic and although he may have been autistic coded, but the show never represented the real problems we experience.

    I don’t know about Atypical or the A Word. Will investigate.

    And Sheldon Cooper, much as I love him, was at best a parody of autism and the Big Bang writers have said he wasn’t written as an autistic person.

  • in reply to A

    Hi A, you said you couldn't think of many autistic characters apart from Rain Man. Some examples of novels, movies & TV series with male autistic characters are:

    The curious incident of the dog in the night time

    The Good Doctor

    Sherlock

    Atypical

    The big bang theory

    The A word