Take Three: Atypical

Atypical: Season 1, Episode 4 “A Nice Neutral Smell” (B+)

There’s a certain theme to how things go on this show with this family, which is that whatever Sam needs tends to get the most attention, regardless of what Casey is doing. It’s completely understandable, and I think she gets it, but there’s a certain point at which it inevitably becomes too much to bear. Evan was the one who ultimately exploded when Doug and Julia completely glazed over the big news that Casey shared about being scouted. It’s a big jump from being jokingly talked down to by his new girlfriend’s father, and it’s good to see him advocating for someone he really cares about. No one else’s relationship is going all that well, though a few of them are lasting longer than might have been expected. You’d think that Sam would have dashed his chances with Paige, the girl he kept ignoring but finally decided to indulge as his pretend girlfriend, but she appreciated him giving her points for resourcefulness when she read his pro-con list and apparently is willing to give it a shot. Doug did poorly at gorup with his lack of knowledge about people-first language, and he was obviously relieved to run into Julia and for some reason opted not to share that with Elsa, lying about where he heard her say something. Julia’s having her own romance problems, as her boyfriend seems to be cheating, but she’s professional enough to keep that in her personal life. And Elsa was feeling more than guilty, panicking and running away when she dropped her phone as her secret beau was calling, and that’s bound to implode soon.