As evidenced by Neurodivergent Alley, Unhatched Observations, and more, analyzing media from an autistic/ADHD lens has become a bit of a spin for me. It floored me to realize just how many of my most beloved shows had that Big Neurodivergent Energy, like they were calling to me all that time and I hadn’t known. It makes me feel so happy and warm to revisit them now, and I’m having a great time discovering new shows that make my brain and my heart light up in the same way.
In all that watching and rewatching, there’s of course been a lot of thinking and pattern recognition, and I’ve noticed a number of commonalities popping up in these shows, films, and books. As I’ve said before, it’s more than just an abundance of ND-coded characters, although that’s obviously an important part of it. A BNE story feels neurodivergent in its bones and its wiring, altogether separate from its characters. On the face of it, some of these commonalities don’t seem inherently neurodivergent, and not every story like this displays all of them, but there’s too much overlap for it to feel completely random.
So that’s what I want to look at! This is going to be a short series, and today, I’m starting with the style elements. Take away the characters, take away the actual story: what are some stylistic choices that a lot of inherently neurodivergent stories share?
Unique Visual Aesthetics
A lot of these stories show a loving attention to detail in the narrative descriptions of settings (books) or production design (movies/shows.) And this design is often offbeat and inventive. Think of Eleanor’s colorful bungalow on The Good Place with its clown nook, or the costume differences between the Good, Bad, and Neutral Janets. Think of the whimsical world of Amélie, the distinctive look of each kingdom on Maya and the Three, or the detailed pop-culture visuals woven into the homage episodes of Community, which capture everything from its source material’s costumes to its lighting to its camera work. It’s especially evident in stories that frequently give us new visual palettes. Pushing Daisies has iconic looks like The Pie Hole’s crust roof and Lily’s fabulous eye patches, but each new case brings brand-new designs—from dandelion headdresses to mysterious sewer roamers to corpses in snowmen. Similarly, the TV adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events reinvents its look every two episodes, bringing the locales from each book to life in incredible ways.
Words, Words, Words
So. Much. Wordplay. Every Bob’s Burgers episode title is a pun, along with most of the shop names in The Good Place. Ted and Beard have literal wordplay on Ted Lasso, and both Pushing Daisies and A Series of Unfortunate Events have a particular love of alliteration, with A Series of Unfortunate Events also coming in hard with the anagrams and other word puzzles. On Doctor Who, one of the Doctor’s less-flashy talents is the way they can turn a phrase—plus, this is the show that gave us Raxacoricofallapatorius and its sister planet Clom. DuckTales has all its bird-based puns, and 3Below has plenty of fun with literal interpretations of English idioms.
Fantasy Sequences
Like all of these traits, fantasy sequences aren’t unique to BNE stories, but they’re more likely to be baked into the format of stories that have that neurodivergent vibe. The most obvious example here is Scrubs, where JD’s fantasies (and later, other characters’) are integral to every episode. Amina’s fantasies in the first season of We Are Lady Parts spread to other characters in season 2, and for another Nida Manzoor example, I have no fight how much of any given fight in Polite Society actually happens. In the TV adaptation of Ms. Marvel, some of Kamala’s daydreams are physically drawn onscreen, while others are acted out in her head. And while they’re not technically fantasies within the context of the shows, I put DuckTales’s assorted Scrooge flashbacks and Community’s extended pop-culture homages in this category too—blurring the lines of what’s really happening in the world of the characters.
Music
Although virtually every movie or show is enhanced by its music, BNE stories tend to place a greater emphasis on it. There are shows with built-in musical numbers every episode, either through fantasies like on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend or happening within the world of the show like on We Are Lady Parts. Random singing pops up on numerous occasions on Bob’s Burgers, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, and Pushing Daisies, and elaborate musical numbers is how AFC Richmond says goodbye on Ted Lasso. The first season of A Series of Unfortunate Events ends with a random full-cast number, and every season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has a different theme song. These stories can be notable for their non-diegetic needle drops too—there are certain songs that immediately make me think of their corresponding scenes on Ted Lasso or Scrubs, and one of the most iconic scenes on Our Flag Means Death is impeccably timed to Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain.”
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