Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
In theory, I knew that this kind of thing can happen in any family. Upstanding citizens are always turning out to be secret criminals, and I wouldn't even call my cousin Alan an upstanding citizen. But it's one thing to know and another thing to understand.
Alan, murder me?
What the hell was Alan thinking? From Serial Productions and The New York Times, I'm Em Gessen, and this is The Idiot. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily on Sunday. Today, the reality show Love on the Spectrum, which follows autistic adults as they search for love, has just released its fourth season. The show has largely attracted praise for its realistic, yet sensitive portrayals of neurodiverse people, and it's become one of the most popular and unlikely hits on Netflix.
Today, Anna Peel, a contributing writer for The Times, talked with the creator and the cast of Love on the Spectrum about the show's origin story, the nuanced criticism, and why it has resonated with so many people. It's Sunday, April 19th. Anna Peel, welcome to The Daily.
Thank you so much for having me.
You are a culture writer, but you are also a reality TV expert, which I like to think of myself as a reality TV expert just based on how much I watch. But you have actually spent a lot of time reporting and writing extensively about reality TV.
So just to start the conversation, I wonder if you could, for people who have not seen the show, tell us a brief overview of the premise of Love on the Spectrum.
So Love on the Spectrum follows mostly young people who are on the autism spectrum while they learn to date, often for the first time. The show will set them up. They'll matchmake them. Sometimes they'll follow them to speed dating events or things like that. It's incredibly popular. It's one of the biggest shows on Netflix. And
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Chapter 2: What is the premise of 'Love on the Spectrum'?
when you're producing reality television.
Okay, so let's talk about how the show came to exist.
What is its origin story, if you will? So Love on the Spectrum wouldn't exist at all if it weren't for one person. His story, his skills, his very unusual path to making Love on the Spectrum are as unlikely as the show itself becoming the hit that it is. Hi, Kianne. Hi. How's it going? Good. How are you? Doing well, thank you. So his name is Keanu Cleary.
He's an Australian documentarian, and he got his start in the industry working on huge blockbuster films.
My first job in film was the Moby Dick one, or do you want me to talk about the cat training one?
One of his first jobs was as an assistant cat wrangler, working on the Babe sequel.
We had... I think eight or nine of us working in the cat department and we had 110 cats. So it was a lot.
Not just a cat wrangler, an assistant cat wrangler. No, you got to work your way up in the cat wrangling business.
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Chapter 3: Why has 'Love on the Spectrum' resonated with viewers?
I mean, I just kept then getting roles on big films as, you know, a production runner or art director's assistant. All quite sort of, I guess the word is menial, right? Like non-creative roles on big films.
He worked on The Matrix. He worked on Siriana. He was on Notting Hill.
At that point, I wanted to, I thought I wanted to make films, feature films, you know.
Kian told me that at that point in his life, he was really figuring out what he wanted to do in the industry, which relied a lot upon what he would actually be good at.
I'm actually a very self-critical person. And if you want to make a feature, you need to write a script. Whenever I try and it started, I would just hate myself so much I had to stop, which is kind of sad. But that's the kind of truth of it.
And he didn't really figure that out until he got this unexpected role while working on Baz Luhrmann's film Australia.
I was Baz Luhrmann's driver. So again, I'm not doing anything creative, but, you know, I'm sort of at the hub of things, you know.
He had a lot of downtime while working on the movie and he wound up picking up a spare video camera and he just started shooting behind the scenes footage, which Baz saw and loved.
Baz used to say to me, It's like you're invisible, which I thought was actually a really nice thing. And he meant it as a compliment that, you know, I was able to get really close in on, you know, him working with the actors on these sets with a camera filming and kind of people wouldn't really even notice me. And so I was able to capture this really great, intimate footage.
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Chapter 4: How did the creator of 'Love on the Spectrum' get started in reality TV?
Yeah. Is there an example that really illustrates this that you could give us?
So after two seasons in Australia, Netflix, which had aired the Australian version on the platform, commissioned an American version. And so one of the first people who Kian considered casting was Abby, who became one of the most beloved cast members on the show and who I actually traveled to L.A. to speak with in February. So I'm recording. Is that all right?
Kian first started talking to Abby back in 2020 after seeing her perform at an arts event for people with autism.
Do you remember that you were talking and he was on Zoom with another lady? We were sitting in the desk. He was asking if you wanted to date and have a boyfriend.
And he started talking to her mom about whether she wanted Abby to go on the show because her mom had to consent for Abby.
Abby can't advocate for these kinds of things, really. I mean, she can tell me yes and no, but the nuances or the deeper meanings are sometimes hard for her to process or express.
She had already seen Love on the Spectrum Australia. She thought it was a really positive, wonderful show.
I was concerned, and I said to Keon... I love your show, but I don't think Abby's right for it.
But Abby has language processing issues, and she was like, she's not going to be verbal in the same way that the really wonderful Love on the Spectrum Australia cast members had.
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