According to past Love on the Spectrum participant Sarah Nichols, “Autistic individuals are about 2.8 times likelier than allistic individuals to file for divorce.” That is why Netflix is excited to launch a new spin-off show, Leave on the Spectrum.
Where Love helps autistic adults who are looking for love, Leave finds autists whose partners are ableist and intolerant of their neurodivergent traits. Their goal? Divorce…on the spectrum.
In the inaugural season, we meet Darius (neurodivergent) and Jared (neurotypical), an inter-neuro married (and soon-to-be divorced) couple. ND Darius’ love language consists of routines, loyalty, and service – all undeniable signs of devotion, or so he thought. But they aren’t enough for NT Jared, who wants more verbal affection and emotional synchronicity in their daily lives. Once disenchanted, the hostile Jared reprimands Darius for “not caring” and “not paying attention” – oblivious to the painstaking detail with which Darius has arranged their living space to Jared’s liking and has spent time researching all of their interests to better connect with them.
“And they say we can’t read obvious social cues,” says Darius.
Then there’s Francis and Jody whose marriage dissolves when Jody turns out to be a closet neurotypical masking as autistic to be on television. This “normal Jody” lives by a complex set of vague, petty, and contradictory relationship rules and expectations that she sees as “common” and “healthy,” but which Francis cannot understand and finds maddening. When Jody grows bored and openly engages in infidelity with younger, more dramatic partners, Francis dissolves into meltdown after meltdown.
Note to Jody: This is marriage, not an audition for Summer House.
From partners who manipulate sensory settings to cause overstimulation, to partners who know just the right knife to twist to provoke hypervigilant, over-reasoned defenses, Leave on the Spectrum documents the curtly-written frustrations, relational betrayals, and cutting takedowns of neurotypical people’s abuses and ignorance, all delivered by their autistic ex-spouses.
The series will debut in August, to celebrate the end of both Disability Pride Month and several marriages.