'As We See It': Jason Katims has created the best new series of 2022

Autism has been the subject of movies and television for years, but one of the more memorable "on the spectrum" characters over that history was Max Braverman. The child of Adam (Peter Krause) and Kristina (Monica Potter) in that long-ago series, "Parenthood," Max (Max Burkholder) didn't like to be touched or hugged, was impulsive and threw violent tantrums. He also had an extraordinary memory, read books compulsively and was unusually bright.

Back then ("Parenthood" aired from 2010 to 2015) Max was identified in the show as someone with "Asperger's syndrome," while "on the spectrum" is now de rigueur, but he was also a "breakout character," and for good reason why: He was roughly modeled on "Parenthood" showrunner Jason Katims' own son, Sawyer. When Katims wrote "Parenthood," he wrote from experience, with a parent's anguish, and also a parent's joy.

And now Katims — this Queens native and playwright was lured to Los Angeles in the '80s where he first wrote for "My So-Called Life" and he eventually created a few of his own ("Roswell") — is about to return to the subject he knows so well.

"As We See it" (premiering Jan. 21 on Prime Video) is about three twentysomethings — Jack (Rick Glassman), Violet (Sue Ann Pien) and Harrison (Albert Rutecki) — who live together, but get some help from a caregiver, Mandy (Sosie Bacon). Meanwhile, the family situation for each is complicated. Violet, for example, is mostly reliant on her older brother, Van (Chris Pang), while Jack is particularly close to his father (Joe Mantegna).

Newsday recently spoke with Katims:

How is your son, Sawyer, doing?

In fact, when this [project] came up a few years ago, he was just entering into his early 20s and I started to look ahead at what his future looked like. There's a lot about autism when it comes to kids [but] I was interested in what happens when these kids grow up. I'd done a hundred ['Parenthood'] episodes about autism, but every cell in my body said this is the story you need to tell, and although it felt like I had a personal way into it, this is not at all about my son.

What would Max Braverman be doing right now, eight years later?

I do think about Max and what his journey would have been like and that's why I was excited to do this show. While it's not about Max, it is the next chapter in his story.

What's the meaning of the title, "As We See It?"

I realized what was unique to the show is that we were telling it from the point of view of these three young adults on the spectrum — looking at it through their eyes. They are the leads and the people around them are the supporting characters [so] 'as we see it,' not 'as you see us.'

Do these three cast members identify as being on the spectrum?

They do [and] it was something that we endeavored to do. We wanted it to feel real and authentic, down to what they would put on their [apartment] walls. It was important we cast other neurodiverse actors with autism to play more 'typical' roles [and] we wanted neurodiversity on both sides of the camera, including the writing room and editing too. I did a PSA [public service announcement] a few years ago about employment for young [autistic] adults and when I heard the statistic — -the unemployment rate of college graduates with autism is eighty percent — 80 percent! — I realized there's something that doesn't jibe here. I know so many people in this population — they are brilliant, loyal — and there shouldn't be an unemployment rate for people who have just graduated college. So I wanted to make sure we were hiring.

The details are interesting (or harrowing) when viewers learn, for example, that Violet sees Instagram as how the "real world" should be.

She definitely has this notion of 'I want to be normal' and looks at Instagram and the internet as [a reflection] of who she is and what her life should look like. [But] I set out to write about young adults who are neurodiverse and wound up writing about life. It's a coming-of-age story, dealing with love and life and loss and relationships and all these things [everyone] is dealing with, particularly at that age.

Mandy's predicament feels especially "real world," too. She wants to leave to study medicine, but how do caregivers extricate themselves from people who need them?

With my son, there have been many people who have come through his life — support, aides or teachers — and I have such a deep admiration for those people [that] I really wanted that reflected in the show. For Mandy, the question for her is, what is her mission in life? To become a doctor, do research or is it actually boots-on-the-ground? That's a series-long question [and] I don't want to say what the answer is but it's one we ask ourselves — what are we doing with our lives, particularly in times like these?

In another scene, Mandy wonders if these young adults ever will change, but also whether they should. Is the show about the journey to self-determination, or about the world accommodating to their autism?

To some degree, that's why my life is about [laughs]. It's that evolution from how we make them fit into our world, to how we embrace who they are, and to accepting them for all their beauty and gifts and quirks and differences. It's not about them fitting into society, but society making a bit of an adjustment to embrace them. I do think that's what the show is about. It's about the tension of that. People still have to show up for work, still be a good person in a relationship, and still send their mother a Mother's Day card. So just like us, it's that balance between embracing our true selves but also fitting into society and being a good citizen of the world.

Each is certainly different from the other.

Each has their own gifts and challenges [and] it is a way to show that when you say the word 'autism,' it doesn't mean one thing, but a thousand — a million — things.

Is Joe Mantegna's dad character you in this series?

I don't think there is any scene that has literally come out of my life but the themes are incredibly out of my life. Certainly Joe's character is my way to have my perspective, my voice. [Mantegna] also has an adult daughter on the spectrum and because of his personal connection to the material, we didn't have to have a lot of conversations about the character or scenes.