Latest news with #Patience
Sydney Morning Herald
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Neurodivergent TV characters used to be rare. Now they take the lead
Patience Evans (Ella Maisy Purvis) is a young English woman who works in relatively untroubled isolation in the criminal records department of police headquarters in York. A wiz with data, she loves puzzles and finds it easier to relate to animals than to people. Shrinking from physical contact, she habitually moves around town in headphones as she finds all sorts of sounds – traffic noise, conversations – unsettling. At home and at work, she cocoons herself in distinctive environments fashioned to suit her needs. Austin Hogan (Michael Theo) is a young Australian man who's worked as a forklift driver and loves trains – although he prefers to call them railways. He studies national flags, favours deerstalker hats and folds origami cranes when he's stressed. He discovered a London-based branch of his family when author Julian Hartswood (Ben Miller) was identified as his biological father. Patience and Austin are the title characters in a couple of very different series. But the British crime thriller Patience (ABC) and the Australian-English sitcom Austin (ABC) share a common feature, and it's increasingly evident on TV: the eponymous characters and the actors playing them are autistic. That's a notable shift: in decades past, neurodivergent characters were more likely to be marginal diversions, maybe seen as odd or labelled as crazy or eccentric, perhaps used as light relief. Another quality Patience and Austin share – also increasingly evident – is that, in both productions, the protagonists' neurodivergence is depicted more as an attribute than an affliction. In Patience, which is adapted from the French series Astrid et Raphaelle (not available here), her ability to process volumes of information and to identify patterns that others miss bring her to the attention of Detective Inspector Beatrice Metcalf (Laura Fraser). Austin, having discovered his connection with Julian in the 2024 debut season of the comedy, has been welcomed into the Hartswood family. His earnest, unflinchingly honest nature proves a disarming foil for Julian who might – or might not – be his dad, a connection that the first episode of the new season throws into doubt. Julian can be sly and opportunistic, inclined to skate around the morality of a situation when some benefit to him is involved – the kind of behaviour that Austin wouldn't contemplate. Patience and Austin approach things differently from the neurotypical types around them, and both shows identify the ways in which this can be an asset. However, Patience, being a drama, spends more time dealing with the challenging side of the condition – such as self-doubt, anxiety and isolation – while the comedy portrays Austin as more of a blithe spirit sometimes challenged by circumstances. Over recent years, increasing numbers of neurodivergent characters have appeared on-screen, particularly in crime series. Sometimes their conditions are specifically identified, sometimes their behaviour only suggests that they're on the spectrum. That's the case with Saga Noren (Sofia Helin) in the Swedish-Danish thriller The Bridge (Stan). She's a gifted detective who doesn't work well with others: she's brusque without intending to be impolite; she misreads social signals; she doesn't understand humour. She also absorbs information, whether she's playing poker or surveying a crime scene, differently from those around her. Along comparable lines, in the mystery comedy-drama Monk (Foxtel), Tony Shalhoub plays a private detective with obsessive-compulsive disorder who's also plagued by myriad phobias. Once, he was a San Francisco policeman, but his mental-health spiralled after the murder of his wife, and he works for the department as a consultant. Loading In style and tone, Monk was something of a precursor to High Potential (Disney+), which has been adapted from the French-Belgian series, HPI (Acorn, AMC). In it, Kaitlin Olson stars as a single mum and night-time cleaner of homicide-division offices who scans the whiteboard, sifts through rubbish bins and solves cases that confound the daytime detectives. With her dangly earrings, micro-skirts and lollipops, Morgan doesn't immediately generate confidence from other cops: some of them are predictably sceptical until her talent shines. But the beleaguered head of the squad recognises Morgan's, well, high potential, and engages her as a consultant. Beyond the lead characters in a range of productions, neurodivergent characters are also more frequently appearing as members of ensembles, such as Quinni (Chloe Hayden) in Heartbreak High (Netflix) and Rose (Leah Byrne) in Dept. Q (Netflix). Neurodivergent protagonists often have a champion, a steadfast supporter, friend, parent or mentor who recognises their gifts and learns to understand their differences. In part, that's the role of Detective Bea in Patience, as it is of protective father figure Dr Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) in The Good Doctor (Amazon Prime, Stan, Netflix, 7Plus). Adapted from the Korean series Good Doctor (Netflix), it stars Freddie Highmore as Shaun Murphy, a surgical resident at a California hospital who is autistic and has savant syndrome. As Austin and this hospital drama indicate, the presence of neurodivergent protagonists isn't confined to crime shows. For example, there's the Korean comedy-drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo (Netflix), in which rookie lawyer Woo Young-woo (Park Eun-bin), who has Asperger's syndrome, brings her skills to legal battles. Woo is wide-eyed and sweet-natured, with a special interest in whales and dolphins, her understanding of human behaviour often stemming from her observations of marine animals. It's a trait she shares with Sam Gardener (Keir Gilchrist), who's fascinated by penguins in Atypical. Robia Rashid's beautifully calibrated comedy-drama (Netflix) has autistic teenager Sam negotiating the complications of family life as he's navigating the minefield of adolescence and high school. Robia's series is funny, touching and illuminating as it examines the challenges for Sam and his family. It's as though TV fictions have evolved to a stage where a recognition of neurodiversity, and inclusion of it, is now desirable in the creation of communities. That said, Highmore offered a useful insight when I interviewed him soon after the globally successful premiere season of The Good Doctor. Commenting on the thinking behind the series, he said the show's producers were determined that Shaun should not be seen as representative of everyone who is autistic. As he put it, 'It's the same as if you had a neurotypical lead character in a television show: they would never possibly represent everyone who's neurotypical, and no one would expect them to.'
The Age
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Neurodivergent TV characters used to be rare. Now they take the lead
Patience Evans (Ella Maisy Purvis) is a young English woman who works in relatively untroubled isolation in the criminal records department of police headquarters in York. A wiz with data, she loves puzzles and finds it easier to relate to animals than to people. Shrinking from physical contact, she habitually moves around town in headphones as she finds all sorts of sounds – traffic noise, conversations – unsettling. At home and at work, she cocoons herself in distinctive environments fashioned to suit her needs. Austin Hogan (Michael Theo) is a young Australian man who's worked as a forklift driver and loves trains – although he prefers to call them railways. He studies national flags, favours deerstalker hats and folds origami cranes when he's stressed. He discovered a London-based branch of his family when author Julian Hartswood (Ben Miller) was identified as his biological father. Patience and Austin are the title characters in a couple of very different series. But the British crime thriller Patience (ABC) and the Australian-English sitcom Austin (ABC) share a common feature, and it's increasingly evident on TV: the eponymous characters and the actors playing them are autistic. That's a notable shift: in decades past, neurodivergent characters were more likely to be marginal diversions, maybe seen as odd or labelled as crazy or eccentric, perhaps used as light relief. Another quality Patience and Austin share – also increasingly evident – is that, in both productions, the protagonists' neurodivergence is depicted more as an attribute than an affliction. In Patience, which is adapted from the French series Astrid et Raphaelle (not available here), her ability to process volumes of information and to identify patterns that others miss bring her to the attention of Detective Inspector Beatrice Metcalf (Laura Fraser). Austin, having discovered his connection with Julian in the 2024 debut season of the comedy, has been welcomed into the Hartswood family. His earnest, unflinchingly honest nature proves a disarming foil for Julian who might – or might not – be his dad, a connection that the first episode of the new season throws into doubt. Julian can be sly and opportunistic, inclined to skate around the morality of a situation when some benefit to him is involved – the kind of behaviour that Austin wouldn't contemplate. Patience and Austin approach things differently from the neurotypical types around them, and both shows identify the ways in which this can be an asset. However, Patience, being a drama, spends more time dealing with the challenging side of the condition – such as self-doubt, anxiety and isolation – while the comedy portrays Austin as more of a blithe spirit sometimes challenged by circumstances. Over recent years, increasing numbers of neurodivergent characters have appeared on-screen, particularly in crime series. Sometimes their conditions are specifically identified, sometimes their behaviour only suggests that they're on the spectrum. That's the case with Saga Noren (Sofia Helin) in the Swedish-Danish thriller The Bridge (Stan). She's a gifted detective who doesn't work well with others: she's brusque without intending to be impolite; she misreads social signals; she doesn't understand humour. She also absorbs information, whether she's playing poker or surveying a crime scene, differently from those around her. Along comparable lines, in the mystery comedy-drama Monk (Foxtel), Tony Shalhoub plays a private detective with obsessive-compulsive disorder who's also plagued by myriad phobias. Once, he was a San Francisco policeman, but his mental-health spiralled after the murder of his wife, and he works for the department as a consultant. Loading In style and tone, Monk was something of a precursor to High Potential (Disney+), which has been adapted from the French-Belgian series, HPI (Acorn, AMC). In it, Kaitlin Olson stars as a single mum and night-time cleaner of homicide-division offices who scans the whiteboard, sifts through rubbish bins and solves cases that confound the daytime detectives. With her dangly earrings, micro-skirts and lollipops, Morgan doesn't immediately generate confidence from other cops: some of them are predictably sceptical until her talent shines. But the beleaguered head of the squad recognises Morgan's, well, high potential, and engages her as a consultant. Beyond the lead characters in a range of productions, neurodivergent characters are also more frequently appearing as members of ensembles, such as Quinni (Chloe Hayden) in Heartbreak High (Netflix) and Rose (Leah Byrne) in Dept. Q (Netflix). Neurodivergent protagonists often have a champion, a steadfast supporter, friend, parent or mentor who recognises their gifts and learns to understand their differences. In part, that's the role of Detective Bea in Patience, as it is of protective father figure Dr Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) in The Good Doctor (Amazon Prime, Stan, Netflix, 7Plus). Adapted from the Korean series Good Doctor (Netflix), it stars Freddie Highmore as Shaun Murphy, a surgical resident at a California hospital who is autistic and has savant syndrome. As Austin and this hospital drama indicate, the presence of neurodivergent protagonists isn't confined to crime shows. For example, there's the Korean comedy-drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo (Netflix), in which rookie lawyer Woo Young-woo (Park Eun-bin), who has Asperger's syndrome, brings her skills to legal battles. Woo is wide-eyed and sweet-natured, with a special interest in whales and dolphins, her understanding of human behaviour often stemming from her observations of marine animals. It's a trait she shares with Sam Gardener (Keir Gilchrist), who's fascinated by penguins in Atypical. Robia Rashid's beautifully calibrated comedy-drama (Netflix) has autistic teenager Sam negotiating the complications of family life as he's navigating the minefield of adolescence and high school. Robia's series is funny, touching and illuminating as it examines the challenges for Sam and his family. It's as though TV fictions have evolved to a stage where a recognition of neurodiversity, and inclusion of it, is now desirable in the creation of communities. That said, Highmore offered a useful insight when I interviewed him soon after the globally successful premiere season of The Good Doctor. Commenting on the thinking behind the series, he said the show's producers were determined that Shaun should not be seen as representative of everyone who is autistic. As he put it, 'It's the same as if you had a neurotypical lead character in a television show: they would never possibly represent everyone who's neurotypical, and no one would expect them to.'
Business Insider
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
My teen was making up to $30,000 a month from YouTube. I was so ignorant about the kid-influencer world.
Ashley Smith's daughter, Claire, was part of a popular YouTube channel. Ashley says she was ignorant about the financial mechanisms of social media. Ultimately, the money wasn't worth the chaos influencing created, she says. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ashley Smith and Patience Rock Smith, the parents of Claire Smith and the subjects of a recent Netflix docu-series, " Bad Influence." Recently, my wife, Patience, and I have been getting a lot of backlash after a documentary about our daughter's time as a kid influencer aired on Netflix. I get it — the documentary shows abuse, questionable decision-making, and chaos. If I knew what I was getting into, I would never have let it happen. But I was ignorant about the world of kid influencers. My wife's niece, Piper Rockelle, is a YouTuber with more than 12 million subscribers. My daughter, Claire, was excited about the opportunity to film with Piper. Patience thought that working with her sister, Tiffany, might help rebuild their troubled relationship. I just thought we were filming with family, and that sounded fun. My daughter travelled to LA to film 3 days a week I've thought a lot about trust in recent years. We're often told not to trust strangers. When family is involved, however, it's easy to ignore those little gut feelings telling you that something is off. Looking back, I can see I had some reservations about Tiffany. At the time, I didn't hear those internal warnings — or maybe I tried not to. Each week, Claire and Patience would drive from our home in Las Vegas to LA, where Claire would film YouTube videos under Tiffany's direction. They'd be in LA for three days, usually Sunday through Tuesday, and then come home for four days. Since Claire wasn't always in LA, having the split schedule helped us maintain some normalcy in our lives. I wanted my daughter to know her income wasn't normal Eventually, Claire got her own YouTube channel. Compared to other kids in Piper's "squad," she wasn't a high earner, but she still made nearly $30,000 during her most lucrative month. I have a background in finance and encouraged Claire to save her money and invest for her future. I couldn't stand the frivolous spending I saw in LA, like the girls getting their nails done constantly. I wanted her to save for needs, like a car and college, not just on wants. We're a pretty middle-of-the-road family income-wise. I had a lot of conversations with Claire about how her income and lifestyle weren't normal for a 14-year-old. I tried to do it in a way that didn't scare her. I want other parents to be informed Patience was the first one to realize that the environment around filming for the squad was becoming unhealthy. It was causing a lot of chaos in our family. Patience felt guilty — if I had never fallen in love with her, Claire wouldn't have been exposed to this world. Patience stopped taking Claire to LA, so I went instead. It didn't take long for me to realize I wanted my child out. When Tiffany insulted Claire, we left. Claire still does occasional content on social media, but there's no pressure. We've decided to keep sharing our story because we were so oblivious going in. Social media is here to stay, and I don't think it's all bad. Any child with an account could go viral or have a filming opportunity with an influencer, like Claire did. I'm creating courses for parents that have all the information I wish I'd known. Our story is about more than that, though. It's about recognizing abuse and gaslighting, and the impact that a dysfunctional family can have. We want to heal trauma, but sometimes you can't see how bad it is until it's all taken away.
Daily Record
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Solitaire players are just realising original game has a totally different name
If you've ever been bored and had a Microsoft laptop, you've probably played Solitaire at some point in your life. But did you know this fun trivia about the card game? If you've ever had a Microsoft laptop, you've probably played solitaire at some point in your life. That's because the classic computer card game has been included with Windows operating systems since 1990. Solitaire as a concept can be traced back for hundreds of years. It's believed to have originated in France during the 18th century but remains popular to this very day. After being introduced by Microsoft intern Wes Cherry in 1988, it became one of the most popular digital games ever. Millions now know the rules – but did you know the original version wasn't actually called 'Solitaire'? Games expert Dmitry Kandratsyeu, Head of Product at said: "From a quick game at work to killing time on your nan's PC, most of us have played Solitaire. But that classic card game you know and love isn't called Solitaire. "In fact, its real name is Klondike. The name you've been referring to for all these years is actually just a category. Solitaire means any single-player card game, and Klondike just happens to be the one that went viral before going viral was even a thing. Solitaire can actually refer to a variety of one-player card games. The most common type, often called Klondike, centres around arranging a deck of cards into four foundation piles, ordered by suit and rank (ace through King). However, it has different names when you travel around the world. In many English-speaking countries in Europe, it's traditionally known as Patience. Dmitry added: "Here in the UK, you may also hear people refer to the game as Patience, a name still commonly used across Europe. "In Finland, it's Pasianssi. In Poland, it's Pasjans and in France it's known as La Patience. But, when Microsoft added the game to Windows 3.0 back in 1990, they labelled it simply as 'Solitaire', and that name stuck, especially for those who grew up playing it on screen. "The name Klondike comes from the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1800s, when Canadian prospectors would pass the time with a patience-testing card game. It eventually became popular in the US, and when Microsoft digitised it, the rest was history, or should we say, computer history. "If things weren't confusing enough, old-school Americans often refer to it as Canfield, named after the 19th-century gambler who supposedly made the game popular in casinos. But while Canfield is related, it's a different version of Solitaire altogether, with its own distinct set of rules. "This just shows how many different names and variations this one game has around the world, even though the core idea remains largely the same. "One thing's for sure, whether you call it Solitaire, Klondike, Patience or even Canfield, it's a game that's stuck around for good reason. From killing time on your lunch break to tapping away on your nan's old PC, we've all played it at some point."
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Solitaire players are just realising Microsoft 'totally changed' card game's name
Whether physically or virtually, most people have tried their hand at Solitaire. Despite the card game's popularity, some people are only now realising it originally had a totally different name At some point in your life, you've probably played a game of Solitaire. Whether with cards, or on your phone, most people have had a whirl at trying to master the popular card game; however, even though it's super popular, there's one thing about the game that many people don't actually know. If you've never heard of the game before, Solitaire can actually refer to a variety of one-player card games. The most common type, often called Klondike, centres around arranging a deck of cards into four foundation piles, ordered by suit and rank (ace through king), but there are other versions of solitaire too, and the term can also refer to other one-player games that involve cards or even a single gem. However, as much as you may know how to play the game, there is less you may know about its history. The classic card game most people call Solitaire is actually named Klondike, and it's become super popular online in recent years. Furthermore, in the UK and much of Europe, it's also traditionally known as Patience. "Solitaire" is a general term for any one-player card game, and Microsoft helped popularise the name Solitaire globally. Games expert Dmitry Kandratsyeu, Head of Product at said: "From a quick game at work to killing time on your nan's PC, most of us have played Solitaire. But that classic card game you know and love isn't called Solitaire. "In fact, its real name is Klondike. The name you've been referring to for all these years is actually just a category. Solitaire means any single-player card game, and Klondike just happens to be the one that went viral before going viral was even a thing. "Here in the UK, you may also hear people refer to the game as Patience, a name still commonly used across Europe. In Finland, it's Pasianssi. In Poland, it's Pasjans and in France it's known as La Patience. But, when Microsoft added the game to Windows 3.0 back in 1990, they labelled it simply as 'Solitaire', and that name stuck, especially for those who grew up playing it on screen." Dmitry added: "The name Klondike comes from the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1800s, when Canadian prospectors would pass the time with a patience-testing card game. It eventually became popular in the US, and when Microsoft digitised it, the rest was history, or should we say, computer history. "If things weren't confusing enough, old-school Americans often refer to it as Canfield, named after the 19th-century gambler who supposedly made the game popular in casinos. But while Canfield is related, it's a different version of Solitaire altogether, with its own distinct set of rules. "This just shows how many different names and variations this one game has around the world, even though the core idea remains largely the same. One thing's for sure, whether you call it Solitaire, Klondike, Patience or even Canfield, it's a game that's stuck around for good reason. From killing time on your lunch break to tapping away on your nan's old PC, we've all played it at some point." If you didn't know, Solitaire actually goes back centuries, but it's believed to have originated in France during the 18th century. From the peaceful parlours of aristocrats to modern digital screens, the game has changed and developed over the years, captivating hearts across generations. Now you can play the game online, which is super useful for anyone in need of a quick mental challenge or a moment of relaxation. You can play for free and put your brain to good use by trying out a game. It's super easy to play online if you don't have cards. You can play the game for free, and you don't need to download anything to play either. If you play Solitaire on a PC or smartphone, the game flow is easy to get to grips with. You can find out more at
