Such a huge amount of TV, and especially Movies, are geared towards a neurotypical audience.
As an autistic kid growing up, the only actor I ever cared about was Brent Spiner (Data, from Star Trek). I never watched the original series as a kid, but after watching it as an adult, Data was obviously carrying on a role started by Spock, another all-time great. Maybe they both count as rare role models for ASD folks?
My favorite movie is this non-movie called Gizmo! (1977). (It’s free on youtube among other places.) It’s mostly a collection of old black and white footage of weird inventions. It definitely has neurotypical folks in mind as part of the audience, giving them lots of weird things to laugh at, but I could watch or scroll through info about random unique contraptions for days.
Memento is one of my favorites too. I relate way too much to the main character.
I’m a fan of time shenanigans. The series finale of TNG did such an excellent job of exploring the paradox. I can’t imagine that concept was easy to flesh out. It’s impressive that they were able to bring everything full circle when they changed so much from the first season.
