Autism in Tuner and Hooch (TV Series)

Greetings Earthlings! 🙂

This week I’ve been binge watching the Disney+ TV revival of Turner and Hooch, and in the midst of my fading interest in the show (it’s a bit meh, but grand background watching while you’re doing other things), I encountered some autistic characters on screen, so I decided to give my 2 cents on the representation of autism in this series.

Based on the 1989 film starring Tom Hanks, the series picks up in the present day following Turner’s son Scott as he enters the police force shortly after the passing of his father. Suddenly, his life get’s turned upside down as his father has willed his dog Hooch to him, a police dog in training whom his dad believed to be a reincarnation of his first canine buddy Hooch. Together, Turner and the wayward Hooch embark on a series of wacky adventures, solving crimes and making friends along the way.

Here’s a trailer for the TV series if you haven’t checked it out yet:

So where does autism fit in with the show?

For starters, Hooch’s trainer Erica has an autistic brother Curtis, who helps her out with the police dog training program. We don’t get to see much of Curtis, but as it turns out, the actor who plays Curtis, Jonathan Simao, does in fact have Asperger’s syndrome; so when you are seeing him on screen, you’re getting the real deal.

In episode 9 of the series, we get a much closer look at autism. Scott and Hooch have been assigned to protect an autistic child Anthony, who has witnessed an attack on his neighbour by an assassin, but due to his communication difficulties, he finds it hard to give the police a description. What follows is an endearing episode where Erica is brought in to help Turner and Hooch to communicate with Anthony, where Hooch is instrumental in getting him to open up.

Interestingly, Lucas Yao who portrays Anthony, is a renowned child prodigy and is himself mildly on the spectrum. You can read more about him here. This is very positive to see the show runners employing autistic actors to play autistic roles- something that many in the community have been crying out for.

The episode handles autism with great sensitivity without resorting to overt stereotypes (although having Anthony obsessed with trains is veering a little bit into this territory). It was particularly lovely to see the “paws-itive” impact that Hooch has on Anthony, as studies have shown significant benefits for autists who own dogs as I’ve discussed in a previous post.

While the TV show itself may not be the most thrilling, this was a lovely episode to see, and is a real step forward in screen portrayals of autism.

Hope you enjoyed this post dear Earthlings! 🙂

Have a lovely weekend!

Aoife