Patience

My mother showed me this series because I am a young woman with autism and representation in the media for autistic females is next to none. Many people seem to dispute the accuracy and consistency of the symptoms she displays, but they're criticism comes from misunderstanding autism in females. You see Sherlock and the good doctor and see autistic people as one consistent stereotype, when its a spectrum disorder and people are filled with contradictions. The one consistency that exists in all autistics though is superior pattern recognition skills and that's why crime shows have these characters but rarely female ones and the difference between patience and those other characters is accurate to the disorder looking different in males versus female.

I want to dispute some peoples objections to the accuracy of Patience, as an autistic woman (diagnosed). Someone said she couldn't do hugs and touch but was fine when a child did that, as if that's proof she's making up the symptom or that its an error in the writing. That's not the case, people touching her triggers her as an autistic pers but my guess would be that when a young girl hugged her it was different because she saw herself in that girl and it was a child. Just a guess but the point is the "rules" of someones autism are not cut and dry and contain a lot of inconsistencies. For me I hate loud noises and crowded settings but love going to concerts, why that is isn't something I can clearly explain but its just different. As for the pediatric schizophrenia diagnosis I will say that specific disorder isn't the typical misdiagnosis for autistic girls, its usually borderline personality disorder or bipolar, but its more common then not that female autistics were diagnosed with a personality disorder before anyone thought to consider autism. That's the issue and I appreciate that they cover that in this show. I haven't watched everything and maybe there are flaws to Patiences character, but her autism is portrayed accurately and given how rare that is I'm rating this highly and think people should watch this as a representation of what female autism is.

While Patience is pretty good in itself I have given it just six stars as it really doesn't hold a light to the french version, Astrid: Murder In Paris.

The acting is fine but Astrid (played by Sara Mortensen) takes it to awhole new level with the idiosyncrasies and details.

The stories are the same as those from the first series of the french version but just felt a little flat with the interaction between the main characters with the Astrid cast being more connected and their humour adding a bit of fun to the whole thing.

If you haven't seen the french series I implore you to give it a try (if you can stand reading subtitles) as Sara Mortensen is an absolute joy to behold.

Whilst investigating a case, DI Metcalf encounters Patience, a young employee who works at records, an autistic young woman, with a razor sharp brain and a skill for spotting patterns, Metcalf persuades Patience to join her team.

I haven't seen the original series, so I can't compare, so my words are based purely on Channel 4's series.

I was honestly blown away by the quality of this series, I genuinely wasn't expecting it to be as good as this, what a tremendous first run, my only hope is that more follow.

The best thing Channel Four have done for quite some time, it truly is a cut above.

Every single episode is beautifully crafted, clever and intriguing, what a totally refreshing series, unlike anything else on the box right now.

I've always been a fan of Laura Fraser, and she is excellent, but this series is stolen by the sublime performance of Ella Maisy Purvis, who is genuinely sensational as Patience, acting of the highest order.

I love seeing Patience developing, and seeing an increase in her confidence as the series develops, if you have anyone close to you, who is autistic, you'll see some indicators, I certainly do.

Please Channel four, we need more.

9/10.

A good series but the episodes are a copy of the original series Astrid et Raphaele making impossible to not compare. Astrid et Raphaele are in the fifth season of a very sucessful series so will be very hard to equal it. The very obvious difference is in the visual of the main character Astrid, more young with a better appearence but I will not like to be in the place of the actor because the actor who plays the French Astrid is superb in the role. So to the people who like this series don't watch the original and have a enjoyable time. The main theme of the series is Autism and is very well portrait here.

In a world where the superb Franco-Belgian series "Astrid et Raphaelle" (2019; IMDb ID tt11950864) wouldn't exist, Patience would be a decent effort, meriting perhaps 6/10 or 7/10. However, we live in a world where (thankfully) the original series "Astrid et Raphaelle" does exist. I would strongly recommend anyone who plans to watch Patience to watch "Astrid et Raphaelle" instead.

In "Astrid et Raphaelle", Astrid is the main character and her autism and journey to interacting more easily with "normies" is the red thread through the (40+ so far) episodes. This is a slow process for which we get a first-row seat. Also, the actress playing Astrid is absolutely outstanding and you really feel empathy towards her, you root for her and are occasionally left with a lump in your throat.

By contrast, in Patience everything feels hurried. In only six episodes Patience/Astrid starts to smile, hugs a kid and kisses a man, more or less "just like that". No slow, shared journey with insights into Astrid's inner being. Patience/Astrid is barely the main character, which is odd since the series is named after her. It feels that the rush causes Patience/Astrid to be used as a deus ex machina more than a character - the bringer of missing links just in time to catch the culprit. On top of that, the story lines are recycled from the original series as well. All in all, Patience feels like a rushed and lazy series.

PS: One of the episodes of Patience features a character called Peter Venkman. Surely, this must be a conscious reference to Bill Murray's character in Ghostbusters... :-)