When "Love on the Spectrum" creator Cian O'Clery asks the cheerful Tanner, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much he would like to find love, the 24-year-old answers, "12!"
Love On The Spectrum AUS (S2 Ep4) – An Honest AUTISTIC Review
That enthusiasm for dating is a regular feature of the show, which documents people with autism diagnoses and helps them find romantic partners. "Not everyone [with autism] needs help finding love. But some people do, and some people scream for it," O'Clery says.
"I always wanted to create something in the dating world with real people, and that just felt a bit more honest and fair — and more representative than the potentially narrow field of Instagram models on islands," O'Clery says. "It felt like a great opportunity to do a couple of things: firstly, to introduce people to a large group of diverse people with autism, which I think has been missing in the media, and also to help some people who might need some help and support in that space."
The Netflix series, which filmed two seasons in Australia before heading to the US for two more, is a reality show that is truly grounded in reality. The crew helps contestants (who are purposefully not called candidates and are referred to only by their first names) find a match in their area, but otherwise the story plays out largely on its own. There are no manufactured plotlines, villain edits or producers interrupting experiences, save for the occasional fourth-wall break from O'Clery, who offers some extra encouragement or advice from behind the camera.
