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FYI - Jeri's character development continues in the latest Trek comic series.

 

On that note: Weird Pixie Dream Girls:

Astrid (Murder in Paris) ('Astrid et Raphaelle', --French, Walter Presents, Channel 4). A French odd-couple police procedural in which an autistic savant teams up with a disorganised but warm-hearted police officer. Astrid is the autistic daughter of a single-dad police officer killed in action when she is about 12. Not exactly fitting into mainstream education --noisy classes and obnoxiously bullying peers reduce her to hysterical meltdowns in 5 seconds flat-- her father's best police buddy takes her under his wing and sets her up in the police record archives, which turns out to be a good fit for her obsessional attention to detail and need for predictable routine, order and quiet. She instantly proves her worth when in a matter of hours she finds an important police file that had been lost for years and will help secure an important conviction.

Astrid (Sara Mortensen), is regarded as an oddball even by her oddball colleagues in the archives. She comes to the attention of Raphaelle (Lola Dewaere) when she helps solve a mysterious crime through her eidetic memory recall: she basically carries all police record files in her head and can spot and connect details of seemingly unrelated cases to reveal a pattern or narrative and thus, whodunnit. Although her need for routine, proneness to sensory overload and lack of social skills certainly are a challenge, gradually a friendship develops between Astrid and Raphaelle as They Fight Crime together and both learn from each other --Astrid to emotionally connect and be more flexible, Raphaelle to be more organised and reflective.

Astrid is, of course, the general public's stereotype of an Autistic savant rather than the real deal (a British remake of the series exists, called 'Patience' --who very much isn't-- but it is awful in comparison: the police characters are dour and flat and Patience, although a much more accurate depiction of autism, just comes across as unpleasantly rude, and not even in an entertaining Dr House kind of way). But her way of thinking is compelling in the same way that Sherlock Holmes' is. The murders du jour tend to be well done and leave you guessing until the end. At some point in the series Astrid even gets her own Moriarty to deal with. A neat small detail is that the long-suffering police commissioner has some OCD traits of his own which occasionally clash with those of Astrid (a recurrent scene is Astrid reorganising items on his desk and him reorganising them back). Recommended watch (regular viewers of French police drama will be mightily confused as both Sara Mortensen and Lola Dewaere both have played main characters in other police series; Dewaere in particular 'Mme Holmes', an insecure police officer who is the granddaughter of Sherlock Holmes and discovers to have inherited his talents).

Extraordinary Attorney Woo (South Korean, Netflix) is a 2022 TV series starring Park Eun-bin. It follows Woo Young-woo, an autistic savant (much in the same stereotypical mould of Astrid) daughter of a single dad who runs a modest little restaurant, and a rookie attorney inexplicably hired by a major law firm in Seoul. As the series progresses however, the reasons for hiring her become clear, and there is of course family and corporate drama at the bottom of the story, as so often is the case in South Korean TV series.

Her neurotypical peers perceive her manner of communicating as odd, awkward, and blunt. She is again full of ritualistic quirks and need for routine, and struggles with revolving doors. With each legal case and through her intelligence and eidetic memory (she can literally quote every law in existence) she becomes an increasingly competent attorney and earns (sometimes grudging) recognition from her legal colleagues and appreciation from her clients. It is again an entertaining watch, especially for her friendship with former class mate Dong Geu-ra-mi, an oddball extrovert, like Woo an outcast amongst her peers, but unlike Woo very good at punching people's lights out, thus taking it upon herself to protect Woo from school bullies and anybody else who would harm or take advantage of her. She also catches the romantic attentions from a male colleague who is intrigued by her mind (honestly, just her mind!), but this feels a bit, well, South Korean Romance pixie dust. A strangely redundant Japanese remake of this series also exists on Netflix.

Blanca (Italian, Walter Presents, Channel 4). This TV series is based on the book series of the same name by Patrizia Rinaldi, and is set in photogenic Genoa and stars Maria Chiara Giannetta as the titular character: a blind (following an accident --or was it?-- as a teenager in which her older sister died) intern aspiring to become a consultant profiler at the fictitious San Teodoro police station, through her sharp attention to auditory detail and her ability to tell whether people are lying by their voices (and heartbeat, if she can get hold of their pulse). Co-stars are Guiseppe Zeno as her detective mentor Michele, and of course there is also an initially sceptical and long-suffering Deputy Commissioner Mauro. Blanca is determined to establish herself as a female professional in a male chauvinist Italian police environment. Being blind does not help and of course her disability as hidden strength is in no way a metaphor for her gender. Nevertheless she is determined not to be held back. Indeed she is the public's stereotype of the feisty blind girl: she lives in a surprisingly tasteful appartment and in defiance of her blindness wears bright, colourful clothes, which her beautician best friend helps her sort and select over mobile video call, and no dark sunglasses nor white stick (there are no obvious adaptations in her flat and that is a pity, because it would teach the public a bit more about how blind people live and function in daily life). Her guide dog, a white pit-bull rather than the expected Labrador, no doubt serves to reflect her assertiveness.

Because this is an Italian series it is shiny and hip as a sports car. Whereas Astrid and Woo are undeniably attractive but demure in their dress (Astrid once expresses an intense dislike for dresses), and very much do not see themselves as sexual beings, Blanca is a veritable smoke show with dark, beautiful --if non-functional-- eyes (commented on right in episode 1) that show none of the nystagmus one would expect in blind people, and a wardrobe to match. Blanca may be blind, but she is not ignorant of her own attractiveness. Her older colleague is ruggedly handsome (she is aware of that too) and well on his way to becoming a silver fox, and visually the director is clearly in love with CSI composite shots and James Bond film credit intros. It is well paced, it is snappy, and it watches like a glossy mag. Nevertheless it is entertaining if you take it for what it is.