Submitted by a viewer of the summer Film Fest
The Healing Power of Dude
The Healing Power of Dude is the third installment of the on-line Summer Film Festival of the Advocado Press and the Center for Accessible Living. It is an eight-part series currently being streamed on Netflix. The series is about an adolescent, Noah, and his adjustment to middle school. Noah has social anxiety disorder and has been home-schooled for the past previous two school years. As you can imagine, these two factors severely impact his adjustment.
The series is two things: a situation comedy and a commentary on disability in America.
As a situation comedy, the series is a bit worn out, formulaic and cheesy. There are several stock characters; the goofy father, the bratty little sister, the out-of-touch principal. The jokes, situations and plots are pretty standard for a sitcom. It is only ‘meh’ as a situation comedy; not bad, but nothing new or original.
I think it fares better as social commentary on disability, but there are issues even with that. A lot of its effectiveness as a social commentary resides in the portrayal of the young actor who plays Noah. The actor seems to capture the disability pretty well, although I would not be the best to judge since I don’t have social anxiety disorder. He is very likable in the role anyway. I think the series also has a number of effective scenes of his mental manifestations of his social anxiety. For instance, his images the students crowding around him to see his support dog as a group of zombies. I could see how that might be what social anxiety feels like.
Noah makes two friends at school, Amara and Simon. I have to say that the young actors who play this group of three friends and the interplay between them are the highlights of the series. Particularly impressive is the young actress who plays Amara. She is a wheelchair uses. The actress was born with Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy and had no acting experience when the series started. She does a great job! The three adolescent stars are the best reason to watch the show.
And now for the unrealistic depiction related disability. It has to do with the title character, Dude, the support dog. Noah can’t handle the first couple of days of school and leaves before homeroom. His parents decide to follow a doctor’s recommendation and get him a support dog. He shows up at school with the support dog the next day. Now, I don’t know how it works in California or wherever the series was made, but where I am from, it ain’t that easy. First, I think Noah would need some training to deal with his new support dog and that is not depicted at all. Second, a student being allowed to bring a support dog to school usually happens only after a protracted process of negotiation with the school in which the school is often adversarial. I understand they greatly simplified the process for narrative purposes, but for those that know, it just seems silly. One more thing – apparently the location of this particular school does not have a leash law. Dude runs free most of the time and even in the school for a bit. How realistic is that!
The Healing Power of Dude was released by Netflix in 2020. Apparently, it was not popular enough to warrant a second season.
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