Television Series Premier Review: Touched with Kiefer Sutherland

We watched the premier of the new series Touch starring Kiefer Sutherland (as Martin Bohm) and David Mazouz (as Jake Bohm).  You'll also recognize Danny Glover in this series.

The basic storyline is that Martin is at the end of his rope trying to juggle the intense needs and expense of a child with special needs (autism without speech) following the death of his wife.  He's had to relocate, and job hop to keep pace.  Jake manages to escape from even a specialized school...multiple times to climb a tower at exactly 3:18.

In this first episode, Jake is starting to show the audience and his dad (and even the uppity social worker) that he communicates through number patterns.  Further, he has the added ability to predict future events through these patterns.

I was literally spellbound and totally absorbed in the program and unaware of anything else going on around me.  I was riveted.  If this episode is indicative of of the series.  I'm a fan already.

I was talking to a friend of mine about this episode.  Our beef?  We are both social workers, and we are both parents of special needs kids.  Or beef is how the parent is always demonized and the social workers are either A. always right or B.  always all about removing kids from the home with a sanctimonious air.  For starters, on the occasions when Jake ran off unsupervised, he was in the care of a specialized school that Martin was paying to educate and supervise Jake while Martin was at work.  So why would a child be removed from the home due to parental "failure" when Martin had done all that could be expected of him.  Someone should have been all over that specialized school.  We also both have a beef with the predominate cultural norm of parent bashing for everything...especially when it comes to special needs kids.  By and large, the parents are the experts on the disorders their children have AND the individual ways in which their child copes/presents/adapts etc with it.  The role of the parent as demon has go to stop.  Nuff said.  Fix that part Tim Kring (creator of series).

In the review below, they speak of the child as having supernatural powers.  I sort of have always viewed special needs kids as ALL having supernatural powers.  In many ways they are far advanced from us "normal" folk.  They are evolving us to places where communication is different and less cumbersome, where creativity and other ways of viewing the workings of the universe is different.  I tend to see these kids less as disabled than more evolved and it is US that has the disability by quickly labeling what is outside the norm as problematic vs advanced.  I agree he displays supernatural talent.  But who knows, maybe as we advance as a species, we will one day fully understand how predicting future events through patterns, numbers, or vibrations makes perfect sense.  Just because we don't yet understand something doesn't make it wrong and our old or usual ways right.   I think Jake displays what we would call autism and perhaps even what we would call being a savant.  Predicting future events makes him extra special...in a good way.

David Mazouz is a relative newcomer on the scene. He's appeared in a few things over the last couple of years.

If you missed the first episode, you can catch up by watching it on this link. Just scroll down to the video marked "full episode" that shows a timeline of 50:14 minutes. I love that at his young age, he has already mastered person first language when referencing those with special needs.

I find it interesting that yesterday I did a review of the movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly close that has a child with autistic characteristics, AND a character in the film who doesn't speak.  And today a review about a child with autism who doesn't speak.  Interesting, no?  No, Willow...it's just YOU.

Here is a trailer combined with a review



This is an interview with David Mazouz...just so you know he really can talk :-) But probably never will on this series.