Carl The Collector Review

This week, I watched the show “Carl The Collector”, a new show on PBS kids, that features a cast of cute forest animals living in Fuzzytown. The main character, Carl, an autistic racoon, collects all kinds of things from bouncy balls to stickers. The show focuses on him and his friends in their everyday interactions both with Carl’s collections and with their friendship in general. This show was so refreshing to watch how representation can so easily be added to a kids show.
Here are my favorite pieces of representation:

The main character is so authentically autistic from his stimming to his interactions with his friends and this is probably due to the fact that many members of the creative team and the voice actor are neurodivergent. The most authentic representation comes from those living it. It was also refreshing to see autism depicted in a way that isn’t usually seen in the media. Autism is a spectrum and often we only see one representation of Autism instead of the full spectrum.

“Carl The Collector” shows that autistic kids can have authentic and amazing friendships. Carl has a group of friends who care about him and show that they can adapt to his needs and help Carl regulate himself. Carl also is shown as a great friend and shows that Autistic kids can make friends.

Carl’s friend Lotta is amazing representation of girls on the Autism Spectrum. Girls historically have been under-diagnosed for Autism and ADHD because they often present differently than the diagnostic material due to lack of diverse testing. Lotta shows not only how Autism can present in girls, but also that Autism truly is a spectrum and shows that there can be differences between her and Carl. Lotta also explains that she doesn’t want to disclose her diagnosis and Carl understands that and respects that which was an amazing interaction.

While not explicit, I believe that Carl’s friend Forrest has ADHD. He often shows a lack of impulse control and thinking about effects ahead of time. While these traits are pretty prominent in young kids and could just be his age, these are also classic traits of ADHD. 

I loved the unique family structure representation. Carl’s parents are divorced and instead of having a “Very Special Episode” approach to divorce, his family structure is presented in any other way a family would be introduced. In one episode, Carl is seen being dropped off from a weekend with his dad. Instead of the episode focusing on the emotions he may have around divorce like other shows have done in the past, the episode is more focused about Carl and his friends looking for his missing bouncy ball collection so that Carl can share a game his dad taught him with his friends. Kids living with divorced parents and living with custody agreements is very common and I love that the show normalizes this experience.

Overall, it is very clear that Carl The Collector was created with a team that personally understands the importance of accurate representation. I would highly recommend watching this show and am excited for the increase in positive representation in children’s television.