I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one. There are good and bad points to all shows, but calling a show “vile” and “evil” is crossing a line.
Now, let me clarify that I also suffer from GAD and am proudly, openly queer (bisexual). I’ve suffered from a lot of the issues in this show and I thought they were portrayed realistically.
Let’s start with Evan. His social anxiety is not a play for laughs. It’s an integral function of his character. It is not portrayed as cute, or funny, or something quirky that makes for good fun. It’s portrayed as terrifying. It cuts Evan off from almost everyone in his life. It causes him to try and kill himself. There are some jokes made based off of his anxiety and his suicide attempt, but they are made by other characters. No character in this show is a bastion of goodness and purity, there are going to be some dark comedic moments based on Evan’s struggles. No audience is going to be expected to sit in absolute sadness and silence for two and a half hours. However, even with small comedic moments, his struggles are still portrayed as real and horrible.
Evan cannot relate to people. This is a major point in the show. He makes bad decisions relating to his family and the Murphys, but let’s keep in mind: he is still a teenager, who decided to lie to make someone feel better, but accidentally took it too far. He is not selfish due to his mental illness, he is needy due to circumstance. He makes mistakes, and owns up to them in the end.
Evan is not portrayed to be a perfect person either. We are not supposed to like what he’s doing, we’re supposed to vaguely understand but condemn his actions in the end. He is not a hero. He is an anti hero at best, but the actions of his character do not condemn the show as a whole. This is a show about a sad story, not about a sad person.
Connor…. now where do we start. We never truly get to know Connor Murphy as a character. We only see the real Connor twice, one at the breakfast scene, and once in school. Every other time we see or hear about Connor, we are seeing him through the lens of another person. We cannot accurately judge his character because of this. We only really know Connor throughout the show as Evan’s impression of Connor in his head. So, of course he’s going to be exaggerated. We only see Connor in his bad moments, or through someone else’s eyes. The writers haven’t exaggerated him, he has been exaggerated by the other characters in the script.
There was one gay joke. One. You’re blowing it out of proportion.
In all honesty, from another mentally ill queer, it seems like you’re making a mountain out of a molehill.