About midway through the pilot of Everything’s Gonna Be Okay, an upcoming dramedy from the Australian comedian Josh Thomas, a family is built before our eyes. The camera lingers above a bed, where a father (Christopher May) tucks himself in. The bed seems too large for one. Sure enough, his two daughters, Genevieve (Maeve Press) and Matilda (Kayla Cromer) wriggle in beside him. Nicholas (Thomas), their adult brother, follows, curling up on a couch at the food of the bed. The lights dim. The family dog leaps into the frame. Everyone goes to sleep.
In the next scene it’s morning, though probably not the one that followed the prior scene’s evening. Nicholas stands before a mirror, tying a black tie. Based on context from earlier in the episode, it’s clear that he is preparing to attend his dad’s funeral. The juxtaposition is fairly brutal, but the narrative hardly wallows. In fact, the rest of the episode proceeds with almost absurd levity, climaxing with a eulogy in which Matilda, who we learn has autism, explains the intention behind her speech: “I hope by showing how kind and smart Dad has always been with me, you will all be moved and cry, which will increase my social standing, which will in turn increase the chance of me finding a very muscle-y boyfriend.”
At its best, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay doesn’t simply find humor in the darkest of situations; it is a show that makes us laugh by locating unspoken truths about the world around us — by zeroing in, for instance, on how speaking at a funeral can be turned into an opportunity to increase one’s social capital. But illness, death, and grieving are not the only subjects Thomas focuses through his deadpan style. The comedian, who wrote, created, and stars in the show, also affords us side-splitting and eye-opening depictions of queer dating, autism, and general high school culture.
Perhaps most profoundly, the show, which premieres on Freeform on January 16, explores the many ways a family can look, and the ways it can reform in the aftermath of tragedy. At 25, Nicholas hasn’t done all that much. Yet for the remainder of the season — and presumably his life — he will be responsible for his two younger sisters as their now-official guardian.
To celebrate the show’s upcoming premiere, Freeform, Teen Vogue and them. hosted a screening at the Davis Theater in Chicago followed by a roundtable discussion. Moderated by Teen Vogue Culture and Entertainment Director Dani Kwateng-Clark, the panel also included Josh Thomas alongside castmates Maeve Press (Genevieve) and Kayla Cromer (Matilda). During a wide-ranging discussion that touched on everything from flirting to Thomas’ impressive bowling skills, the panelists offered a conversation that reflected the show’s hilarity and capacity to render more serious themes with care and precision.
The most compelling part of the roughly 20-minute talk came when Kayla Cromer offered her perspective on the importance of representing people with autism on screen. Cromer, who is among the first actors on the autism spectrum to play a major recurring character who also lives with autism, explained that what’s so important about the representation exhibited in Everything’s Gonna Be Okay is that her character experiences the same kind of autism she does. “There’s always going to be people who won’t like my performance and [those who] will like it,” the actor said, “But in reality, one character with autism can’t represent every person with autism, because everyone with autism is different. We all have our different quirks.”
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