Owen (Netflix Series)

Owen is an American coming of age comedy-drama web television series, created by Owen Graziano and Kylie Studi. The series stars Graziano as Owen Carolla, a Chicago teen with ASD and depression, and focuses on the alternately humerous and upsetting aspects of his disability. The show has been praised for its honest depiction of high-functioning autism, and also touches on themes such as mental illness, religion, and substance abuse.

Graziano was best known for his stand-up comedy and for writing for Saturday Night Live when he conceived the show in 2018. The series, which was produced by A24’s television division, premiered on Netflix on June 12, 2020, to critical acclaim. The show has been renewed for a second season.

Main Cast

 * Owen Graziano as Owen Carolla, a high school student with Aspergers Syndrome and severe depression who lives in the Chicago Loop with his family. Crushed after his grandmother dies in a dementia-induced car accident, he begins writing and performing stand-up material to cope with his mounting feelings of hopelessness and sadness.
 * Hannibal Buress as himself, a comedian who takes Owen under his wing and becomes a mentor to him both professionally and personally, while also struggling to quit drinking following a highly publicized incident involving alcohol-induced disorderly conduct.
 * Kylie Studi as Kylie Begay, Owen’s indigenous classmate and crush of Shawnee descent. She is a beautiful and popular member of their school’s dance squad but takes a liking to Owen after he opens up to her and they ultimately begin dating.
 * Sebastian Masicalco as Joe Carolla, Owen’s father who works as a janitor at his high school Saint Joseph’s High School. Though he has instilled a love of movies in his son, he also struggles to understand Owen’s mental health struggles (though not for lack of trying). He is also a recovering alcoholic and attends the same Alcoholics Anonymous group as Kylie’s father. He is a Roman Catholic and has raised his son as such.
 * Toni Collette as April Carolla, Joe’s wife and Owen’s mother who teaches art at Saint Joseph’s and has an interest in Christian comedy, having of taken Owen to see Trey Kennedy years ago. While Joe is more strict about his faith, April believes in God’s love and ability to see the good in people despite humans being inherently imperfect creatures.
 * Frank Langella as Tony Carolla, Joe’s father and Owen’s grandfather who is living with them after becoming a widower. A former student activist during the Civil Rights Movement, he now displays obvious signs of senility as he enters his late ‘70s.
 * Mick Johnson as Mick Sumner, Owen’s friend who wants to become a filmmaker and sometimes helps him write his jokes. He has also experienced the loss of a loved one and can relate to Owen.
 * Brock Levine as Brock Evans, Owen and Micks’ friend who plays drums in a Christian metal band and dreams of working as a sound guy for the WWE. While is outwardly rambunctious and takes very little seriously, he displays a sensitive side at several points throughout the series.

Reoccurring

 * Adam Beach as Mr Begay, Kylie’s father who is a recovering alcoholic and attends the same AA group as Joe, something that strengthens the young couple’s relationship.
 * Andrea Martin as Owen’s grandmother, who died in a dementia-induced car accident after battling Alzheimer’s for two years. Her death affects the already crumbling Owen profoundly.
 * Dylan Gelula as Mikayla, Mick’s girlfriend who often tags along with him, Owen, and Brock and is nice to Owen due to his friendship with Mick and her disdain for Owen’s ex.
 * Grace Van Patten as Claire, Owen’s ex-girlfriend who plays for a girls’ junior ice hockey team and is shown to have been verbally and emotionally abusive towards him.
 * June Squibb as Ms. Sumner, Mick’s grandmother who has raised him and his younger brother since her husband died. She is kind to Owen
 * Jesse Ventura as Mr Evans, Brock’s working class father who works as a gravedigger at a cementary and buried Owen’s grandmother. A notable moment in the first season involves Brock surprising Owen with his grandmother’s favorite watch, having of asked his father to retrieve it during the funeral.
 * Dante Peiora as Alec Sumner, Mick’s 6-year-old brother whom Owen often babysits. They occasionally engage in surprisingly profound discussions, alluding to the idea that children are much wiser than given credit for.
 * Nat Wolff as Billy Topp, Claire’s new boyfriend who bullied Owen throughout elementary and middle school and continues to torment him occasionally.
 * Andy Garcia as Father James, a Catholic priest whom Owen routinely confesses to and plays a role in his decision to renounce his faith in God.

Season One
S1E01: “I Think You’re Really Cool”- Owen attends his grandmother’s funeral, accompanied by his family and most of his classmates (with the exception of Claire). His friends later convince him to talk to Kylie, though the verbal exchange is painfully awkward and ends quickly. The next day Mick finds his joke book and shows the others, who all agree that Owen has potential. A babysitting gig with Alec provides Owen with the notion that real life can be inherently comical. His first open mic goes south very quickly, but he runs into Hannibal Buress outside the venue and the duo agree to keep in touch after grabbing pizza. Owen and Kylie are able to get to know each other and dance together at an informal dance, before Billy tells him that he is a waste of Kylie’s potential. This deeply upsets him and he tells Mick that he wishes he could be better than he is, and it saddens Mick that Owen doesn’t think he’s good enough. Owen, Mick, Brock, and Mikayla proceed to let the air out of Billy’s tires. Owen later opens up to Kylie about his condition, stating that people stop being “into” him when they get to know him. Kylie is initially dumbfounded, but responds, “I’m into you, Owen. I think you’re really cool.” He considers texting Hannibal, but ultimately decides that his day has been good enough already.

S1E02: “I Can’t Hide Anymore”- Owen receives a phone call from Hannibal, asking him to open up for him at a show in Madison, Wisconsin. He nonchalantly asks his parents if he can do it, and they agree in an equally nonchalant manner. He drives to Madison with Hannibal, introducing him to Christian metal band War of Ages and opening up about his Catholic unbringing and his desire to believe that existence is bigger than just human beings; Hannibal, an atheist, is dismissive towards this and points out the obvious lack of prove of a higher power. At the show, Hannibal asks Owen to keep him from drinking any alcohol even if he himself protests. While Owen does well with his set, he notices Hannibal drinking alcohol with a young woman from the stage. Hannibal is ultimately too drunk to do the set, which leads the manager to ask Owen if he can just perform some more. He wows the audience when he jokes about his depression and concludes his by acknowledging that he’s hid behind his mental illness for years and stating, “I can’t hide anymore. I’m fucking sick of it. I just.... I’m done.” He drives himself and Hannibal back to Chicago. While he is initially upset that he failed to keep his friend sober, he finds that a recording of his performance has gone viral on YouTube.

S1E03: “Ain’t Nobody To Blame For That But You”- Owen’s comedy set attracts the attention of many of his peers, culminating in Kylie asking Owen on a date. After their date, Kylie (who is neither Catholic nor a virgin) convinces Owen to give into his obvious attraction for her and they go back to her apartment to have sex. He later has breakfast with her and her dad before going to church to confess to Father James, who tells him that he is disappointed. Owen later vents to Mick and Brock about this, and they tell him that not everything in the Bible is meant to be taken seriously and that he “earned” the ability to be with Kylie. Hannibal later calls Owen to apologize for what happened in Madison, and they go to a sports pub where Hannibal orders a soda. Owen asks him where all the good in the world comes from if God isn’t real; Hannibal responds, “We did that. People did that,” before telling Owen he has successfully been through far too much to credit his strength and perseverance to a higher power. This moves Owen deeply. He attends an AA meeting with Joe and runs into Kylie’s dad, introducing him as his girlfriend’s dad. Joe is surprised that Owen has a girlfriend, though ultimately proud.

S1E04- “Do You Wanna Go to Hell?”: Owen and Kylie go to the Sadie Hawkins dance together, after which he tells her about Claire’s constant emotional abuse during their relationship along with a time where she physically attacked him. Kylie is deeply upset by this. Owen and Kylie later hang out with Mick, Brock, and Mikayla in Mick’s family’s basement. When they are alone together, Kylie says that she wants to meet his family. Owen is scared of this, admitting that he’s scared of taking things to quickly because she’s “the greatest” and he doesn’t want to scare or hurt her. She responds, “I know you think I’m great; I just wish you knew how great you are too.” He ultimately does decide to introduce her to his family, and she gets along very well with April. Owen goes to confess to Father James about accidentally missing church because he was with Kylie, to which Father James warns him that Kylie is “the devil” and that he is “on the road to hell.” Owen, Mick, and Brock all realize that their faith in God is starting to dwindle. Owen brings up what Hannibal said and the three of them are all convinced to officially renounce their faith in a God.

S1E05- “You Were Never Really There”: Owen performs a set where he talks about his decision to become agnostic, before realizing that Joe has come to the show. Joe expresses his disdain for Owen’s choice and retaliates by relapsing with Kylie’s dad, though Owen and Kylie walk in on them and they are deeply distraught. Kylie drives her dad home and Owen has a heated argument with Joe that turns into a physical altercation. Owen calms down after April restrains him. Owen and Joe talk afterwards, where Joe tells him that he wishes he could understand him but doesn’t, which Owen angrily responds is because he isn’t trying hard enough and they end up not on speaking  terms. Owen begins to feel like he is hurting Kylie and breaks up with her despite her attempts to sway him. He eventually swallows a bottle of his anti-depressants, with Kylie going to his house to find him unconscious on the floor. Owen is brought to the hospital and stabilized, but Kylie leaves before he wakes up. He is transferred to a psychiatric hospital.

S1E06: “You Got Somethin’, Man”- Owen is sent to an adult psychiatric ward because the youth ward is undergoing renovations and is befriended by a group of adult patients, who tell him that he is young and has the rest of his life to make mistakes and learn from them. Owen realizes that he still has the chance to reconcile with Kylie and calls her, but hangs up before saying anything. He performs a comedy set to the patients, with one of whom tells him that his comedy has the potential to save lives. Joe, feeling guilty about what happens meets Hannibal when the latter shows up at an AA meeting. Hannibal bluntly criticizes Joe for his treatment of Owen but tells him that Owen still needs his dad and that it’s not to late to make amends. Owen is discharged from the hospital and is picked up by Kylie, and they tearfully reconcile. Not ready to go home, he goes to stay with Kylie and her father, who forgives Joe and says that everyone deals with grief in their own ways, implying that Joe may also be mourning the loss of his mother.

S1E07: “Happy Bunny, Sad Bunny”- Owen sends Joe a text, inviting the whole family to a 3 Mics-influenced one man show he’s performing at a music hall. Joe tries to respond but can’t bring himself to do it. April convinces Joe to call Owen on his birthday, and they partially reconcile. Owen celebrates his birthday with Kylie, Mick, Brock, and Mikayla. The four of them jointly give Owen a present, his grandmother’s favorite watch which Brock had his father retrieve during the funeral. Owen is deeply touched by this. Owen performs the one man show, entitled Happy Bunny, Sad Bunny, where he alternates three times performing stand-up comedy and Henry Rollins-influenced spoken word where he talks about his relationships, his battles with depression, and the realizations he’s made about his life. He and Joe reconcile after the show.

S1E08: “I Kinda Owe It To Myself”- With graduation looming, Owen, Mick, Brock, are all accepted to their schools of choice and plan on sharing an apartment in New York. While Mick and Mikayla plan on continuing their relationship long-distance, Owen struggles with the idea of being away from Kylie. Owen’s family throws a graduation party for everyone, with Hannibal showing up and ultimately finding common ground with Joe. Owen, Mick, and Brock leave for New York, with Owen and Kylie having a bittersweet goodbye as Kylie plans on taking a gap year. On their first night in New York, Owen has trouble sleeping and tries calling Kylie, who doesn’t pick up because they are asleep. Owen continues performing stand-up, trying his best to stay positive. About a month later, Mick and Brock bring Owen to Sticky’s Finger Joint with the promise of a surprise, and he is spellbound to find Kylie sitting at a table with a suitcase next to her. While Mick and Brock are asleep, Kylie tells Owen that she plans on finding a job that pays well but also allows her to spend time with him. He admits that, while he felt depressed without her, he has come to realize that he is too strong to fall back on these feelings. Later, Owen performs a show at the Gotham Comedy Club; he enters the stage, sees his best friends and girlfriend in the audience, and chuckles with disbelief.

Season Two
TBD

Production
Owen, born on August 22, 1996, began performing stand-up while in high school and moved to New York at the age of seventeen to pursue comedy full-time. He became friends with stand-up comedians Pete Davidson, Ricky Velez, and Derek Gaines, and was reccomended to SNL producer Lorne Michaels by Davidson, hired as a staff writer for the show during the 2016 season (being the youngest staff writer in the show’s history at the age of twenty). He left in 2018 after he and his girlfriend, Cherokee comedian Kylie Studi, came up with a show that would focus on his struggles with ASD and depression. Owen, who was raised in Lake Forest, IL, was not raised Catholic but has turned to religion every so often out of desperation, which prompted the show’s overwhelmingly negative depiction of the religion. He cast his two best friends from high school, Mick Johnson, and Brock Levine, in key roles, as well as Chicago comedians Hannibal Buress and Sebastian Maniscalco, the former of whom he met when he first started performing at the age of fifteen. Toni Collette was cast due to Owen’s love of the 2018 horror film Hereditary, of which she played the lead role. Frank Langella was cast as Tony after Harvey Keitel turned down the role to star in Martin Scorsese’s I Heard You Paint Houses. A24 executive produced the series, with Mick directing most of the episodes and Brock composing the score.

Release and Reception

The first season was released on Netflix on June 12, 2020, to critical acclaim. The series received a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the site’s consensus reading, “Owen, as its name suggests, is a highly personal series that seemlessly switches between awkward, irreverent comedy and painfully honest drama. This, combined with (Owen) Graziano and (Kylie) Studis’ powerful, genuine performances, cements the show’s status as a future classic.” Chris Nashtaway of Entertainment Weekly noted that the character’s autism was rarely mentioned by word in the series, which instead focused on accurately portraying the traits and how they affected his self-esteem and mental health. He also noted that the series portrayed not only the autism community this way but also people of indigenous descent via the Kylie character, stating, “The series makes a big deal of making a big deal of these things, and the suble representation of these groups, which rarely receive any at all, is truly what we need in the world right now.”

Future
The show’s second season is set to focus on Owen’s burgeoning friendships with comedians such as Pete Davidson, Ricky Velez, and Derek Gaines, and how a job offer as a staff writer for Saturday Night Live becomes both a blessing and a curse as his newfound fame proves to be overwhelming. A strong theme is the idea of newfound adulthood, with Mick receiving an internship for A24, Brock being hired as a sound guy for a Queens-based professional wrestling company, and Owen and Kylie’s relationship as she begins working at a daycare center and ultimately tries comedy herself.