Last modified on Tue 25 May 2021 08.43 EDT
The frank, fizzy comedy Special, which has just landed on Netflix, is a tale of two Ryans. There is Ryan Hayes, the main character, a gay intern with cerebral palsy who lives in Los Angeles with his mollycoddling mother. Then there is Ryan OâConnell, the showâs star and creator, who is also a gay Angelino with cerebral palsy. But there the similarities end. Moments from OâConnellâs life resurface on screen, such as the time he was hit by a car then pretended to his new college friends that his limp was a result of the accident. (Season one ends with Ryan coming out as disabled.) But whereas Ryan is gauche and apologetic, his 34-year-old creator is almost intimidatingly sassy and self-possessed.