http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/21/arts/television/review-speechless.html 2016-09-21 00:14:04 Review: In ‘Speechless,’ Balancing Family Needs With Special Needs This new ABC comedy, in which a boy’s cerebral palsy prompts a move to a new school district, stands out for its portrayal of a family with normal human flaws. === JJ DiMeo (Micah Fowler) is no angel. He’s sarcastic; he’s a little devious; he can be rude. In other words, he’s a teenager. The first time we see him, he flips somebody off, though we have to have it explained to us, because his version of the middle finger is a flat, extended hand. That JJ has cerebral palsy, which keeps him from speaking, as well as limits his obscene gestures, is what makes ABC’s For the past few seasons, ABC has become a diverse neighborhood of characters and families, especially in sitcoms like JJ’s educational needs drive the premise of the pilot, which airs on Wednesday, but the whole family gives it life. His mother, Maya (Minnie Driver), has moved the DiMeos to the worst house in upscale Newport Beach, Calif., because it’s zoned for a school with good resources for special-needs students. It soon becomes clear that this is not the first time she’s uprooted the family. Maya is a steamroller running on squeaky wheels, partly out of the need to argue for JJ’s interests, but partly, it seems, from an innate stubbornness that sometimes rubs the rest of her family the wrong way. The relocation goes bumpily. Even the well-resourced school requires JJ to use a rear service entrance, which the staff insists is not a garbage ramp. “It’s a garbage and my son ramp,” Maya argues back. JJ, who communicates using a word-and-letter board, finds his P.C. new classmates patronizing. (When he’s greeted on his first morning with a “JJ for President” sign, he has a classroom aide — his “voice” — read off a rejoinder that begins, “Eat … a … bag … of …”) But the new school delights Ray (Mason Cook), JJ’s younger brother, who longs to settle in one place, and he rebels when Maya suggests they should move on again. Building on predictable material — parent-child arguments, school crushes, wacky teachers — the pilot lightly lays out the specific challenge of balancing special needs with an entire family’s needs. It also suggests that the DiMeos’ history has given them a defiant team spirit: They’ll squabble, but God help an outsider who crosses them. “Speechless” is like a network-TV version of the British Mr. Fowler, who has cerebral palsy, is lively and expressive, making JJ into a distinct character with a few quick scenes. The pilot’s most interesting relationship is between Ray and Maya, which is almost inverse parent-child: He’s developed a stubborn independence from being in JJ’s shadow, while she has a rebellious teenager streak that the first script sometimes pitches too far into eccentricity. The supporting characters, especially at the school, are much more flatly drawn, serving as stand-ins for the way the world views JJ — for instance, the overeager teacher (Jonathan Slavin) who introduces him as “taller sitting down than any of us are standing up.” This is a typical pitfall of a pilot with a lot to set up. There’s little time to characterize Maya’s husband, Jimmy (John Ross Bowie), as more than an amiable peacemaker, or daughter, Dylan (Kyla Kenedy), as more than a kid who’s really into running track. JJ’s alliance with Kenneth (Cedric Yarbrough), the school groundskeeper who becomes his new aide, is embryonic but promising. But by the end of its first episode, “Speechless” establishes one important indicator of a new sitcom’s potential. It has a voice.