Speechless (Seasons 1–3)

Speechless (2016) is an ABC family sitcom you can watch online on iFILM. It follows the DiMeo household and their eldest son, JJ — a teenager with cerebral palsy who is nonverbal and talks through a laser pointer and a board of letters.

The engine of the family is Maya, played by Minnie Driver, a mother who will fight any school board, landlord or stranger to get her son a ramp, a real classroom and someone to literally speak his lines. That voice job lands on Kenneth, the school groundskeeper played by Cedric Yarbrough. Meanwhile dad Jimmy and younger siblings Ray and Dylan figure out how to live in a house where so much orbits one kid. JJ is played by Micah Fowler, an actor who has cerebral palsy in real life — which is why the show lands harder than most earnest dramas on the subject.

Creator Scott Silveri built a sitcom that treats disability as fair game for sharp jokes rather than pity: broke, scrappy parents, dry humor and zero sugar-coating. Three seasons, a warmly mean streak and a rare from-the-inside point of view on TV. Stream Speechless (2016) online on iFILM.