Disney's 2-Part Queer Comedy With 97% On Rotten Tomatoes Is The Perfect Weekend Binge

Disney’s two-season comedy Everything’s Gonna Be Okay is a sweetly poignant and warmly naturalistic dramedy. Critics loved it, as evidenced by its 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but the series never found a wide audience. Its greatest strength was also its commercial challenge, in the specificity of its tone and subject matter.

The creator, Josh Thomas, starred as Nicholas, a neurotic, gay Australian twenty-something who suddenly finds himself the caretaker of his two estranged teenage American half-sisters, Matilda and Genevieve. The show’s early focus on grief, combined with Thomas’ signature realistic, awkward humor, made it hard to market, as it was essentially a TV comedy that was instigated by a tragic premise.

Josh Thomas previously had a show that ran on ABC for four seasons, Please Like Me, a semi-autobiographical dramedy about Josh’s character realizing he is gay.

Matilda has autism and is a gifted classical composer. Her exploration of relationships and sexuality unfolds in ways that are often surprising, messy, and deeply authentic. She jumps into a relationship with a girl in season 1, then questions her queerness in season 2, then ultimately ends up in a sexually open but emotionally closed marriage to a woman.

Rather than presenting sexuality as a linear journey toward self-acceptance, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay allows Matilda’s understanding of herself to evolve in contradictory and unexpected ways. Thomas prioritizes emotional truth over narrative neatness, which means some of Matilda’s biggest decisions feel less like traditional character beats and more like the unpredictable choices people make in real life.

Everything’s Gonna Be Okay Cast & Characters
Character	Actor	Actor
Nicholas Moss	Josh Thomas	Character & actor are gay. Character is diagnosed with autism in season 2. Actor has autism.
Matilda Moss	Kayla Cromer	Nicholas’s 17-year-old sister. Character & actor have autism. Goes on a journey of sexual and romantic self-discovery.
Alex	Adam Faison	Nicholas’s boyfriend.
Genevieve Moss	Maeve Press	Nicholas’s 14-year-old-sister. Character is straight and neurotypical.
Drea	Lillian Carrier	Matilda’s girlfriend and later wife. Character and actor have autism and sensory issues. Character comes out as asexual.

Everything’s Gonna Be Okay arrived at a difficult moment when streaming was taking over television, premiering shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted viewing habits, and slowing its ability to build momentum. Combined with Freeform’s shrinking investment in scripted originals, the series never had the opportunity to grow beyond its passionate niche audience.

Everything’s Gonna Be Okay is the kind of hidden gem that’s perfect for a weekend binge. Its half-hour episodes move quickly, but it’s rich enough in character development and surprising storylines that you’ll likely find yourself watching episodes back-to-back.

Everything’s Gonna Be Okay Is A Testament To Representative Casting

Nicholas and Matilda tearing petals off sunflowers in Everything's Gonna Be Okay

Matilda is played by Kayla Cromer, who is autistic herself. At the time of casting, she became the first openly autistic actor to portray an autistic series regular. Cromer submitted herself for the role without an agent, believing that her lived experience would help her connect with the character in a way that other performers could not.

While television has featured autistic characters before, portrayals have often been filtered through the perspective of neurotypical writers, actors, and producers. Series such as Netflix’s dramedy Atypical were praised for increasing autism visibility, but also faced criticism for not initially casting autistic actors in major roles.

Other popular television characters have long been interpreted as autistic despite never receiving an official diagnosis within their respective shows, such as Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory or Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds. By contrast, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay places autism at the center of Matilda’s identity without making it her sole defining character trait.

The series also acknowledges that there is no single autistic experience. In season 2, Nicholas begins to question whether he may also be autistic, drawing from Thomas’ own experience of being diagnosed later in life. The storyline creates some of the show’s most thoughtful conversations about neurodiversity.

Genevieve initially dismisses the possibility outright, insisting that Nicholas is nothing like Matilda. However, she eventually realizes that her understanding of autism has been shaped almost entirely by one person. She knows Matilda, but that does not mean she understands every way autism can present.

Rather than presenting autism as a fixed set of behaviors, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay treats it as a spectrum that manifests differently from person to person. Thomas’ writing approaches the subject with curiosity, nuance, and humor, allowing both Nicholas and Matilda to be fully realized people rather than educational case studies.

The same philosophy extends to the show’s LGBTQ+ storylines. Like its depiction of autism, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay refuses simplistic answers in favor of complicated, often contradictory human experiences. The result is a series that remains one of television’s most thoughtful examples of representative casting and storytelling.