Detective Saga Noren in The Bridge was fairly clearly high-functioning autistic, having Asperger Syndrome or being somewhere nearby on the autistic spectrum.
This portrayal was, I felt, broadly positive. Saga is an intelligent woman, capable in her field of work, with focus and a useful detachment.
Her personal and emotional life was atypical, but not in a particularly negative way. Her autistic-literal thinking was shown in amusing ways too: on one occasion in a nightclub, a man she fancied offered her a drink and walked away bemused when she refused; she followed him to explain that she refused the drink because she was not thirsty (obviously), but would he like to come back to her place for sex?
This was a utopian portrayal of an adult Aspie woman: there is no sign of the distress that can come from being at odds with a society that does not accept that humanity is neurologically diverse. But that is no bad thing.
