Spoiler-free TV show review: 'Switched at Birth'
I caught season one of this new drama while browsing my Netflix queue and it was a pleasant surprise! I went in expecting a dopey, unintentionally funny teen soap with a wacky premise and got something pretty cool and unique instead!
This show is about two teenage girls named Daphne Vasquez (the red-head on the left) and Bay Kennish (the brunette on the right) who find out that they were switched at birth. And it cronicles their two familes' efforts to get along and co-exist while trying to get to know their newly-discovered biological children. This situation is awkward and fraught with drama because the two families are VERY different. The Kennishes are a super wealthy WASP nuclear family consisting of John (the dad), Kathryn (the mom), and their teenaged children Toby and Bay. And the Vasquezes are a low-income Puerto Rican family consisting of Regina (the mom), Adriana (the grandma), and Daphne.
This show has one VERY cool element that sets it apart from the dozens of other teen dramas out there: a heavy focus on Deaf Culture. Daphne went deaf at the age of 3. And, while she can read lips and speak well enough to communicate with hearing people, she uses sign language when communicating with her mother and her classmates at the deaf school she attends.
Having a main character in a show like this be deaf is a fantastic way to educate people about sign language, Deaf Culture, and the issues that surround it. Learning sign language is something I've always meant to try; but watching it in action on this show has me wanting to go out and do it RIGHT NOW. Seriously, it makes it look very cool and fun. So Switched at Birth gets major props for that.
The cast for this show is just fantastic all around. Even the douchey characters and whiney little angst-buckets (like Bay) manage to be somewhat likeable thanks to their actors' natural charm. And the fact that all the deaf characters are played by actors who really are hard of hearing and/or deaf themselves adds a lot of authenticity to it. And it helps that the dialogue is well-written, too.
Sadly, Switched at Birth has one HUGE negative that drags it down for me:
***WARNING: POSSIBLE MILD SPOILERS AHEAD***
Just like the-show-that-shall-not-be-named, it starts out strong only to be dragged down in the end by poorly-written romance plots that start up about 3 episodes into it. I swear to God, the two main characters plow through love interests quicker than most people go through toilet paper! This show only has 10 episodes so far; yet there have already been TWO plotlines that involved Bay and Daphne pining after & fighting over the same boy! TWO love triangle storylines in only TEN freakin' episodes!!
It honestly made me sad to see this great, unique show opt to shift it's focus over to the same cliche, teen romance melodrama that every other teen show and terrible drama is currently wallowing in. What's worse is that, just like the-show-that-shall-not-be-named, the lame romance plots sucked up valuable screentime that could have been used to fill up the show's few glaring plot holes.
Honestly, would it have KILLED the ABC Family people to make a show centering around two teenage girls who talk to each other about something other than a penis for more than two episodes in a row!? I LOVED the idea of these two girls being sisters and yet not sisters because they're both in this really bizarre family situation and they have to figure out how to deal with that together. And, to be fair, the show has a few great moments where the girls stop chasing boys long enough to bond with each other and help one another adapt to their new bio-family. But, toward the end of this first season, those moments become few and far between.
Overall, I'd recommend at least checking out the first half of this show if you have Netflix streaming and a few hours to kill. If only for the fascinating peek into Deaf culture. Just prepare yourself for the massive dissapointment that comes when the show screeches to a halt because Bay and Daphne both suddenly realize that they need to have boyfriends in order to feel complete.
This show is about two teenage girls named Daphne Vasquez (the red-head on the left) and Bay Kennish (the brunette on the right) who find out that they were switched at birth. And it cronicles their two familes' efforts to get along and co-exist while trying to get to know their newly-discovered biological children. This situation is awkward and fraught with drama because the two families are VERY different. The Kennishes are a super wealthy WASP nuclear family consisting of John (the dad), Kathryn (the mom), and their teenaged children Toby and Bay. And the Vasquezes are a low-income Puerto Rican family consisting of Regina (the mom), Adriana (the grandma), and Daphne.
This show has one VERY cool element that sets it apart from the dozens of other teen dramas out there: a heavy focus on Deaf Culture. Daphne went deaf at the age of 3. And, while she can read lips and speak well enough to communicate with hearing people, she uses sign language when communicating with her mother and her classmates at the deaf school she attends.
Having a main character in a show like this be deaf is a fantastic way to educate people about sign language, Deaf Culture, and the issues that surround it. Learning sign language is something I've always meant to try; but watching it in action on this show has me wanting to go out and do it RIGHT NOW. Seriously, it makes it look very cool and fun. So Switched at Birth gets major props for that.
The cast for this show is just fantastic all around. Even the douchey characters and whiney little angst-buckets (like Bay) manage to be somewhat likeable thanks to their actors' natural charm. And the fact that all the deaf characters are played by actors who really are hard of hearing and/or deaf themselves adds a lot of authenticity to it. And it helps that the dialogue is well-written, too.
Sadly, Switched at Birth has one HUGE negative that drags it down for me:
***WARNING: POSSIBLE MILD SPOILERS AHEAD***
Just like the-show-that-shall-not-be-named, it starts out strong only to be dragged down in the end by poorly-written romance plots that start up about 3 episodes into it. I swear to God, the two main characters plow through love interests quicker than most people go through toilet paper! This show only has 10 episodes so far; yet there have already been TWO plotlines that involved Bay and Daphne pining after & fighting over the same boy! TWO love triangle storylines in only TEN freakin' episodes!!
It honestly made me sad to see this great, unique show opt to shift it's focus over to the same cliche, teen romance melodrama that every other teen show and terrible drama is currently wallowing in. What's worse is that, just like the-show-that-shall-not-be-named, the lame romance plots sucked up valuable screentime that could have been used to fill up the show's few glaring plot holes.
Honestly, would it have KILLED the ABC Family people to make a show centering around two teenage girls who talk to each other about something other than a penis for more than two episodes in a row!? I LOVED the idea of these two girls being sisters and yet not sisters because they're both in this really bizarre family situation and they have to figure out how to deal with that together. And, to be fair, the show has a few great moments where the girls stop chasing boys long enough to bond with each other and help one another adapt to their new bio-family. But, toward the end of this first season, those moments become few and far between.
Overall, I'd recommend at least checking out the first half of this show if you have Netflix streaming and a few hours to kill. If only for the fascinating peek into Deaf culture. Just prepare yourself for the massive dissapointment that comes when the show screeches to a halt because Bay and Daphne both suddenly realize that they need to have boyfriends in order to feel complete.