Guilty summer pleasures...
So I've been watching Switched at Birth. Every once in a blue moon that show comes along that really shouldn't be up my alley, but for some reason it just endears me. Flight 29 Down was a good example. And now this summer it's Switched at Birth. There really is no reason for me to like this show, and yet I do. I mean, Marlee is on it (yaaaay!!), so I'd have been watching regardless of whether I liked it, but I find that I really do like it. I saw the cute girls in the promo and went 'huh, interesting premise!', gave it a shot, and it endeared itself to me almost instantly. The girls are sweet, Lea Thompson as Kathryn is lovely, Constance Marie as Regina is gorgeous, and Marlee is so much yay!!!
So far it hasn't offended me, which is good, and like I said, the premise is intriguing. And I have to admit that as someone hoping to be an adoptive parent in the future, I'm interested in the portrayal and handling of the bio/non-bio parents aspect (even though this situation is different - but TV doesn't have a very good track record of handling the concept of adoption - Yes, I'm looking at you, that movie with Audrey Hepburn where your brother finds out you're not biologically his sister and then *asks you to marry him!*). I also like that it has a more extensive portrayal of the Deaf community. I've been a fan of Marlee for years and years, but usually she's on shows predominantly set in hearing environments, and then her character is there with her interpretor, but this show nicely mixes speech and subtitled signing.
Of course, another part of me giving it a shot was because the two girls had a relation to each other that had nothing to do with boys or the usual teenage drama, but it can't have taken more than half an hour before they started making eyes at each other's boy toys, and sure enough, a couple episodes later that's the main point of of conflict between them. But wonderfully enough, they move past it pretty quickly, and move on to other things. That's another thing I love about this show, it doesn't dwell. Things come up, dealt with or ignored, they move on, sometimes they crop up again, and whatever, but when there's a storyline that bugs me I don't have to be too worried that it's gonna take up all of the foreseeable screen time.
I've been looking for the femslash angle, naturally, but it's kinda hard! Marlee/Constance Marie sure is an easy on the eyes pairing, and perhaps the easiest one to come about as well. I've been trying (and trying and trying and trying) to find a way for Regina/Kathryn, but damn, those ladies don't make it easy. Also, I have a hard time seeing Kathryn cheating on Mr Bay's Dad (can't for the life of me remember his name). It'd be way easier to ship the girls, but they're only 16 so I... honestly don't care much about shipping them. But I suppose it could be cute. We'll see.