Adam Lenhardt
Senior HTF Member
Did anybody watch this? Usually I can't stand ABC Family shows, but I thought this one was better than average. The premise is typically preposterous, but the family member casting is good and I have a family drama gap in my TV viewing schedule since "Parenthood" wrapped for the season. The setup would really allow them to explore cultural lines, race lines, and especially socioeconomic lines. I thought Vanessa Marano was particularly strong, as the hearing daughter who should have grown up as a lower middle class -- possibly Deaf -- Puerto Rican girl. The pilot spent a lot of time exploring how Daphne related to the Kennishes, but I was more fascinated with how Bay related to Regina. Because Daphne defines herself by her relationship to the Deaf World, being switched at birth isn't really the root of her Otherness. By contrast, Bay didn't have anything so obvious to pin her Otherness on. It's almost like being adopted, but without the certainty of knowing you were adopted.