Family Drama..."Switched At Birth"

Switched at Birth (2011)

TV-PG

Starring Katie Leclerc, Vanessa Marano, Constance Marie, D.W. Moffett, Lea Thompson, Lucas Grabeel, Sean Berdy,

Created by Lizzy Weiss

The Story:

When Bay Kennish (Marano) takes a simple blood sample for a high school science project, she inadvertently discovers that her parents (Moffett & Thompson) couldn't possibly be her biological parents. That's when they learn of Daphne (Leclrec), their real daughter who's been raised by a single mom (Marie) after their babies were... wait for it...

Switched At Birth!

So there's the premise for this ABC Family / Free Form original series that is now available to stream on Netflix.

Ah, but there is one catch: Daphne is deaf!

So in addition to a series with a dichotomy of the haves vs. the have nots, there is also the struggle to cope with learning that their daughter is hearing impaired and trying to get to know her while trying to figure out how best to communicate with her.

And for the first half of the first season, this show was so very interesting and they seemingly came up with one cliffhanger after the next.

Then the season kept trudging on, for 30 episodes.

I think they really should have split the seasons in half, but that's just my thoughts.

As it wore on, the show seemed to stray away from the original and emotional concept of getting to know family that you haven't ever met for 16 years yet feel already emotionally attached to.

It made some powerful moments in the series, especially as Bay seemingly gets lost in the shuffle as her parents fawn all over their new daughter, and her real mom never really seems interested in her life.

Quite sad really, and you feel for her as the season wears along.

But again, the 2nd half turns very much into a soap opera (even more than it already sounds like!) with naturally romance after romance until we finally get to the much ballyhooed trial against the hospital for negligence.

It gets seemingly lost in the shuffle for most of the season, then is quick and over, and the season STILL isn't finished yet.

Naturally, my grade diminished as the season wore on, and after we finished, nobody really had a desire to move on to see what happens next, as there are 7 seasons and counting.

I'll blame it on viewer fatigue more than anything else. While we never binged, maybe a good week between episodes is precisely what we needed.

The cast is great, and the story itself, when not in the ridiculously absurd, can be quite compelling.

Final Grade: B