Switched at Birth

• Channel: FreeForm

• First episode: June 6th, 2011

• Last episode: April 11th, 2017

• Cast: Vanessa Marano (Bay), Katie Leclerc (Daphne), Lea Thompson (Kathryn), Constance Marie (Regina), D. W. Moffett (John)

• Awards: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1758772/awards

Switched at Birth is a FreeForm tv show that tells the story about two girls who got switched by a hospital mistake when they were still at maternity. Bay is the biological daughter of Regina Vasquez and Angelo Sorrento, but she was accidentally raised by John Kennish and his wife Kathryn. Daphne should have grown up in the Kennish's rich house, but instead she was raised by her single mom Regina and her grandmother in a poor neighborhood, where she went deaf when she was three since she got meningitis. When the truth comes out, the two families start to live together and try to compensate the missing moments through all these years.

This show is about family. Throughout 5 seasons, the writers managed to tackle the most complex relationships that people living together and loving each other can have. The story about a girl that grew up thinking her dad abandoned her because she became deaf, a teenager with identidy problems who never felt she belong to her family, a single mom that had to struggle every day to feed her child, a man that spent years thinking his ex-wife had an affair and that the child he raised wasn't his, a housewife with a hidden depression, an ex-baseball star that has to find his new path can seem like a super especific situation, but, believe or not, it's very easy to identify to at least one of these crazy characters.

The two main charters, Bay and Daphne, start the show at highschool. Because of that, the first three seasons talk about teen stuff, such as solid friendships, independence wishes, firsts loves and sexuality experiences, and so on. The last two seasons are more about adult problems, with them moving out of the mansion, starting a career and going to college. However, there is an additional topic to all of this: communication. The fact that Daphne is deaf may be the thing that makes the show one of the most interesting I've ever watched.

The evolution of the interaction between deaf and hearing people in the show are just amazing to watch. John and Kathryn, for example, took a lot of episodes to give up on the idea to pay for a surggery that could make Daphne hear. What at the moment seems like a logical thing to do became an unnecessary procedure as the Kennishes and the fans of the serie got their eyes opened for this whole unknown culture that not hearing people have. Even with Daphne being able to read lips, all member of her disfuncional family started to learn ASL without her even have to ask for it, and Bay even changed to Carlton, a deaf school, to learn more about what would have her life been if she hadn't been switched. All these actions can be associated with their love for Daphne but also their new love for the deaf culture.

There is a lot things that made me love the deaf culture. How they make friends all over the world, the sense of community that it brings, this beautiful vision deaf people have about the society and their amazing language are what makes this show so great. One of my favorite episodes to watch is episode 9 from season 2, in which the watchers are putting in a deaf position as they hear no sounds during entire 40 minutes. The producers said the point was to make hearing people really understand a little of how the deaf world works, and it definitely reached that goal on me.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/8e4901_5bd6bbabc66f42efba62f2e932852477/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Last but not least, the switch plot is also very interesting. In my point of view, every character was affected by the hospital mistake, but two of them seemed to suffer the most: Daphne and Regina. When Daphne was three years old, the man who raised her abandoned Regina, only because Daphne was not like him physically and he thought her wife had cheating on him. Regina had no idea what was going on but she knew she hadn't had an affair, so she did a DNA test and discovered Daphne wasn't even her daughter. But, instead of switch the girls back, she decides to keep Daphne for her and Bay with her rich family. It may seem like a selfish decision, but the fans know it was the right one after watch the parallel universe in episode 15 from season 2, one of the best specials in this show. Furthermore, the story of a girl growing up without a dad and thinking it was her fault, and a mom that have to make a huge effort not to go after her biological daughter is a really interesting plot to watch.

The Kennishes structure was also affected in some little points, I mean, it's literally impossible to live the same life after you discover that it wasn't even supposed to be your life. But they always had this perfect conditions, a excellent reputation, no need to fight for money or anything. I guess the point that make them open they're eyes to the fact that not everyone has the same amount of money as they was when Ty, Bay's boyfriend, had to go serve the USA army to make money for living. After that, the "royal family" started to appreciate more all their privileges, and Bay started to see how superficial and empty her life was. For that reason, in addition to her love for American Sign Language, she decided to make a big life changing and move to a last fancy and deaf school, where she made real friends and spent more time with her "sister" Daphne.

Therefore, if you are still wondering if you should watch Switched at Birth, don't. It is definitely one of the most rich shows ever made, talking about extremely important themes such as deafness, alcoholism, sexism, homophobia, rape, abortion, kidnapping, organ transplantation, down syndrome, racism, depression, suicide, and so much other things that I'm probably forgetting. It's literally impossible not to learn something from this serie and I can ensure it will make you see the world around you differently, as it did to me.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/8e4901_a4e2eb47b6044cd9b9ab2d2706253d99/720p/mp4/file.mp4

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