‘Switched at Birth,’ a Series Illuminating a World Without Words
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Version 0 of 1. Not all breakthrough television is on a high-profile channel like HBO, and not all of it makes a ratings splash. A case in point: “Switched at Birth,” which begins its fifth and final season on Tuesday on Freeform. It is a series that has shown, consistently and without much fanfare, how to illuminate deaf culture — and, by extension, any other that faces impairments — without being condescending, sensationalizing or preachy. The series is about two families whose daughters, Daphne (Katie Leclerc) and Bay (Vanessa Marano), were, well, switched at birth: Bay ended up being raised by Daphne’s affluent parents, John and Kathryn Kennish (D. W. Moffett and Lea Thompson), and Daphne was raised by Regina Vasquez (Constance Marie), a single mother. The catch: Daphne lost most of her hearing as a young child. When, in the premiere, 15-year-old Bay discovers the mistake while doing a school blood-typing project, the Kennishes meet a biological daughter who communicates largely in sign language. That may sound like the recipe for a lighthearted swapped-identity film along the lines of “The Parent Trap,” and that may have been what some viewers expected when the show had its premiere in June 2011 on a tweener-and-teen-centered channel that was then known as ABC Family. But the show’s creator, Lizzy Weiss, was going for something more substantive. The high aspirations were evident in the tendency to refer to noteworthy paintings for episode titles — the premiere was called “This Is Not a Pipe,” a name drawn from a Magritte work. As for subject matter, the series wasn’t interested in merely providing a surface look at the deaf and hearing-impaired world. Before 20 minutes had passed in the first episode, it had broached the subject of the cochlear implant and why many hearing-impaired people object to it and to the whole notion that deafness is something to be “cured.” A show that might have used its deaf characters for feel-good moments, the way “Glee” sometimes used Artie and his wheelchair, instead signaled that it intended to be more challenging and thought-provoking. And it has been, for more than 90 episodes. It has explored questions like whether putting hearing-impaired students in a separate school for the deaf is isolating and limiting, or protective and empowering. It has noted the obstacles large and small faced by such students — in one episode, Daphne almost burned down her school because, in cooking class, she couldn’t hear the timer that told her when the deep fryer was done. But the series has pulled off the difficult trick of shedding light on the deaf world but not being a de facto documentary about it. The show is, at heart, about relationships, and this being a teenage-centered series, some of them are romantic. When those have involved a hearing character and a deaf one, the results have been far pithier than is normal for preadult dramas, cutting to the heart of what communication is and how much we can learn about another person without words. But the show has also been driven by other relationships, especially the one between Bay and Daphne, who, as Season 5 opens, are traveling together in China and face a crisis. The two mothers, Kathryn and Regina, have also enjoyed a complex and ever-evolving relationship. “Switched at Birth” has done all of this with a cast full of deaf and hearing-impaired actors — in addition to Ms. Leclerc, they include Ryan Lane, Sean Berdy and Marlee Matlin. Some of the show’s hearing stars have learned sign language for their roles, which has had unexpected rewards. “It really deepens your acting to use your hands,” Ms. Thompson told Parade Magazine. “That’s a great acting challenge, and one that I won’t forget.” The series, never a ratings hit, has been off the air for more than a year as Freeform has looked for an opening in its schedule to slip in its final season. Its fans will certainly be glad for one more chance to savor a series that has, in its quiet way, broken down barriers that many viewers didn’t even know were there. |