Hello beautiful people of the internet!
I present to you my latest of obsessions, Switched at birth!! (Watch it HERE)
SAB is a FANTASTIC show about 2 families, who's daughters were switched at birth. At 16, Bay (dark hair) finds out during a school blood test that her blood type is completely different from the rest of the family, resulting in a family DNA test, proving that Bay is not biologically a Kennish. In comes Daphne, the Kennish's biological daughter (red head) and her mum Regina. Both families start to get to know each other and adapt to the news, while the parents grasp the fact that they have raised the wrong child for the past 16 years.
What separates this show from most is that half the Cast/characters are Deaf! The story follows Daphne who is deaf due to contracting Meningitis as a toddler and through Daphne we are introduced to many deaf or hard of hearing characters like her best friend Emmett and his mother Melody, who is also friends with Regina. This encourages the rest of the cast to learn sign language (ASL) the show presenting many scenes that are completely done in ASL (with subtitles), One episode in season two is almost completely in ASL.
I'm not going to lie, this cutie^ is the reason i'm so invested! I love an adorable male lead and what makes Emmett (Sean Berdy) so fantastic is how well he conveys all his emotions without sound, Emmett, unlike Daphne, isn't at all Oral, relying solely on lip reading and ASL. One of my favourite relationship builds during the 1st season is between Emmett and Bay where Emmett relies on some creative charade skills in order to communicate with Bay, who doesn't yet understand ASL. eBay (or Bemmett) is my favourite ship in the show, They're so organic and sweet and you spend all your time routing for them as you watch them break down the language barrier!
My obsessive fangirl love for Emmett has also inspired me to learn ASL which you can learn HERE. ASL is such a fun language to learn and i've wanted to learn a new language since forever, I was always held back by my self consciousness about the way my accent sounds and how I can't even attempt to roll my R's, so it's super appealing to me that ASL is a silent language!
I'm hoping to Master ASL and maybe expand my knowledge of Auslan (since i'm Australian and it would make more sense!)
Shows like this don't pop up everyday and i'm so glad that I stumbled upon it, Deaf culture isn't very apparent in my current bubble and the closest i've come to seeing a deaf person on television was on Playschool. SAB is ABC families top rated show, which only proves how badly we need television and media to push the boundaries of societies norm. I'm so glad that ABC family could take this true story and minority and turn it into a compelling and heart felt show that also educates the public. Seriously go give it a watch! Next on my list is The Fosters!
Tell me if you love it! until next time x.
PS. the first sentence i taught myself in ASL was 'I like Tacos'
