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Sunday, April 20, 2014

The "Do"s and "Don't"s (Part 1)

During season 3A of Switched at Birth, we observed some things that were so completely amazing and some that just do not quite fit in the whole magic, so we decided to share some thoughts with our readers.


DON'T: We mentioned on our last episode's review that we noticed Emmett's locker had a picture of the Statue of Liberty, the greatest symbol of NY, if not the whole country. But in reference to NY, why would Emmett have a picture of the symbol of NY, if at that point of the story, he had no reason to be wanting to go there, unless it was because of his love for Bay, since Bay is the one who wants to go NY for her art studies? When we first noticed it, it seemed very sweet and amazing how the set designer and/or director and/or writer wanted to show the connection that Emmett still feels for Bay. But we were very sad when, after watching the season again, we noticed that the same locker with the same picture was used as Sharee's locker in episode 10. We do not know Sharee's character that well to be noticing small details like that, but it was very disappointing to see that the thought of Emmett looking up for a trip to NY to see Bay was not the reason why he had that picture. Please, set designers and continuity department, be careful with these details. It does hurt our Bemmett feelings.

Season 3 Episode 11 

Season 3 Episode 10








DO: Also on the last episode of season 3A, we noticed a very special moment that we forgot to mention before. When Tank offers to help Bay with the image search of Mandy, she thanks him signing, as well. It was a very cute gesture of hers. Whether Vanessa did it on purpose or she was just in character and didn't notice, it just shows a great meaning for the fans of the show that either love Bay and Emmett or the Deaf part of it. It shows that signing is already natural for her. It is becoming her language and even without talking with another Deaf person it is still in her mind.

This part though, got us thinking even more about why Tank would not notice that she was very into Emmett still and decide to help her look for the fake Mandy, and even more, why wouldn't he know that leaving her to find out and talk to Emmett alone was not a very good idea, meaning he shouldn't be fighting with her when she is so into helping her ex-boyfriend who is constantly in her thoughts and who he knew was her first choice to rely on, even before they started dating.

DON'T: It really didn't make sense that Matthew situation at school. On episode 3, it was implied that he was expelled from school. Emmett told Daphne if he says something to his mom, Matthew would be expelled, so did Travis to Emmett, and then we see him taking everything out of his locker and being escorted out of the school. Most of the time if the student is just suspended, he doesn't need to empty the locker (maybe escorted depending on the school). So on episode 10, he shouldn't have come back as just suspended. We understand the show wants us to believe or forget about the details of what happen 7 weeks before, but producers and writers need to remember that it gets recorded and we fans do see it over and over and over, we do remember all the details even from the pilot, and this detail is not something every easy to forget. We love Matthew (even if he is way too evil) and any way to bring him back to the show is welcome, but we should get a better reason why he was accepted back to the school than "in one episode he was expelled" and "the other he was suspended". It doesn't make sense and it is not really nice to us fans and we only bring these things up, because we love the show so much.

DO: It was a great pleasure to see Bay signing to Emmett even though she hurt her hand. On episode 6 she tried to sign for Daphne but gave up right away when Daphne said she could read her lips, and after that we don't see her signing to anyone anymore except Emmett. Not because he could not read her lips, because we all know since the beginning of the show Emmett always understood Bay, even before when she was still learning how to sign, by reading her lips, but it looks like Bay would make the effort to try to sign with the left hand for him knowing that this is his language and she seems to need to honor or respect him by "speaking"(signing) his language.

DO & DON'T: We don't want to get into a "shipping" discussion here, but Daphne's decision on Campbell did not make much sense. Of course, we know we can't control our hearts and if she feels stronger feelings for Campbell, he is the one she should be with, however we felt really bad that Jorge is learning her language and can really give himself to her needs and culture. What was the point of the show to make this character be so into her, we don't know yet, but it certainly made us believe that what is in the heart cannot always be explained by the head.

DON'T: Production needs a little bit more props, especially when it comes to Bay's art pieces. On episode 5 while Tank is looking at her pieces, we see a bathtub painting that was actually a gift she gave to Olivia (Cameron's ex-girlfriend) on season 1 episode 15. On the same episode, season 1 episode 15, when Emmett is moving to Cameron's house she also brought in and we assume she gave to Emmett a painting of a woman. That piece is again on Bay's studio on episode 4 when Bay is taking pictures of her art and on 5 when Tank was looking at her paintings. It made us thinking, did she ask for them (Olivia and Emmett) to give back her gifts or did Emmett send it back? It is hard to believe that Emmett sent it back as it would seem like an insult to an artist, and if she asked back it would hurt Emmett 1000 times more to take the small piece of what she gave him back from him. Another painting that is showing too much on the show is one of the unfinished red flowers, she started doing that on episode 13 of season 1 and up until now, season 3A episode 6 she was still doing it, as if she never touched it again since that episode 2 years ago. Come on prop people! Give us new stuff!


Season 3 Episode 6
 Season 1 Episode 13  

Season 3 Episode 5
Season 3 Episode 4   
Season 1 Episode 15

DON'T: Character confusion, please note this is a personal point of view and observation and we are not criticizing the way the writers created the characters:
Marybeth and Travis are dating for a few months, they are both young teenagers, as we all know at that age a new relationship means, kissing and hugging all the time, but even after Marybeth says she loves him to him, they don't even exchange one small kiss. Where is the teen hormones and regular reaction there? By the way, as of season 2 Travis was a virgin, he has been in a solid relationship with her and he is still a virgin? Because if he is not, it is even more expected to have them kissing more and hugging all the time. Let's just say, this relationship is not going well. 

Tank started off as a funny and loose character. He is a college guy who likes to party and have fun, then suddenly he is all too involved with Bay who always expressed a dislike for his type of life. We feel something is missing there, how did he go from one type of character to this complete other in just a few episodes? It was a little understood that he liked Bay a lot more than the usual friend, no usual or casual friend would be listening to her talking about Emmett and Ty, or be waiting to hang out with her after class when he knew she is not even in college yet, but if that was the kind of guy he was, then he started and said some things on the 1st 2 episodes that completely negate the character he is portraying now. Very confusing! 

Sharee is another one that also changed her behavior way too much for such as small period of time. As a person with all her history and situation, years and years living in problems, she may even be a nice person but to change so much in just a couple of months when she is not 24 hours with Daphne to get all the "good" vibes from her is not really understandable. We definitely were waiting for her to cause more problems in school.

DO:  Set designer made it beautifully by including a picture of Emmett in Bay's studio. Why would Bay has a picture of Emmett in her studio on season 3 episode 6 when she and Emmett broke up on season 1 and had been separated ever since? We don't assume anything here but could be that Bay decided to have a picture of him to remind her of how she felt or the things she promised him on episode 4? We do hope so, but whatever the reason is that the picture is there, we are just glad that we can speculate as a good thing for Bay and Emmett.





DON'T: Some things stay in our head as very important scenes for the story line we are following on the show. One of them was how many times Bay and Emmett fought because of Ty, and vice-versa. One great and very important fight for the Bemmett relationship was when Emmett asked Bay to see her emails she got from Ty. It triggered a fight between them that made Bay realize how important their relationship is and that she needs to come clear with Ty about it. The biggest disappointment for Emmett was to see one of Bay's street art (Ax Girl) on an army tank where Ty was working on. It made him so furious to see it that we can only assume that made him blind. That would be the only reason why he wouldn't have noticed the same art on the paper he rolled open in Bay's studio when he was taking picture of her art pieces for her college application. We don't know the reason why that mistake was done. We don't believe that Emmett would forget that detail, but sadly the writers did overlook it. Please don't!
Season 1 Episode 19
Season 3 Episode 4
DO: Many Bemmett fans are rooting for Bay to be pregnant of Emmett from the fact that the time they made love on the last episode, it was unexpected and could be that they were not prepared for it. As we mentioned before a teen pregnancy is one of a great issue that would be discuss in the show if the producers/writers decide to follow it. Among other issues like child abuse and human trafficking, teen pregnancy can cause a great discussion among the viewers and bring an even greater awareness of real issues from life that many people chose not to worry or decided not to see. Like the STD and the depression of war vets was covered on the show, the discussion and point of views of the Deaf community about CI, the story line of having Bay pregnant would definitely cause a huge reaction, but could also bring a huge awareness and instruct and mold the nowadays teens all around the world. We are so in favor of it!

DON'T: A few characters were really missed during season 3A. Cameron Bledsoe (Emmett's father played by Anthony Natale), since the other very missed character was Melody Bledsoe (played by Marlee Matlin), a few episodes that we didn't have Melody we could have seen Cameron as Emmett could have been staying with him for a change. Melody was on the 1st episode, and then she disappeared for 5 episodes re-appearing only on the 7th, and with her the lack of ASL scenes were less and less until she appeared again. Even Emmett's and the other Deaf characters still appearing until episode 4, the ASL scenes were definitely not as much as it used to be, and then again back only on episode 7.

Another very missed character was Angelo Sorrento (played by Gilles Marini). During the shootings we knew Gilles was involved in other projects, but even though he did appear on the show, we definitely were hoping to see more of him around, especially now that his drama has finished. We love a good love story and he and Regina's love is just like Bay and Emmett's. We already mentioned how much Emmett and Angelo have in common. They are romantic, good looking, into shark shows and the kind of guy everyone loves, just like Daphne describes Angelo on episode 9, the same way Bay describes Emmett on episode 11.

Very much missed also was Natalie (played by Stephanie Nogueras). Natalie was Bay's best friend from Carlton since season 2A, yet after season 2B Bay switched to Marybeth and seems to completely forget about Natalie. Some of us really like Natalie and Bay's friendship a lot more than Bay and Marybeth. Marybeth seems too serious and is always making Bay a more common person and judging her judgments about people. She did that with her trying to keep Ty on a safe zone or stay in the country. She did it when Bay took Travis side about him not caring about women figure. She did it when Bay was dating Tank. Although it seems now that she is changing her mind, it doesn't change the fact that she gave Bay a lot of grief for her choices. On the other hands, although Natalie and Bay started off on the wrong track, they did become great friends, they had fun together, they help each other and they support each other. During Valentine’s Day, Natalie helped lift Bay's humor up at the party and about Noah, Natalie invited Bay to participate on the Drama Club doing what she likes to do most (art and painting) and Natalie was on Bay's side when the discussion against Hearing students arose during the "Take Back Carlton" revolution. Natalie is a great friend for Bay and we did miss her a lot.

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