ollibear

I feel as though Toby's story has reached its natural conclusion. Little boy grown up.

But even though we've gone on the journey with Toby, we haven't. We've missed all of his character's introspection and personal growth. We definitely saw an immature young man in the beginning. And now, we see a young man who has been thrown a curve ball by life (unexpected pregnancy). I'm sure, given his raising that Toby will rise to the occasion. But we will never explore any of the details of how he got there, of what makes his journey special or unique.

I'm always telling my middle school students to avoid telling the reader things in their writing, instead show the reader. That's what the writers of Switched at Birth need to do, too. They need to show us these things. It's not worth my time watching Toby's story if they don't.

~AnastasiaGrey~

Yeah I think Toby story defintely had a decent ending to it.

ollibear

Right. Toby's story came full circle. As viewers, though, we did not have much time to spend with his character to be able to see what makes him unique.

The writers could have just as easily said: "Boy with good heart has difficulty accepting responsibility until an accidental pregnancy forces him to take stock of his life and become an adult." That's all we really saw. I don't feel as though I know Toby any better than the person described in that sentence.

~AnastasiaGrey~

Yeah so true and he also grew up a lot.

ollibear

I wish we had seen more of Toby's story.

~AnastasiaGrey~

Yeah me too

ollibear

Why did the writers drop Toby's gambling story, set up perfectly in Season 1?

Bay and Daphne both knew about it. Regina knew. John and Kathryn were in denial.

Things like that don't go away so easily. It could have been an interesting story for Toby AND for Regina. It could have made Regina's character much more likable and human.

Ditto if Regina had been able to help Simone with her alcoholism. Regina needed a story like that, instead of a new boyfriend du jour every season. Yuck!

Speaking of helping people with their alcoholism. Why isn't anyone worried about Bay? Not only did she drink herself into oblivion at a college dorm party, but Regina knows that two months later, Bay was doing straight tequila body shots in Mexico.

Wouldn't Regina be worried about Bay, considering she knows her daughter drank herself into a full-on black out and then proceeded to do body shots off of Travis, on a college trip to Mexico with Melody?

Regina, of Season 1, would have said more to Bay than "Totally understandable." She would have been concerned that someone with a history of alcoholism in her family was doing body shots for fun, only a couple of months after becoming black-out drunk.

REGINA: I hear Emmett showed up to surprise Melody.

BAY: Yeah...

REGINA: Rumor has it there were body shots and a fist fight involved? And um... A texting incident with his new girlfriend. Oh, boy.

BAY: Not that it's an excuse, but... I think just knowing he moved on so quickly, it kind of messed with me.

REGINA: Totally understandable. Do you think that maybe it's time for you to do the same?

It's a dropped storyline, and because of that, Regina's reaction seems insincere to me.

girl under the floor

I didn't like the gambling story line, but since it was already there, I do believe they should/could have done more with it.

Now I would have loved to see more of Toby's story in general, especially his adult life.
My main issue with the show has always been that it's to teenager-y. That it didn't only start out that way, but it stayed that way.
I enjoyed the Bay/Emmett relationship, but I could have done with a Lot of less boyfriend drama (especially for Daphne). And then when they did go darker / more mature, I felt like most things weren't really executed that well.

But; keep in mind here that I've only watched everything once (except for S1&2, I re-watched those, still have to get on with the rest) so I might / probably feel different after a re-watch (I usually do )

ollibear

As much stress as Toby experienced, due to his family's preoccupation with the switch, his own lack of direction in life, his divorce, I'd have been happy if the writers just showed Toby facing the temptation from time to time. The writers didn't need to resolve his gambling storyline or even bring it to a head. Often, addictions are not resolved in real life. Instead, they remain an undercurrent of potential trouble, always out there on the horizon, waiting. That's all I needed to see. It's a shame that the idea was dropped by the writers, as if it never existed.

Me, too. How could the writers not understand that the core cast is more interesting than the guest stars they keep parading across our screens?


That's true. With the beginning of Season 3 and the girls' senior year of high school, the show did go darker, and it wasn't executed well. Luckily, the writers hit their stride again in Season 4, and the execution was better. But then, the writers chose to go so dark with certain storylines, and they refrained from including a balance of lighthearted happiness in other places, that it became difficult for me to watch the show without feeling hopeless.

Daphne's drama, both her boyfriend drama and her criminal activity, sucked the life out of the show for me. I stuck with Daphne through Chef Jeff, and even through Jace, but after that, Daphne lost me. I didn't care about her trials and tribulations with Campbell and Jorge or Nacho. By the time Mingo appeared, I was already numb to all things Daphne. I just did not care anymore. The writers lost me, after Jace. Daphne become a character that I was forced to tolerate, so I could hopefully enjoy the rest of the show.

I wish Daphne had turned to Emmett, after her fiasco with Jace, or even as late as after Angelo's death. That could have provided some interesting tension between Daphne and Bay.

At the time, I loved that Bay was there for Emmett, after his catfishing ordeal with Matthew, but knowing now, how little the writers chose to do with Bay and Emmett's story, I wish that Daphne had been the one to help Emmett through the catfishing, and Bay had remained in a relationship with Tank, feeling left out of Daphne and Emmett's friendship.

That would have grounded Daphne's character. Or maybe Bay could have remained the one to be there for Emmett during the catfishing, but Daphne could have grown closer to Toby, after her fiasco with Jace. Daphne's character needed something more than Jorge and Campbell to keep me caring about her. She wasn't a strong enough character for me to enjoy her story out there on her own. Daphne's story became tedious and trifling.

Do you think you might rewatch before Season 5 premieres in January? I think I will watch the series again. I have some house cleaning to do before Tuesday, but I am hoping to rewatch some of the episodes this summer. I want to see if it feels different to binge watch than it did waiting for the episodes to appear one at a time.

Maybe Seasons 3 and 4 will be more enjoyable for me, without the wait in between episodes.

I watched Season 1A (episodes 1-10) and Season 1B (episodes 11-22) for the first time, as a binge in one weekend. They were the most enjoyable episodes of all for me. I wonder if that is because the episodes are intrinsically better than the others, or if it is because I binged them. Does binge-watching make that big of a difference?

girl under the floor

I don't know if it's the actual binge itself that makes a re-watch different or just the fact that you have more perspective.

I wish it wasn't so, but I totally agree with you on Daphne. She really did become someone to just tolerate, wasting precious screen time that could've been spent on better things

Watching it again does make it more bearable though, I know what to expect and when it'll be over, so I'm not constantly annoyed by it ever dragging on.

I will definitely re-watch the rest. I don't know when exactly, but certainly not sooner than a month from now I'll start season 3, pick up where I left off.

ollibear

Yes! I want to like Daphne, too. She's half the TV series. It's sad, and I am not sure what the writers were thinking when they made her character so unrelatable. Daphne isn't even someone I can love to hate. She's just unlikable. It's weird. I sort of wish that the writers would have made Daphne obviously evil. I suppose that would change the genre of the TV series, though. But it would be so much more interesting than what we currently have with Daphne.

I'll try to be ready to start Season 3 with you, when you re-watch it. That'll be fun!

girl under the floor

That would be fun.

Totally agree with this sentence of yours:
Daphne isn't even someone I can love to hate. She's just unlikable.

~AnastasiaGrey~

Because they stop giving us reason to not care for her.

ollibear

Yep! I cannot figure out what the writers have been thinking, by making so many of the characters unlikable. Ugh!

~AnastasiaGrey~

They plain got lazy