Judy Clark

I got completely gripped by this series and initially thought it was an interesting character study with both the main characters flawed. It also took on issues of race and difference which I thought added an extra layer of complexity and interest. Towards the end, however, it all started to fall apart and the final episode was a huge disappointment, revealing that it was just a poorly done portrayal of white privilege. Elena was an irritating, superficial and and meddling character accurately described as a narcissist, who was struggling to understand her lesbian daughter. Mia was equally irritating but I was intrigued to know what had happened to her to make her so scornful to and distrustful of all white people. No reason it seems, and it’s revealed that she had a relatively middle-class upbringing so it was difficult to see this as a class or privilege reaction. And then there was Mia’s fierce support of Bebe because she was May Ling’s biological mother. Like others have said, this didn’t make a lot of sense when it turned out that Mia had stolen her own daughter (Pearl) from the Ryans. As I understood it she was a surrogate mother and so was she even Pearl’s biological mother? So again, I was a bit confused about the point this was making, or whether it was just hypocrisy. The five children seemed to come across well. Whilst Lexie appeared to be a mini version of Elena, the others appeared to over-ride any issues of race which might have been an interesting theme had the overall point of the series been clearer. No, very sadly this turned into a disaster that appeared to have bitten off more than it could chew. It ended with the lives of all the privileged white people in tatters while Bebe has stolen back her baby and Mia and Pearl resolved their differences and were heading off to a new life. I’m sensing from others that the book was a lot better.