I was expecting to hate this show - I wanted to hate it. I fought all my life to be treated as an equal, and then some idiot decides to portray a blind woman as a drunken, self-pitying mess who sleeps with married strangers and exploits her disability to cut the line at the drug store? Gee, thanks...
So I was very surprised to find I didn't hate it - not even a little. Let's start with the things this show does well - it's funny. Not laugh-out-loud funny - because we all know it's rude to laugh at the blind, right? - but quietly funny. Murphy's roommate (Brooke Markham) proves that a woman doesn't have to be tall and skinny to be beautiful. Kudos to Hollywood for finally accepting what the rest of us have known all along. I love the neurotic mom, whose entire identity is wrapped up in being the mother of a disabled child, because even though the non-disabled world may not realize it, that's a thing. And I love that we are finally seeing a blind person who is not a saint, a victim or a superhero.
I've only seen the first episode, so I don't know if Murphy's bereavement will be the catalyst that shocks her back into the real world, but I sure hope so because this could be a good show if it follows a young woman's journey from someone who is defined by her limitations to someone who can see beyond her limits.
