Loveday Writing

I think this was the best episode of Speechless so far. I believe this for many reasons. The structure of the episode was outstanding, with the practice runs neatly and humorously kicking off all three acts of the episode. The choice to show character development in all three of the children was an equally smart choice, as until now the

The premise of this episode is summed up perfectly by a speech that Maya makes to her brother-in-law, Billy: “We’re so focused on the fact that you don’t understand our problems, we didn’t even consider that you might actually have problems of your own.” I’ve always felt that each Speechless episode focuses on one of many aspects of a family

This episode explored the possibilities of JJ dating. I found the meet-cute of JJ and Claire (McKaley Miller) first interacting under hostile circumstances, only for them to grow to like each other to be cliche. However I appreciated that the cliche itself had a JJ flavour to it through the temporary disabled parking permit, sarcastic school tour, and the physiotherapy

This is the first episode providing an insight on how the DiMeos celebrate holidays. Of all the holidays that the writers could have used to show the comedic side of a family with a special needs child, I felt that Halloween was the perfect one. The costumes, trick or treating, haunted houses and so on, were all incorporated throughout the

This is the first episode that explores both sides of independence in the DiMeo family–JJ’s independence from his family and the DiMeo family’s independence from the concessions they have to make for JJ. The A story of JJ’s day of freedom and the special treatment that he and Kenneth receive was well done. The exploration of special treatment, and the

So the pilot established Speechless‘ premise and characters, and the previous episode established JJ and Kenneth’s relationship, now this episode is establishing JJ’s friendships with the other students at his mainstream school. Again JJ’s friendships with the popular kids and his sense of humour in his interactions with them showed another side of him as a typical teenage boy. I

Now that the pilot is done, the show can now focus on character exploration. This episode focused on the major choices made by the characters in the pilot–moving house and Kenneth being hired as JJ’s aide. The A story of Kenneth’s first day as JJ’s aide was absolutely spectacular. From the beginning where we see Kenneth making a rather big