I'm not normally a television reviewer, but since I introduced this show last year (Who says we have no sense of humor?), I've been following it in the news and thought it might be time for an update.
Amy Fox is a transgender person who has just released the pilot episode of the new sitcom, The Switch for Trembling Void Studios. The show has a broadcast agreement with a network in Canada. It is currently fundraising in order to continue producing episodes. Set in Vancouver, the series stars Julie Vu as Sü, who Fox says will be the first trans actor to play the lead on television.
In the pilot, Sü comes out at work, is immediately fired, and is subsequently evicted.
As she tries to rebuild her life, she becomes surrounded by a zany group of roommates and friends, including several trans characters also portrayed by trans actors.
Fox, who also portrays the character Chris, believes the series could push transgender representation on television forward fifteen years. All the transgender characters in the show are portrayed by transgender actors.
The Switch is a transgender, magic-realist comedy, one that delights in pushing the envelope and in holding a queer & quirky mirror up to our own lives.
And at the heart of it all is Sü, a trans woman trying to rebuild her life. But the show’s not just about her. It’s about her roommate Chris who assassinates oil executives for carbon offsets. It’s about her friend and electrologist Sam, who is incidentally a sorceress. It’s about all the weird, human, and compelling people who enter Sü’s life.
Here's the trailer:
In televised fiction, transgender characters seem to be the new hip, token, topical minority. This representation lacks a lot of creativity, with trans people standing for a narrow (and often tragic) rehash of the issue. The Switch will show us dealing with things that have little to do with being transgender.
And when trans issues are the focus of an episode, it will not be the same old story of victimhood, but resistance to a variety of attacks on our dignity.
--Fox
The Kickstarter campaign to raise the remaining $16,812 of their goal is
here.
The theme song is Tear Down the Wall by Kieran Strange: