Battle Of ABC Family's Crazy Moms

There are two kinds of hourlong dramas on ABC Family: the ones about teen criminals, like Pretty Little Liars and Twisted, and the ones about nice families being nice, like my beloved Switched At Birth and The Fosters. But even nice families being nice aren't immune to run-ins with secondary characters' problems, and in a crazy (no pun intended) coincidence, both Monday-night time-slot neighbours have introduced new friends who have mentally ill mothers. On Switched At Birth, Daphne's frenemy-turned-friend Sharee is trying to keep the secret that her mom, Yvette, is dangerously unstable; and on The Fosters, Mariana's new love interest Zac is trying to convince himself that his mother, Amanda, is just "eccentric" as opposed to "clearly bipolar, at least."

Since it's literally impossible not to compare them side by side...let's compare them side by side.

Which did it first?

Yvette first appeared (and appeared not to be entirely well) in the Switched episode that aired February 10. Amanda didn't show up to bark at Zac from her car until the March 3 episode.

Winner: Switched At Birth.

Which mom's craziness is the greater departure from her best-known prior mom role?

Both Erica Gimpel, who plays Yvette, and Romy Rosemont, who plays Amanda, made their mom bones (hee hee) playing kind, steady, upstanding moms. Rosemont was Finn's mother, and later Kurt's stepmother, on Glee; Gimpel was Alicia Fennel, mother to Wallace, on Veronica Mars. Granted, Alicia had that whole flap where her ex-husband came back into her life to embarrass her and claim he was Wallace's biological father, but that didn't make her any less of a good mother to him. Plus she dated Keith, and what could be more sane than that?

Winner: Tie.

Not to be indelicate, but...which show's mom is crazier?

Let me first say that I am not a doctor; I just watch a lot of TV. I guess that Yvette would seem to be the more ill based on the fact that she totally stabbed a doctor, but one could make the argument that she felt herself to be threatened by him -- she was tricked into seeing him, and believed that his evaluation might end with Sharee becoming a ward of the state. And while we see her cycling through manic and depressive phases, the cycle appears to be long. Amanda's "mood swings" seem to swing erratically from moment to moment -- serving dinner and then asking who made it; cozying up to Mariana and then calling her later the same evening to call her a whore. And in the latest episode, she seems to confuse Zac with his father, or some other man who wronged her romantically? YIKES.

Winner: The Fosters.

Which mom's illness has the worse effect on her child?

Yvette gets arrested for...like, almost killing a guy, which you'd think would have the greater effect on her daughter, though we haven't heard that much about Yvette since then, and Sharee's biggest problem seems to be keeping her grades up so she can remain eligible to stay on the field hockey team. Zac's issue with Amanda is, so far, merely that he's embarrassed by her inexplicable behaviour, but since he's still in denial about how ill she actually is, it feels like he's going to have the harder path toward acceptance. But it's close.

Winner: The Fosters.

Which storyline had the more satisfying resolution?

It feels mean to say it's "satisfying" for Yvette to have gotten arrested, but at least it came to a conclusion where Sharee will (presumably) now not have to cover for her anymore. Amanda's plotline is still ongoing, so by default...

Winner: Switched At Birth.

The Victor

Winner: Even though we still don't know how it's going to end, I have to give it to The Fosters. Amanda is seriously unpredictable, and I feel like it's building to something really catastrophic and juicy in next week's season finale. What if she stabs a Foster? It could totally happen, there are only like nine dozen of them!!!