Television Tuesday: "Baylen Out Loud," is a Throwback to the Less Exploitative TLC, I'm Here for It

TLC loves to do reality shows that seem to be delighted to exploit the subjects. Like a surreal modern-day, "Freak Show," we watch as couples on a K-1 Visa decide whether to get married or not in between big arguments/cultural misunderstandings and witness 600-pound people showering and overeating before (hopefully) getting some help. We tune in and watch as ex-Amish struggle to acclimate to modern society, or gawk at Roma people getting in fights during, "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding," as if every Roma wedding has to live up to a stereotype of a brawl breaking out. Hence, it is weirdly a bit of a throwback for The Learning Channel to have a show that seems strangely educational and less exploitive than you'd expect with, "Baylen out Loud."

"Baylen Out Loud," follows a 21-year-old woman named Baylen Dupree. She has an extreme form (her words) of Tourettes Syndrome. There are different variations of the neurological disease that can involve tics, yelling, swearing, and so forth. Baylen has most iterations and suffers from OCD. The show doesn't wallow in her disease, however, instead showcasing how she lives as normal and productive a life as possible with her disease. Unlike some TLC programs, you aren't tuning in to feel sorry for Baylen or leer at her when she's engaging in a bunch of tics at once. She clearly has tics, but continues to work at handling them and uses her Tourettes as a way to educate everyone about the disease and the challenges she faces from it. It's a shockingly positive show in some ways, focused on Baylen's successes as much as her struggles. It also helps that Baylen is very funny, smart, and kind--we root for her. 

Baylen's family is on the show too, and they clearly care about he and love her a lot. Baylen's boyfriend, Colin, also features prominently and unlike some TLC shows that try to inject drama into everything, their relationship appears pretty solid and loving, occasional argument aside (all couples have squabbles, however). "Baylen Out Loud," puts Baylen, the person, first and her Tourettes second. That is something a lot of TLC shows seem to forget to do when they focus on the strange addiction as opposed to the person with an addiction, and so forth. I'd recommend, "Baylen Out Loud," to anyone interested in learning about Tourretes and/or who remembers when the docu-series on TLC used to be less about the shock value and more about being interesting and informative.

5 out of 5 Stars for the Series so Far.