I liked both Cook and Beemer as Shawn. And I liked both Kirstin and Martha as Belle but I preferred Kristin as the younger Belle and Martha as the mother. I really can’t picture Kirstin with a young daughter.
You know, I think sometimes writers (or producers, whomeover is responsible for stuff like this) really make a huge mistake when they create characters for a show that are so closely related to the main characters and then write them out. It’s so very difficult to maintain credibility when important events occur and we don’t see them come back to town. There are only so many excuses you can use. I don’t know what the solution is but it could be made much better if they would at least refer to them more often.
A good example right now is Philip who is as close as Chicago yet doesn’t even come home for holidays. How realistic is that?