Perhaps the most profound evolution is the extension of the blended family beyond blood and marriage law into the realm of chosen kinship . Think of (2017). The protagonist’s struggle with her biological mother is the A-plot, but her survival is the B-plot: her best friend Julie, her boyfriend Kyle, and even the stern nun at her Catholic school. They form a "performative blended family"—a network of allies she assembles to survive her actual blended home (where her father is a gentle, depressed enabler).