The Fosters

So, remember WAY back last year when I asked for show recommendations? No, not the anime recommendations, even earlier?

I went through those recommendations, and it turns out the only one of those series I have free, legal access to is The Fosters. So guess what I gave the three episode test?

And yeah, it passed. At this point I'm completely caught up on both the show and the web series. It's pretty good! Standard-issue family melodrama, of course, but still surprisingly good for something airing on ABC Family that isn't Whose Line Is It Anyway reruns.

The basic premise is the adventures of a fairly non-standard family: two lesbian moms (one white, one black), the bio-son (who sucks) of the white mom from a previous marriage, and an adopted pair of Hispanic twins (one boy, one girl). In the first episode they take in an additional pair of Troubled (tm) foster kids, a teen girl and her little brother (who is the best character).

Most of it is, as I said, standard-issue family and teen melodrama, but where it occasionally shines is in the way it shows how the political is personal. Issues like gay rights, the flaws in the foster system, and immigration law impact this family and the people around them directly. Rather than pontificating opposing political philosophies, the show (usually) refrains from preaching and just shows the direct impacts on the characters of these issues, and how their lives are distorted by the unfairnesses inherent in our society and laws. Also Jude is legitimately adorable, which is hard to pull off!

So that's one recommendation down, umpteen to go!