Review: The Fosters

BY SAVANNAH KEYSER

In this day and age, it is really important for entertainment media to be representative of the population, but that doesn’t mean that all shows and movies truly show the amount of representation that they should and it’s pretty rare to find a TV that has a diverse cast.

“The Fosters” is one of the few shows that has a very diverse cast that is representative of many different groups of people.

Not only does “The Fosters” focus on a family of adopted children (which is not often seen on television), many of its main characters are members of the LGBT community as well as many of them being people of color. There continues to be a lack of representation of minorities such as these, and many others, but “The Fosters” seems to be one of the most progressive shows that continually gets more and more diverse as the show goes on.

Perhaps one of the least represented groups in media are people who are transgender. They suffer from one of the worst stigmas against any group of minority.

“The Fosters” has sought to normalize this particular group, along with all the other minorities, and has tried to show that there is nothing wrong with being trans and that it is just the way some people are born. They have had two trans characters throughout the show, which doesn’t seem like a lot and while there should be more, two is better than the shows that don’t have any.

“The Fosters” touches on issues that trans people endure such as not being accepted by their families, being completely misgendered by those around them, and many others.

One of the main storylines of the show focuses on one of the main characters, Callie, who spent much of her life in the foster care system and knows first hand that the system is messed up and needs to be reformed. She has endured all sorts of problems that many kids in the foster care system also go through, such as being separated from her sibling, being placed with a foster family who doesn’t take care of her, and being taken advantage of by her foster family. She works hard to bring light to the situation and to take action in reforming it; these issues are based off of real world situations that happen to real children in the foster care system. It brings light to the fact that our foster care system is broken and it does need to be fixed.

“The Fosters” also focuses on the struggles that adolescents face when discovering who they are. It deals with topics such as first love, sexuality, peer pressure, bullying, finding your voice, and so many other things that teenagers go through everyday.

In the long run, The Fosters is a great show for people of all ages, but it is the ideal show for teenagers.

It has a great story line that doesn’t ever get old, the writers are constantly adding new material to keep the viewers engaged, the characters are real and relatable, and it has done a great job of creating diverse characters played by diverse actors.

Featured photo by The Fosters