The Fosters (2013)

The Fosters is an ABC Family drama about a modern, diverse family in San Diego, California. It seems to go out of its way to be so different that it has gone down a checklist of what they could include to be as far from traditional as possible. Lesbians? Check. Interracial lesbians? Check. Interracial lesbians raising foster children? Check. Everyone is mostly cool with it including the ex-husband who fathered the one biological kid in the group. Despite this lean towards the non-traditional, it still gets caught up in typical soap opera tropes at times which is a shame because it actually shines when using the setup it has to explore more exotic story lines.

There is an ensemble cast, but the plot mostly follows protagonist Callie; a teenage girl who has become hardened by years in the foster care system. She is released from juvenile detention into the care of the titular Fosters and struggles to acclimate to an actual safe and loving environment and eventually overcome her compulsive decisions and let her guard down. There is also the 2 mothers who struggle with juggling so many kids as well as discrimination and the dangers involved with one of them being a police officer. There is the biological son who is as straight-laced as they come as well as the adopted fraternal twins, Jesus and Marianna, who both struggle with teenage libidos while Jesus also struggles with ADHD. This setup is rife with drama opportunities and can actually be compelling like dealing with the twins drug addict biological mother or surprisingly well done arcs about sexual assault as opposed to more boring traditional plots like dating and such. The drama gets overblown in the latter half of the season as things just keep piling onto each other and one really weird and seemingly out of place bit that really just encapsulated the overblown drama.

A very non-traditional setup with an often very traditional soap opera execution, but I found myself quite enticed at times.

Buyer's Guide:
Currently available streaming on the ABC Family website with a TBA home release.

3½ schools right on the beach out of 5

Skins Season 2 (2008)

"What if... I'm not ready for this?"
"You kind of need to be."

Season 2 continues with the same cast of characters, now somewhat fragmented in the aftermath of the events of season 1. Their friends and relationships shift and change as they deal with a new host of problems such as long distance relationships, remarriage of parents and others all while their last year together comes to a close and the beginning of their adult lives looms ever closer. This very much improved the series as the problems had more emotional weight than the first season while still retaining some of the wacky hijinks and humor. Gripes of the first season are also fixed as Tony is no longer spending the entire show being a douche-bag since having a big serving of humble pie and Jal is given far more to do than her non-entity status of the first season.

Now that most characters have more interesting plots to resolve, Maxxie and Anwar are largely pushed aside with only one comical subplot to occupy them. Maxxie shares his character-centric episode with Tony and Anwar doesn't even get one this time around. That feels like a wasted opportunity since Maxxie's homosexuality and Anwar's conflict with his religious beliefs were interesting subplots of the first season, but there is enough going on in this season to occupy time that you most likely won't notice unless you really like them.

Tony's transformation is a very interesting center of the plot, but the stand-outs are still Cassie and Chris. Cassie finding an equilibrium between her odd personality and making a relationship work is as entertaining and endearing as it was in the first season and Chris' problems play out in funny and emotional ways as his screw-ups catch up to him. The theme of shifting to adulthood runs throughout this season and makes it more relatable. Much improved over the first season.

Episodes to See:
Sid - Full of drama and I just particularly like Sid.
Cassie - We get Hannah Murray playing her crazy alter ego and a lot of things come to a head in this episode.

Episodes to Avoid:
There are no particularly bad episodes, but you could skip the episode Sketch if you really had to since it deals with the unimportant Maxxie/Anwar subplot.

Buyer's Guide:
Available as a 3-disc set and as part of larger 3-season and 4-season box sets.

4 sisters masturbating with a disability toilet out of 5

Skins Season 1 (2007)

"Fuck-all ever happens in this shitty little town. You have to improvise."

A UK show about teenagers dealing with their problems that range from the usual parties, schoolwork and getting laid to the more grave drugs, absentee parents and eating disorders. Each of the 9 episodes focuses on one character which helps to get to know each of them as they seem to be one-note characters on first impression. There is the bored asshole, his shallow and pretty girlfriend, the idiot best friend, the crazy girl, the fuck-up, etc., but as each of their respective episodes passes we learn more about them and why they act the way they do. As they go through the events of the show, both comical and serious, they grow and change (or not as the case sometimes is).

Not all the characters are particularly likeable and maybe I am just old and therefore biased against teens being dumbasses, so their stupid decisions often irked me rather than garnered sympathy. Particularly why the asshole has friends at all is mystifying, but it did become a plot point albeit much later. But the issues the show deals with are quite engaging as they are told in a frank and honest way. The crisp HD and understated sexual content are also good selling points. Very watchable despite shortcomings.

Episodes to See:
Cassie - Hannah Murray as the crazy girl is entertaining and even endearing.
Chris - One of the more tragically comic episodes.

Episodes to Avoid:
Jal - Nothing particularly wrong with the episode. It's just everything to do with Jal happens almost independently of the rest of the show making her a non-entity that only appears when they need a "straight-man" character.

Buyer's Guide:
Available as a 3-disc DVD box set or streaming on Amazon for $1.99 per episode.

3 kids who need hobbies out of 5