I had such high hopes for this show. I really did, after all, it pushed buttons right off the bat by having the leads both be women, in an interracial, same-sex relationship. Stef (Teri Polo) and Lena (Sherri Saum) live together and raise a cluster of children: Brandon (David Lambert) from Stef's first marriage with her brand new police officer partner, and the adopted twins Jesus (Jake T. Austen) and Mariana (Cierra Ramirez). We don't know much about these kids except that Brandon is a musical prodigy, Mariana gets good grades and Jesus takes methamphetamine which is for ADHD, for the record.
The show begins with the arrival of a new foster child, Callie (Maia Mitchell) who has a troubled past of which not enough is revealed. All of this seems good, but tons of problems come. Callie is calling this mysterious Jude, but refers to him as baby, in a rather sexy voice. It turns out that Jude is her younger brother, still living with her former foster father, the one who beat her up because she defended her younger brother-he's the reason why she was in juvenile hall.
Determined to rescue her brother, she ditches school, which is a charter school where Lena is the vice-principal, but Brandon goes with her. Yes, those two are totally going to get together, despite Brandon having a girlfriend whom he might be having sex with or is at least considering having sex with, because his mother asks him if he's using condoms. Awkward. Because of this, he completely misses his audition and his chance at winning a musical scholarship and is let off the hook much too easily for this.
Callie and Brandon arrive at the foster house and she tries to rescue her brother while Brandon distracts him, but this doesn't work and almost immediately pulls out a gun on both of them. He went to that gun a little too quickly. Luckily, Stef, a police officer, arrives just in time to save the day.
Callie and Jude will stay with the Fosters (Stef's last name) and Lena (whose last name is Adams) for the time being, aka forever, because there will not be a show without them. Don't try and fool me ABC family.
In the meantime, the other major plot line involved the twins and their reluctance to meet their birth mother, aka the woman who abandoned them to go after a man. Mariana was originally interested but this has changed. My sister predicted this one right. She is stealing her brother's medication and selling them on the streets and gives the money to her birth mom so she can get settled in this ocean-side town again. That's right, they live super close to the ocean and Mariana is breaking the law. Stef and Lena were so worried about Callie messing up their family when they should really be worried about Mariana.
I really feel that this show needed some more exposition, but I'm pretty sure more about the pasts of all the characters will be revealed throughout the season. I also wish the writers hadn't decided to give Brandon a crush on Callie. I only like Stef, Lena and Jesus when it comes to characters. Some, like Callie and Brandon, do have a chance at redemption. Mariana does not, at least not for the moment.
I also know that the foster care system is broken, but you would think that they would have listened to Callie's side of the story or at least taken her brother out of that home, and why did she call him baby in a sexy voice? That was so weird. This show, despite everything, has promise, but it needs to become more realistic, okay, fine, I'll settle for ABC family realistic, and less predictable and soap opera-ish. The acting is decent, especially from Polo and Saum, though the kids are also showing promise. Grade: C+
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