The summer finale of Freeform’s The Fosters is tonight, bringing us lesbian moms, teen drama, and a few warm, fuzzy feelings.
It’s been three years since the show premiered on what was then ABC Family. I’m still thrilled to have a show featuring a two-mom family that isn’t just about them trying to inseminate (a tired trope I wrote about back in 2008). Instead, we see them actually raising their five teenagers, with all the ups and downs this entails. My own son turned 13 this year, so I’m finding much of the show rather resonant—and perhaps a little frightening.
The show borders on tackling too many “very important issues”—including drug use, coming out, teen sex (gay and straight), and school shootings—but does so with such heart and smarts that it somehow all works. This season saw daughter Mariana struggling to gain respect as a girl interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), youngest son Jude trying marijuana and deciding he wasn’t ready to have sex with his boyfriend, son Jesus wanting to reconnect with his birth father, daughter Callie seeking justice for a foster brother, eldest son Brandon trying to live with his girlfriend and her toddler while applying to Julliard, and a family crisis when Stef’s father’s financial fumblings put their house at risk.
We also saw transgender actor Elliot Fletcher in a recurring role as a trans character who is not playing a trans-specific storyline—a wonderful and refreshing approach. He and the Adams-Fosters’ daughter Callie even kiss before she knows he’s trans, and she doesn’t blink when she later finds out he is. That shouldn’t have to be notable, but it is.
Another terrific moment was in the last episode, when mom Lena explains to daughter Mariana her feelings of hesitancy and fear before adopting her and her brother. It was a nice acknowledgment of the uncertainty that sometimes comes with starting or growing a family, even if it soon changes to overwhelming love.
Stef’s short haircut also warmed my heart this year. Lesbian characters on television have for the most part been long haired, which is lovely for countering the “lesbians look like men” stereotype, but also marginalizes the more androgynous- or butch-looking among us. A prominent exception, Lea DeLaria’s Boo on Orange is the New Black, is deliberately so butch (with a tattoo saying “BUTCH,” in case we were clueless) as to be almost a caricature (even though I love her portrayal of the character). Stef and her new haircut put us in a middle ground that reminds me of many women I actually know (most notably my spouse).
As usual, I’ll be tweeting along with the show tonight, using the hashtags #TheFosters and #gaydybunch. I hope you’ll join me!