The Fosters #1.13 (Things Unsaid)
Hi LJ, please could you all start watching The Fosters so I don't have to resort to interacting with the 13-year-olds on tumblr to feed my addiction? Thanks.
Reasons to watch this awesome show:
1) It's basically turned into teenage Orange Is the New Black, with troubled teens (including a new trans character) forming unlikely friendships. Taking a high jump over the Bechdel Test every damn episode, yessss.
2) BRANDON AND CALLIE, foster siblings in ~love, which basically means all the delicious angst of incest, without the troubling morality of incest. \o/
3) It's an old-school WB show like Everwood or Dawson's Creek, except the adult characters are awesome lesbian moms, making them x100 better to watch than Mitch and Gale. (...Aren't you impressed that I still know the names of Dawson's parents without even pausing to think?)
Anyway, I wrote out my feelings on the last episode and it turned into a goddamn essay. Here goes:
This episode felt like there was perhaps one too many storylines going on. As a result, I didn’t feel like either the Callie stuff or the Jude stuff received enough screentime for the emotional weight of their stories to properly resonate. (Jude hoarding food was genuinely heartbreaking, but that scene almost felt buried.) Plus, now that Callie is no longer part of the Foster household (or the school - where is she going to school?!?), her scenes feel a bit more fragmented than they should.
Anyway, here are some specific thoughts, with suggested in-show hashtags (those things need to dieeee):
#AnchorBeachsOnlyTeacher
God bless Sherri Saum, man. She’s taken some shitty acting roles and she knows the drill: she sold the shit out of the World’s Most Awkward Product Placement scene with Anchor Beach’s only lonely teacher, Timothy (who was significantly less convincing).
I know this show lives in some kind of Waiting for Superman alternate universe where charter schools are an amazing, unicorn of an answer to the public school system, but… bahahahaha. Kindles for every student. NO.
#MarianasGayBoyfriend
Am I really supposed to take seriously the idea of Mariana working on the school play in order to find a boyfriend?? Chace and Zack both read as gay to me: I expected the twist to be that Zack was in love with Chace. Whatever.
#BadADHDPortrayalNoCookie
I’m finding this whole “Jesus goes off his ADHD meds” storyline really problematic. On the one hand, cutting out processed food/additives combined with exercise can help hugely with hyperactivity. But what about all the rest of ADHD - the impulsivity? the distractibility? I’m pretty sure Jesus should be having therapy/coaching to deal with life without medication.
PLUS. The reality is that most people with ADHD *do* need medication - and that doesn’t mean that they’re “not trying hard enough” or whatever this episode implied. (For that matter, a lot of people only take their ADHD medication during the week and have the weekends off, so this idea of “either you’re on medication or you’re not” is weird and absolutist.)
Okay, rant over.
#PoorLifeChoicesandPoorBlazerChoices
Let’s address the elephant in the room: WHY WAS BRANDON WEARING A BROWN BLAZER WITH A NAVY SHIRT? God, that bothered me the whole episode. :|
However, maybe Brandon’s apparent inability to dress himself was the teen show version of “angsty man grows a beard to show his angst”. Brandon definitely looked more… dishevelled this episode. It’s like the show is bringing him and Callie more in sync, in styling terms.
Obviously, I’m writing this while rolling around on the floor screaming because BRALLIE SNEAKING AROUND MAKING OUT I LOVE IT IT’S ALL I WANT FROM THIS SHOWWWW. Ahem.
I find the whole “Callie’s addicted to her foster brother” narrative a bit simplistic, but I do think it’s believable that Callie would run headfirst into a relationship that’s not the most healthy. She is clearly feeling completely abandoned and doesn’t have the emotional maturity to see the big picture. She’s basically clinging to the only source of attention/affection in her life and that’s pretty damn easy to understand.
Plus: all teenagers think they’re fucking Romeo and Juliet.
(Side note: I think it’s really, really significant that, while Brandon is running around telling his moms that “we’re in love”, Callie has made no such declaration. I hope that when the ILYs come, they’re hard-earned.)
I’m actually finding Brandon’s reaction to the fallout of the Brandon/Callie relationship more interesting at this point. Brandon in s1a was portrayed as the good kid, the grown-up kid, the “self-cleaning oven” (to steal a phrase from Modern Family). But I also think his worldview is incredibly black and white, and he was able to be that steady kid only while his worldview was upheld.
The last three episodes have been about Brandon’s expectations being kicked out from under him. He thought if he told his moms the truth about why Callie ran away, they’d bring her home. (That didn’t happen; she ended up in a group home.) He thought that if he followed his heart, everything would be okay. (That didn’t happen; he got served with a restraining order.)
Now Brandon seems to be responding to his world tilting off axis by picking more and more holes in what previously seemed like a perfect life, as we saw with him confronting Mike about his alcoholism (because, yeah, if you look hard enough, you’ll find your parents have flaws).
On the one hand, I love that the show is really attacking the Brandon/Callie relationship, not shying away from it as I rather thought the writers would do. On the other hand, I live in fear that the only way the storyline can be resolved is if either Brandon or Callie gets written out.
(What I hope we get is a long, angsty exploration of Brandon and Callie figuring out what there is in their relationship beyond heat-of-the-moment passion and forbidden-love excitement. That’s what I hope.)
Reasons to watch this awesome show:
1) It's basically turned into teenage Orange Is the New Black, with troubled teens (including a new trans character) forming unlikely friendships. Taking a high jump over the Bechdel Test every damn episode, yessss.
2) BRANDON AND CALLIE, foster siblings in ~love, which basically means all the delicious angst of incest, without the troubling morality of incest. \o/
3) It's an old-school WB show like Everwood or Dawson's Creek, except the adult characters are awesome lesbian moms, making them x100 better to watch than Mitch and Gale. (...Aren't you impressed that I still know the names of Dawson's parents without even pausing to think?)
Anyway, I wrote out my feelings on the last episode and it turned into a goddamn essay. Here goes:
This episode felt like there was perhaps one too many storylines going on. As a result, I didn’t feel like either the Callie stuff or the Jude stuff received enough screentime for the emotional weight of their stories to properly resonate. (Jude hoarding food was genuinely heartbreaking, but that scene almost felt buried.) Plus, now that Callie is no longer part of the Foster household (or the school - where is she going to school?!?), her scenes feel a bit more fragmented than they should.
Anyway, here are some specific thoughts, with suggested in-show hashtags (those things need to dieeee):
#AnchorBeachsOnlyTeacher
God bless Sherri Saum, man. She’s taken some shitty acting roles and she knows the drill: she sold the shit out of the World’s Most Awkward Product Placement scene with Anchor Beach’s only lonely teacher, Timothy (who was significantly less convincing).
I know this show lives in some kind of Waiting for Superman alternate universe where charter schools are an amazing, unicorn of an answer to the public school system, but… bahahahaha. Kindles for every student. NO.
#MarianasGayBoyfriend
Am I really supposed to take seriously the idea of Mariana working on the school play in order to find a boyfriend?? Chace and Zack both read as gay to me: I expected the twist to be that Zack was in love with Chace. Whatever.
#BadADHDPortrayalNoCookie
I’m finding this whole “Jesus goes off his ADHD meds” storyline really problematic. On the one hand, cutting out processed food/additives combined with exercise can help hugely with hyperactivity. But what about all the rest of ADHD - the impulsivity? the distractibility? I’m pretty sure Jesus should be having therapy/coaching to deal with life without medication.
PLUS. The reality is that most people with ADHD *do* need medication - and that doesn’t mean that they’re “not trying hard enough” or whatever this episode implied. (For that matter, a lot of people only take their ADHD medication during the week and have the weekends off, so this idea of “either you’re on medication or you’re not” is weird and absolutist.)
Okay, rant over.
#PoorLifeChoicesandPoorBlazerChoices
Let’s address the elephant in the room: WHY WAS BRANDON WEARING A BROWN BLAZER WITH A NAVY SHIRT? God, that bothered me the whole episode. :|
However, maybe Brandon’s apparent inability to dress himself was the teen show version of “angsty man grows a beard to show his angst”. Brandon definitely looked more… dishevelled this episode. It’s like the show is bringing him and Callie more in sync, in styling terms.
Obviously, I’m writing this while rolling around on the floor screaming because BRALLIE SNEAKING AROUND MAKING OUT I LOVE IT IT’S ALL I WANT FROM THIS SHOWWWW. Ahem.
I find the whole “Callie’s addicted to her foster brother” narrative a bit simplistic, but I do think it’s believable that Callie would run headfirst into a relationship that’s not the most healthy. She is clearly feeling completely abandoned and doesn’t have the emotional maturity to see the big picture. She’s basically clinging to the only source of attention/affection in her life and that’s pretty damn easy to understand.
Plus: all teenagers think they’re fucking Romeo and Juliet.
(Side note: I think it’s really, really significant that, while Brandon is running around telling his moms that “we’re in love”, Callie has made no such declaration. I hope that when the ILYs come, they’re hard-earned.)
I’m actually finding Brandon’s reaction to the fallout of the Brandon/Callie relationship more interesting at this point. Brandon in s1a was portrayed as the good kid, the grown-up kid, the “self-cleaning oven” (to steal a phrase from Modern Family). But I also think his worldview is incredibly black and white, and he was able to be that steady kid only while his worldview was upheld.
The last three episodes have been about Brandon’s expectations being kicked out from under him. He thought if he told his moms the truth about why Callie ran away, they’d bring her home. (That didn’t happen; she ended up in a group home.) He thought that if he followed his heart, everything would be okay. (That didn’t happen; he got served with a restraining order.)
Now Brandon seems to be responding to his world tilting off axis by picking more and more holes in what previously seemed like a perfect life, as we saw with him confronting Mike about his alcoholism (because, yeah, if you look hard enough, you’ll find your parents have flaws).
On the one hand, I love that the show is really attacking the Brandon/Callie relationship, not shying away from it as I rather thought the writers would do. On the other hand, I live in fear that the only way the storyline can be resolved is if either Brandon or Callie gets written out.
(What I hope we get is a long, angsty exploration of Brandon and Callie figuring out what there is in their relationship beyond heat-of-the-moment passion and forbidden-love excitement. That’s what I hope.)