Some Thoughts on The Fosters

Last night was the final episode of The Fosters.  I started watching this show during Season 1 (want to say my first episode was either "Quinceañera" or "The Morning After", but I could be wrong) and kept watching until the end.  For the first few seasons, the show was really, really good.  While it never got bad, I did get annoyed that they had the characters making the same mistakes over and over and over again.  No matter how many times they had to make a mistake, most never seemed to learn their lessons.  Brandon, for example, repeatedly sacrificed everything, including his dreams to help the girls he fell for.  Another example is that people kept trusting Mariana with their secrets despite her chronic inability to keep a secret that was not her own.  While I get that there are certain character traits that you may not outgrow, having the same story repeated over and over with a few details changed got annoying after a while.

I think the other thing that sort of drove me nuts about the show was the way they treated Jude.  In the first couple of seasons, when Hayden was in his early teens, I get not having him on the show as much.  But when he was on the show, he had good stories that really worked.  Watching Connor and Jude come out together was an incredibly powerful story.  But after Gavin left the series, it felt as if the writers no longer knew what to do with Jude.  Aside from reacting to what happened to Callie or the tepid romance with Noah, he really didn't do much in the last couple of seasons.  Losing Connor was a major blow to the series because Jonnor was one of the central relationships on the show.

All that being said, I did still enjoy the show, even if my enthusiasm waned in the last season and a half or so.  I appreciated that Callie was able to really grow and learn from her mistakes, even if it did take her a while.  I think she was about the only child on the show who really grew and developed much.  I also loved seeing Stef and Lena together.  The two of them had some rough patches, but they always managed to find their way through them and made their marriage work.  Like Callie, Stef changed a lot over the series.  Lena didn't change much, but Stef really developed from a gruff, almost authoritarian, character to someone who mellowed and was much more open in expressing what was going on in her life.  That was really cool to see.

Regarding the final three episodes, I did appreciate the way they wrapped up Brallie and the way they finally had Brandon stand up for himself, so we got a little growth there.  I also liked that they had Stef in a job where she directly helps people everyday, that was really cool.

I wish that there was more I could say, but there really isn't.  I do not plan on watching the spinoff because Mariana is my absolute least favorite character on the show and, while I like Callie more, she is not enough of a reason for me to watch.  I think it would have been cool to see a show about Jude; preferably with Connor; because having a show with a gay young adult (Hayden himself is straight as far as I know) as the main character would be cool.