The Fosters' Home for Imaginary Families

Happy Monday, y'all! Mondays have actually started to be happy for me, because this summer, an amazing show happens every Monday night on ABC Family. It's called The Fosters, and if you haven't been watching it (AKA, you've been living under a rock), there are a couple of reasons to start. Go DVR it, I'll wait.

First of all, Jennifer Lopez is the Executive Producer (she's still, she's still Jenny from the Block). I had my reservations about her at first, but the second piece of info I got about this show made moot that point. Hold onto your keyboards, kids, because this family is headed up by two hot mamas. Teri Polo (Meet the Parents) and Sherri Saum (One Life to Live) play moms to Brandon (David Lambert), Stef Foster's (Polo) biological son from her previous marriage; Jesus (Jake T. Austin) and Mariana (Cierra Ramirez), twins Stef and Lena Adams (Saum) fostered and then adopted; and Callie (Maia Mitchell) and Jude (Hayden Byerly) Jacob, two kids the moms recently took on to foster because their previous placement didn't work out.

Cast, from left: Austin, Mitchell, Lambert, Saum, JLo, Danny Nucci (Mike, Brandon's dad), Polo, Ramirez, Byerly (via)

As a lesbian, I was beyond stoked - elated; ecstatic; thrilled, even! - to hear that finally there would be a show on television about my American dream. My dream is to have a wife, a veritable gaggle of offspring, and live in a matchbox of our own, with a fence of real chain-link (I played Audrey sophomore year, I can't help it)...but I digress. This is the first time, pretty much ever, when I've been able to turn on my TV and look at myself reflected there. Sure, we've had Tara and Willow, Bette and Tina, but Tara got shot and Bette and Tina were both totally fucked up. This isn't to say that lesbians (and LGBTQ people in general) don't have issues - of course we do - but if my parents have remained happily married for nearly 25 years, I expect that I'll be able to do the same (eventually).

This show, rather comfortingly, follows the same basic trajectory as most ABC Family dramas. We've got the family - SDPD mom, hippie-charter-school-principal mama, Type-A musician heartthrob son, floppy-haired skater-surfer son, and girlie brat daughter. Then we add in messed-up yet loveable foster-kid-cum-JD Callie, who just needs somebody to understand her, and who risks everything (including her life) to rescue her tiny nail-polish-wearing brother and his turtle backpack. Drama du jour abounds, with a heaping spoonful of social issues, and you've basically put the standard family show in a pretty new dress.

If the preciousness of those earnest little faces doesn't sell you, though, think about this: One Million Moms is still trying to get companies to drop their ads from the broadcast. They got their granny panties in a twist last October, when the show hadn't even been cast, and now that we're entering into the eighth episode, they still believe that they have any sort of legitimate clout over what viewers, networks, and advertisers do.

The Fosters airs at 9/8 c. on ABC Family - please watch live, DVR for the next day, or catch it on ABC Family's website, Hulu, or your favorite next-day TV site!

~*s&w*~