Good Trouble: Life in LA

By: Marnie Faith

After the seven months Freeform allowed us to mourn over the succession of The Fosters, Adams Foster sisters Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) and Callie (Maia Mitchell) have finally graced our screens again for a spin off series Good Trouble. The show picks up where The Fosters finale left us, jumping forward five years and plunging Mariana and Callie straight into the heart of Los Angeles where they are ready to begin the next chapter of their lives. From the opening, Good Trouble is quick to remind viewers that it isn’t The Fosters. The girls have grown up as they’re legally drinking in bars, driving U-Hauls through downtown LA and having lots of sex. Not only this, but the format of the show has gone through a maturity phase too – some cleverly executed time jumps alongside the use of some aesthetically pleasing editing to convey tension; sometimes sexual, sometimes not. It seems as though the show has ditched the traps The Fosters often fell into – there doesn’t seem to be as much cramming of stories this time around, instead an easy sequence of narratives replaces this. It’s refreshing, firmly establishing Good Trouble as new, edgy and ready to make its mark.

Callie is thrown feet first into a clerk position for a highly conservative federal judge, attempting to make progressive arguments that causes them to butts heads. Mariana goes straight into marking her territory as only one of two female engineers in the testosterone fueled tech-company Speckulate. On the preface, these both sound like very budding new storylines with all the hardships and challenges the girls faced over the series of The Fosters finally seeming to be paying off since they were both begin to mark their place in their respective worlds. However, viewers will quickly come to realize that nothing is ever simple with these girls. Callie quickly learns that the fact that both her and her judge are white will implement more obstacles than originally anticipated for her case when fellow clerk Rebecca (Molly McCook) is quick to remind Callie that she was likely only chosen for the case to allow the judge to shut down the liberal arguments. Meanwhile, Mariana is set on seeking out any and all opportunities, which soon lands her in trouble with HR for pestering the CEO of the company for a pitch meeting.

Outside of their working environments, their living situation also presents some unforeseen challenges. Callie understands that leaving Mariana in charge to find them somewhere to live maybe wasn’t her best idea. She decides on renting a place that one of her co-workers lives in on the premise of her wishing to later romantically pursue him. This screw up, on both their behalves, lands them in The Coterie, an ex movie palace turned living space. From the outside, it appears just like any other budget apartment LA has to offer. Once inside; however, they’re greeted by building owner Alice (Sherri Cola) whose entrance of her holding more toilet rolls than she knows what to do with seems to perfectly depict her current life situation. The place turns out to be communal – they live together, eat together, pee together. It is only when residents retreat to bed that it seems they’re granted alone time. It looks to work for them; however, the scene toward the end of the episode in which they’re all shown to be cooking a dinner together demonstrates the family dynamic they’ve established – one that is sure to make the Adams Foster sisters feel slightly less homesick.

The girls encounter their respective issues throughout their first week at work, but a scene in which Callie leaves work to comfort a distraught Mariana following her HR humiliation shows why the pair are two of the greatest siblings this generation has seen. When reflecting on their first weeks in LA, Callie cements, “Both our jobs suck but we can’t quit. We are Adams Fosters. We don’t give up. We don’t give in. We fight.”  It was a delivery sure to pull on our heart strings as it elevated everything their mamas spent so long instilling in them. They’ve carried their compassion, headstrong, persistent demeanors from one Freeform world into the next.

Aside from the sibling duo fans have been able to grow up with and love over the last few years, Good Trouble has also given us a whole new range of characters to invest in. Other residents of the Coterie include Gael (Tommy Martinez), a fellow engineer that begins as a potential love interest for Mariana yet ends up in bed with Callie the first night of the sisters stay. His good looks and mysterious artistic demeanor will no doubt prove him to be a fan favorite in no time. Not only that, but the closing scene of the premiere episode showed him making love to another man whilst Callie and Mariana accidentally steal a glance. This will likely (hopefully) pave the way to an entire narrative about bisexuality. It’s refreshing to see a bisexual character engaging in romantic pursuits with both genders for once, as a lot of other shows seem to restrict bisexual characters romantic arcs to one sex. As well as Gael and Alice, viewers are also introduced to ex foster-child Malika (Zuri Adele) who organizes a rally of donations to help make the sisters’ new residence feel more like home after all their belongings are stolen right off the bat. She’s also deeply involved in the police shooting case Callie is working on for her clerkship, which will likely create some conflict of interest issues for the pair later down the season. There’s also Davia (Emma Hunton), a body-positive social media influencer who admits to have previously struggled with an eating disorder. I, personally, found myself cheering when Davia introduced herself at the family dinner. Whilst The Fosters were champions of diversity and representation, they distinctly lacked body diversity so I have high hopes of the development of her arc!

We’re only one episode in and the show has already given a lot of depth to this new bundle of characters. They aren’t just props for Mariana and Callie to lean on. They’re their own people with their own stories to tell and journeys to face. Viewers came into Good Trouble not really knowing what to expect, apart from learning how adulthood is treating the siblings and came out with a whole new range of stories to invest themselves in. This is what makes this show so great – it strives to include as many narratives and give as many voices to social groups as physically possible in sixty minutes.

The staple of The Fosters were understandably absent from the premiere episode, but their presence was still felt. The Mamas failed to grace the screen, but viewers were shown several scenes of the sisters on the phones to them, mostly giving them reassurance that the pair were still alive and well. Despite their absence, the small inclusions of them felt only right. The mamas were the heart and soul of The Fosters; they took representation to another level. They gave hope to a large demographic of LGBTQ viewers that a family life is achievable. They demonstrated how deviating the stereotypes of nuclear families sometimes was the best thing because families don’t have to be restricted to the typical mom-dad-children structure.

Going into the new season I have so many hopes for this show. The end credits were rolling and I found myself alight with ideas of which ways I want every character to go, which bonds I want to see developed and what narratives I want explored. Callie remaining the empath she is, even in a professional setting, gives me hope that this case is at least going to give her a chance to prove herself even if she doesn’t get the outcome for which she hopes. Understandably, I’d love to see her tell the Ivy-League clerks Rebecca and Ben (Ken Kirby) to just leave her the hell alone, as all they seem to be doing currently is praying on the fact she’s from a less advanced academic background than them. If she were to go one better and tell the conservative judge to have a firm hard look at his political choices…Well, that’d be even better. But we all know that she’d, understandably, never be that rude…especially not to a federal judge.

I still can’t help but feel left in the dark regarding her sexuality though as the final half of season five of The Fosters saw her share a brief kiss with Ximena (Lisseth Chavez), an immigrant facing deportation. The pair were together in a church that granted Ximena sanctuary when the kiss occurred, leaving many of us hopeful that this will finally give Callie an opportunity to explore her sexuality. Sadly, such a narrative never came and the kiss was forgotten about. However, it’s been five years and Callie has done a lot of maturing. It’d be interesting to see her stance on her sexuality now, especially since she’s always struck me as the type that would fall in love with people while paying no attention to their gender.

As for Mariana, I need to see her continue being this tough girl she currently is. My heart was left soaring with pride at the end of the premiere seeing her really assert herself and her position in the company. Throughout The Fosters it felt like a lot of her narratives revolved around romantic interests, so if she could go on a journey of independent woman meets successful engineer who takes no crap, it’d be the complete one-eighty that would be sure to have viewers gleaming.

Good Trouble looks as if it carries The Fosters in its heart, whilst perpetuating something new. It realizes that the world is pretty awful right now, but that doesn’t mean everything is bleak and dreary. It’s new non-linear storytelling helps viewers remember that even if it feels like your whole world is falling apart, there’s still some good left for which to look out. After all, as long term fans will remember; it’s not where you come from, it’s where you belong.