Good Trouble

I loved "The Fosters" so I wasn't sure where they would go with this spin-off which focuses on "new adults" Callie and Mariana Adams Foster.  The girls have graduated college and are living in Los Angeles.  Callie, fresh out of law school, is clerking with a conservative judge, and Mariana, who went to MIT, is navigating minefields at an innovative tech company.  SPOILERS AHEAD.  The news is mostly good.  Creators have found the core realities to existence for 20 somethings.  Callie and Mariana struggle with money, with work, with relationships.  Like the members of the co-op they live in, issues of identity and their roles in the world are paramount.  Like "The Fosters", most of the events are realistic and well-portrayed.  Guest stars from the original family are frequent and provide a nice grounding to that sense of being a little lost which is so constant with the girls.  The new cast deeply enriches the narrative, particularly Zuri Adele as a rebel with a real cause, Alice Kwan who plays a lesbian in search of herself and a real partner, Emma Hunton as a body positive blogger who paradoxically doesn't always value herself and Josh Pence as the adult in the room who struggles with unimaginable loss.  Rounding out the cast are many solid actors who go far beyond the stereotypes -- a hot bisexual artist who wants to be known for his work, a judge who often surprises, a gay lover who wants to be first on his boyfriend's list.  One challenging thing to navigate is structure of the show.  Most episodes begin with a "now" moment and most of what you see after that is a lead up to the final moment you saw at the beginning.  This isn't made clear from any kind of titling and you just have to get used to it.  Aside from that and the girls having a LOT of "the sex" (what is this, "Sex in the Other City"?) as well as Maia Mitchell and Sherri Saum having become shockingly thin, the show is engaging and compelling.  I binge-watched the first season (thank you Freeform) and look forward to season two.