The Fosters

***The Fosters***  is an American family drama television series created by Peter Paige and Bradley B. It followed the lives of the Adams-Foster family led by a lesbian couple, Stef Foster, a police officer, and Lena Adams, a school vice principal, who raised one biological son and four adopted teenagers in San Diego, California.

## Plot

Stefanie Marie Foster, a dedicated police officer, is in a relationship with Lena Elizabeth Adams, a charter vice principal. The two have built a close-knit family with Stef's biological son, Brandon Foster, and adopted twins, Mariana and Jesus Gutierrez Adams Foster. When Lena meets Callie Jacob, a teenage girl who’s hardened from being in and out of foster homes, the couple welcomes her into their home, as a temporary stay. Callie's blunt commentary about the atypical family hits a nerve with the twins, who struggle with their own identities. Then the girl discovers a secret that could land Mariana into huge trouble. Brandon tries to help Callie navigate the social scene at their charter high school, but she skips school to meet up with an old friend instead. Her discourteous behavior makes Stef and Lena second-guess their decision to help her.

## Cast

### Main

* Teri Polo as **Stefanie Marie Foster** - Stef is a police officer and the biological mother of Brandon and the ex-wife of Mike Foster, and current wife of Lena Adams.
* Sherri Saum as **Lena Elizabeth Adams** - Lena is Stef's wife, step-mother of Brandon Foster and the adoptive and foster mother of the other children. She is the vice principal of the charter school the kids attend.
* Noah Centineo/ Jake T. Austin as **Jesus Gutierrez Adams Foster** -  Jesus is one of the twins that were taken in as a toddler and adopted by Lena and Stef. He has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
* Hayden Byerly as **Jude Jacob** - Jude is Callie's younger brother he is taken in by the adams fosters.
* David Lambert as **Brandon Foster** - Brandon is the biological son of Stef and her ex-husband Mike. He is very talented musically and has the ability to write piano pieces and present them for chances at scholarships. He can also play guitar.
* Maia Mitchell as **Callie Jacob Quinn** - Callie, 16, is one of the newly fostered children of the Foster family and is shown to be quite headstrong and deeply loving of her younger brother, Jude. She and Brandon worked together to get Jude out of an abusive house from their foster father; he had beaten Jude for wearing one of his ex-wives dresses, forcing Callie to grab a baseball bat and use it to destroy his car. She was sent to juvenile detention after her foster "father" lied to the police about the incident, and Jude was left alone with him. Stoic and silent, she has walls up that only Brandon has seen fall. Due to her somewhat violent past and newfound closeness of the Foster family, she is shown and hinted at to be the target for several people around her brothers and sisters, one of them being Talya, Brandon's ex-girlfriend. Talya is shown to have a great dislike for Callie, to which she quickly covers up to hide her jealousy in front of Brandon and others, and Callie initially appears to take little notice of her hatred as she tries to be friendly to her until Talya outright threatens her. Callie is shown to love music, specifically the guitar, to which she and Brandon immediately connect over. Their love for music extends further when Brandon gives her his old guitar and invites her to play with him while he plays background on his keyboard. Her body is heavily bruised and lean, a result of dealing with her juvenile detention cellmates; they had beaten her when getting jealous of Callie's release. She is roommates with Mariana. Callie has some bad history with Liam, causing problems with her and Wyatt.
* Danny Nucci as **Mike Foster** - Mike is a San Diego police sergeant, Stef's ex-husband, and Stef's current police patrol partner. Mike requested to partner with Stef because he felt he had more police experience and could keep Stef safer than other partners. Mike and Stef discuss their family issues during their work shifts. Mike misses being more involved with his son Brandon's life, and would like for Brandon to move in with him, but Brandon refuses due to feeling bad about leaving his mother and other siblings as well. He used to drink.
* Cierra Ramirez as **Mariana Adams Foster** - Mariana is Jesus's 15 year old twin sister and was taken in as a toddler along with him by Lena and Stef, and later formally adopted by them. She is very smart and girly and cares about her appearance very much. She's popular and social, but also very naive when it comes to certain topics. Such as, reconnecting with the mother who abandoned her and Jesus at a very young age, and stealing Jesus's pills and selling them to earn money that Mariana can give to her mother. After Mariana's drug trafficking begins to unravel, one of her friends is caught sniffing up the sold drugs and, to defend Mariana, blames the trafficking business on Callie. Mariana lets Callie take the blame but soon her guilt builds up and she decides to tell her mothers. Before she can, though, Jesus takes full blame and responsibility for all the actions with his pills, clearing Callie's names and protecting Mariana at the same time. She speaks Spanish fluently and likes to gossip.

### Recurring

* Madisen Beaty as **Talya Banks** - Brandon's ex-girlfriend and at one point Callie's enemy. Talya was instantly jealous and loathing of Callie and Brandon's friendship with her, and invades Callie's privacy to blackmail her. When Brandon finds out about Talya's threats and hostility towards Callie he breaks up with her. Afterwards, when Talya sees Callie dating Wyatt, she accepts that Callie wasn't after Brandon and acts more friendly towards her. Callie then quickly accepts this change and reciprocates the friendliness despite their history.
* Bianca A. Santos as **Lexi Rivera**: Mariana's best friend and Jesus' girlfriend. When Mariana finds out about her relationship with Jesus, they have a huge fight and break their friendship. She later has sex with Jesus, and Mariana tells Lexi's parents. This causes them to try to send her to another country with her aunt, but she later escapes. When they find her, Lexi threatened that she would call immigration on herself and her parents if they send her away. Mariana and Lexi become friends again during that episode "The Fallout".
* Alex Saxon as **Wyatt** - Callie's former love interest and Brandon's frienemy.
* Jay Ali as **Timothy** - Callie, Wyatt, and Talya's literature teacher. they call him by his first name, he also found the note on the drugs. also stopping a fight involving Jesus.
* Justina Machado as **Sofia Rivera** - Lexi's protective and religious mother.
* Brandon W. Jones as **Liam Olmstead** - A boy from one of Callie's previous foster homes whom she had some kind of relationship with. Callie learns that Sarah, a girl in her foster child therapy session is currently staying with Liam, and after inquiring about Liam he ends up tracking her down aggressively. She also used him as the topic in her essay about guilt, and is very upset when Talya reads what she wrote about him. It is said that he raped Callie and is currently grooming Sarah, the new foster child staying with his family.
* Anne Winters as **Kelsey** - Mariana's friend who bought Jesus' pills from Mariana and used them to get high. She stereotypes Callie based on her past in juvie, and when Lena catches her with Jesus' pills she lies and says that Callie gave them to her. She was eventually taken to rehab.
* Mary Mouser as **Sarah** - A foster child in Callie's foster child therapy session who was formerly staying with Liam and his family.
* Gavin Macintosh as **Connor Stevens** - Jude's best friend who later becomes a love interest.
* Alexandra Barreto as **Ana Gutierrez** - Mariana and Jesus' biological mother who has a drug addiction.

## Critical Reception

The Fosters received positive reviews from critics. The show currently holds an 88% approval rating "certified fresh" on review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 6.9 out of 10, based on 17 reviews. The show received generally positive reviews on Metacritic with an approval of 70 out of 100, based on 11 reviews. The show received generally positive reviews on IMDB with an approval of 7.8 out of 10, based on 4,208 votes from users as well as 20 reviews from users and 5 reviews from critic. The show received critical acclaim from users on TV with a score of 9.2 out of 10, based on 106 votes from users and 13 reviews from users.