Freeform is home to several teen dramas and young adult shows. Over the years, Freeform has used its platform to tell average day-in-the-life narratives and relatable stories that touch on essential topics and real-life circumstances. Several of Freeform’s shows, including The Fosters, Good Trouble, Switched At Birth, and Cruel Summer, have, in some way or another, touched on topics that have delivered storylines to people who may never have personally experienced such events. However, by using the network to tell that story, audiences are getting the chance to learn things they may not have known before or feel connected to shows and characters that have created storylines that have given representation that perhaps had not been as central to mainstream media in the past.
While Pretty Little Liars may undermine the problems with a student/teacher relationship by aiming for a romantic story, Cruel Summer portrays the scenario for the grooming plot it is genuinely more similar to. Likewise, The Fosters describes an array of interracial and LGBTQIA+ relationships while giving an in-depth look into the foster system and its effect on the children and teenagers who experience it. While Freeform’s shows may have several errors in their portrayals and do not get everything right, they have also strived to touch on important topics.
The Foster System
Disney--ABC Domestic Television
The Fosters made sure to highlight the problems in the foster system throughout the show’s five seasons. But, in season one, Callie is in survivor mode, more subdued and nervous about her place in the house. Some of the show’s most emotional moments followed the eventual adoptions of Jude and Callie. However, while Callie and Jude may eventually end up in a happy home, they have had several bad foster homes previously, including an abusive foster father and a rapist for a foster brother. To show how broken the system is, another foster kid, Jack, ends up with the man who had abused Callie and Jude previously, and Jack ends up dead.
American Sign Language And Deaf Culture
While Daphne being deaf is a plot point that allows the show to become more prosperous and go deeper in its portrayal of trying to close the communication and emotional gap between the family members, it also opens up a whole world for hearing people to discover. Switched At Birth portrays trying to close the communication gap in deaf and hearing relationships, showing hearing characters working to learn and use sign language.
The audience is exposed to confusion surrounding the deaf community through John and Kathryn. Then, through Daphne, Emmett, Melody, and Travis, the audience is shown a different lifestyle filled with its own culture, language, hardships, and successes. Switched At Birth is on a short list of mainstream television shows with multiple deaf main characters.
LGBTQIA+ Experiences
The Fosters is a big show for representation, and at the center of the family are its two leading mothers, Stef and Lena. However, they are not the only ones on the series to represent the LGBTQIA+ community. As he grows up, Jude learns more about his sexual identity, including his crush on Connor. The Fosters was responsible for airing the youngest gay kiss in history between Jude and Connor. Jude also questions why gay sex education is not taught in schools, but straight sex education is.
The series also discussed the experience and representation of transgender individuals through Cole and Aaron. Good Trouble also portrays experiences through Alice’s worry about coming out to her parents, Alice’s different strives for happiness in a relationship, and developing Gael as a bisexual man.
College Life
Grown-ish presents the opportunity for change with excitement. Zoey is ready to take on a new world, quick to make close bonds with her good friends. Tackling friendship, romance, and the creation of a professional portfolio is a lot to deal with in college. In Junior’s case, he had taken a few years off after deciding against college. But, he decided to go back, determining that his future could be more open with a degree.
Zoey, Junior, and their friend groups have gotten to explore who they are outside their homes. Making new friends and being exposed to new people allows them to be challenged with new experiences, beliefs, and opportunities.
Politics
Freeform
Motherland: Fort Salem tackled politics constantly, given its direct connections to the military and government. Although it may have been a fictional version of politics, given the nature of the series and its focus on witches, Motherland: Fort Salem still brought up very relevant points, such as power struggles, revolution, and fighting oppression in different forms. In Good Trouble, politics were discussed during Callie’s time at different law jobs, sexism at Mariana’s tech jobs, and Malika’s role in striving to build a better future in politics, having come from an activism background.
Sexual Assault
In Switched At Birth, Bay is sexually assaulted by her ex-boyfriend, Tank, while they are drunk at a party. However, Bay is significantly more intoxicated and is unable to give consent to any sexual activities, which Regina explains is sexual assault. Tank, however, claims he believes that Bay had agreed, and since he did not consider the act to be of him forcing himself on her, that it was not.
Switched At Birth never makes light of the situation, having Bay bounce between trying to understand what really happened and acknowledging that what she went through was not of her consent. Travis also admits to having been sexually assaulted by his uncle when he was a child and having never told anyone until after Bay’s experience. Later in the series, Travis reveals the truth to his mother, portraying his vulnerability at not being able to previously discuss the truth with her.
Grooming
Cruel Summer creates a mysterious narrative surrounding what happened between Kate and Martin while Kate was missing. But, throughout the first season, Cruel Summer portrays the dangerous and subtle actions behind grooming. Martin slowly brings himself into Kate’s life, acting as a caring and supportive friend rather than an adult authority figure. He gets Kate to like and trust him, manipulating Kate into believing that he is her closest companion, and indirectly has her cut ties with her friends and her boyfriend, Jamie.
Cruel Summer frames their dynamic as uncomfortable and manipulative rather than romantic. It is always clear to the audience that Martin is a villain, even if Kate does not see it immediately. Highlighting the subtleties of grooming gives audiences, especially underage audiences, the chance to spot wrongful behavior in adults, which provides them with an opportunity to know what to look out for and avoid.
Teenage Pregnancy
The Secret Life of the American Teenager created an entire series around the concept. High School student Amy is left pregnant after a one-night stand at band camp with Ricky. The rest of the series documents their attempts to be parents so young. Meanwhile, the rest of their friends followed similar patterns. The Fosters and Switched At Birth each portray teenage girls buying the morning-after pill after having unprotected sex. Also, on The Fosters, Jesus’ girlfriend, Emma, opts to get an abortion after discovering that her new birth control had not gone into effect, and she knew she did not want a child.
Black Lives Matter
Good Trouble does not take important topics lightly, and in its first season, devotes a major case to a young black man, Jamal Thompson, who was shot multiple times in the back by police officers and left bleeding on the ground, eventually dying. Malika steps up as one of the activists fighting for Jamal to get justice for the officer’s actions, as Good Trouble acknowledges the police brutality that can end lives.
On Switched At Birth, Sharee, Iris, and Chris are pushed to the forefront. As they experience different portrayals of racial conflicts on campus in the aftermath of students placing cotton balls in front of the Black Student Union. Whether it be fighting, going on a hunger strike, or sitting out of a baseball game, the trio demonstrate their willingness to stand up for their beliefs and show that they are not backing down and will not allow themselves to be pushed aside.
Immigration And Deportation
Sony Pictures Television
The Party of Five reboot focused on the aftermath of the prominent family’s mother and father being deported from the United States. Now, with their parents in Mexico, the rest of the siblings must work together to raise their baby brother, keep their restaurant afloat, and work toward figuring out how to survive without their parents being directly present in their lives. While the siblings speak to their parents on the phone and video chat, Party of Five portrays the hardship and emotional fallout of such a massive change and the eldest brother’s uncertainty, given his DACA status.
