History Series / TheFosters

* ElaborateUniversityHigh: On the ''oceanfront'', no less. Perhaps made more unusual in that it's a charter school (which recieves less public funding per student than a non-charter school in exchange for greater flexibility).

* HalfSiblingAngst: Callie was raised all her life believing herself to be the older sister of her brother, Jude. However, she eventually finds out that she and Jude only share a mother, and she has another half-sibling, Sophia, on her father's side. While she insisted that Jude is her brother and Sophia is ''just'' her half-sister, both were understandably shaken up by the news.

* InsistentTerminology: Callie is fairly insistent that Jude is her brother while Sophia is her ''half''-sister, despite the fact that they have the same blood relation to her.

* HappilyAdopted: The twins.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Callie, fresh out of juvie, [[spoiler: though in truth, she doesn't really have any sort of rebel streak. Her birth parents and the people she's lived with before the Fosters, on the other hand, may have been less than stellar. As a result, she's learned to mostly just shut up since people rarely listen and trust her. This in turn means she'll silently take the blame for whatever people assign to her.]]

* DisappearedDad: Naturally in a show revolving around [[FosterKid Foster Kids]]. Almost all the fathers of the Adams Foster kids have been absent for various reasons.

* DrunkDriver: Callie's BackStory. Dad [[spoiler: drove drunk and crashed, killing her mother and at least two other people and going to prison for manslaughter]] leaving her and Jude in foster care [[spoiler: where she was raped]]. Call a cab, people!

* {{Ephebophile}}: [[spoiler: Mike's girlfriend in season 1, Dani, sleeps with a drunk Brandon moping over his heartbreak over Callie and bad decisions, then has the nerve to point fingers saying ''Brandon'' had been drinking, the whole time she was cognizant of what was happening and was the adult in the situation.]]

* FirstEpisodeTwist: [[spoiler: Callie has a younger brother and he joins the family at the end of the episode]]

* FriendsRentControl: Averted. Their house is realistically nice for a mid-career professional couple, but it's old and small and a bit crowded with five kids.

* InformedJudaism: Emma casually mentions she's Jewish when bringing over kugel for Stef's father's memorial. To the show's credit, it actually is a Jewish custom to bring food to those sitting shivah and kugel is an Ashkenazi dish that's not particularly well known to the general public

* InstantDeathBullet [=/=] OnlyAFleshWound : Averted; when [[spoiler: Stef]] is shot, it's presented firmly in the middle. The person isn't incapacitated immediately, but they're also not running around willy nilly. And even though the shot itself is perhaps a 5 on the regularly 10 point getting hit by a bullet movie list, it's treated as extremely life threatening. Even the aftermath is so since it's specifically mentioned that while said person survives the shooting, bullet fragments risk causing paralysis.

* MistakenForRacist: The Riveras, being fervent Catholics, are suspected by Stef and Lena to be homophobic, causing the Fosters to be leery about the church camp they're encouraging Jesus to attend with Lexie. Turns out [[spoiler: they're totally OK with gay relationships, because "what's more Christian than family?"]]

* ParentalAbandonment: Jesus and Mariana were abandoned by their drug- addicted birth mom, and later "returned" by their foster parents, which is how they met the Fosters.

* SpotTheThread: Liam has a pretty good thing going with a scam where he has Sarah (his former foster sister who Callie, suspecting he was sexually abusing Sarah like he had abused her, had managed to get out of his house) steal Callie's identity to buy a whole lot of expensive handbags online and then resell them on Craigslist. Even when they get busted, they both maintain that Liam didn't know that Sarah had stolen Callie's identity, ruining her credit. Then Callie is able to figure out what Liam had overlooked: [[spoiler: She has Stef check Sarah's credit too, showing that it had been ruined as well by Liam pulling the scam with some other girl]] Sarah immediately turns on Liam, admitting to having sexual relations with him (which, since she's a minor, meant Liam is going to jail for a looooong time).

* TokenMinority: Mariana overhears the captain of the dance team tell her friend (who Mariana beat out for a spot) that this was the reason, something which gnaws at Mariana for a long time. Her friend finally tells her the real reason she was picked: [[spoiler: Lena had been cutting a lot of programs in order to save costs, and the team figured she wouldn't cut the dance team if her daughter was on it]]

* WhatTheHellHero: The Girls at Girls United collectively call Callie out for wanting to live on her own as opposed to working towards getting back into the Fosters' house; they all come from broken or unsupportive homes, and think Callie is throwing away her life to not be trying to get back with a loving and supportive family

* HasTwoMommies:
** Let's just say this show's probably not Pat Robertson's favorite lead-in...
** Callie, as technically speaking she has [[spoiler:''three'' mommies and two daddies, if you look at it a certain way.]]

The Fosters is a drama on Creator/ABCFamily. Produced by Nuyorican Productions, a company owned by Music/JenniferLopez, it first aired in 2013. The series revolves around an interracial lesbian couple who have both biological and adoptive children together. They decide to take in Callie (Creator/MaiaMitchell), a troubled teen, as their new foster child.

* AdultFear: Callie's BackStory. Dad [[spoiler: [[DrunkDriver drove drunk]] and crashed, killing her mother and at least two other people and going to prison for manslaughter]] leaving her and Jude in foster care [[spoiler: where she was raped]]. Call a cab, people!