Good Trouble

Borrowing its earnest and relatable tone from parent show The Fosters, this spin-off ages Mariana and Callie up into young adults entertainingly stumbling into maturity. First mistake: They choose an apartment sight-unseen, with their meager budget forcing them to choose a dusty shared room in a "communal living" community where everyone shares the kitchen, the bathroom, and the rat problem. But winningly, the other Generation Z residents of the "Coterie" turn out to be quirky and supportive, ready to debate social justice issues over shared dinners and to chip in with donated furniture once they find out all of Mariana and Callie's stuff was ripped off their first night.

There's even more juicy dramatic potential at work in Good Trouble, where each heroine is saddled with satisfyingly meaty work problems. Mariana parlays her MIT education into a plum job at the kind of tech startup with kombucha on tap in the kitchen but is sidelined by the bros on her team into doing low-level tasks. Meanwhile, Callie lands a prestigious law clerkship, but the office is a snakepit, with a mean boss and snotty, scheming coworkers. It won't take long before viewers are drawn into Mariana and Callie's lives, whether they were Fosters fans or not, because this is the best kind of spin-off, staying true to the spirit of the original while widening its focus.