Good Trouble review: Tackling transgender equality and bigotry

Good Trouble shines the spotlight on more stories this week, including transgender equality and bigotry.

There’s now been six episodes of Good Trouble and the show is proving that slowing down is not going to come easily this season. Per usual, it tackles a diverse amount of story lines with different characters involved and one of my favorites is shockingly coming from a character we saw very little from at the beginning of the season — Dennis.

We were also introduced to more of Jazmin in “Imposter,” allowing the show to really tackle transgender quality while also showing us a new and protective side of Gael by the end. Once again, Good Trouble peppered its hour long episode with political and social issues while telling it through the lens of a family drama on Freeform.

“It’s not fine, and it’s not about misreading signals. It’s about it being totally inappropriate to try to kiss one of your coworkers.”

Let’s start with Mariana because this story took over a lot of the episode. We’re seeing more day to day life at Speckulate as the season goes by and, of course, I agree that Alex is not only the worst person ever but the worst boss ever.

I absolutely do not agree with his style of leading, or his style of just being alive for that matter. HOWEVER, and yes, there’s a however, Mariana needs to chill out. From the very beginning of being at that new company, she’s kind of acted like she should automatically get promoted and be moved up into the engineering world.

While I agree that she’s probably a heck of a lot smarter than a lot of those guys working there, she still needs to put her time in and do some “bottom of the food chain” work to prove her worth. That’s how it goes for any company, and for any gender. At least from my experience. Right?

I’m still fully behind her point of view, and I’ll support my feisty Mariana Adams-Foster wherever she goes and through whatever she does but I will admit that maybe she’s taking it too far? Or maybe that’s just what I’ve been forced to believe in jobs…. that we all equally work our way up the totem pole when in reality men can just jump right to the top and I’ve purposefully blinded that from my brain so I don’t get angry. Now I’m having an existential crisis. Thanks, Mariana.

Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see where these friendships go with Raj (or hot Raj as we like to call him), Evan, and Casey. Mariana really laid it on him when Raj tried to kiss her, and looking back at it now, I think she had every right to. There’s a fine and awkward line between co-workers of the opposite sex (or just co workers who might be sort of attracted to one another).

At the time that the episode aired, I was angry at Mariana, because I was rooting for Raj so much. And because Raj was like, sort of a decent human? So I gave him credit for that. But I’m realizing now that “decent human” isn’t good enough. You need to be an ally, a supporter, and a protector; not a bystander. And unfortunately, that’s what Raj is being. Hopefully this episode teaches him to step up.

I’m also intrigued by Evan’s infatuation with Mariana. I hope this doesn’t play out the same as how the Raj story played out. I hope Evan doesn’t develop this crush on her, putting Mariana in probably the worst position she could be in. I want Evan and her to develop a friendship and maybe this’ll be the start of Speckulate being a more inclusive workspace.

To nudge the company in said direction, Mariana starts a “female fight club” to tackle the issues of sexism in the workplace after seeing Casey having a moment in the bathroom. She was ripped apart by a male coworker in front of her team and we’re learning that Casey, too, is only human.

“It’s not my fault the world is full of bigots. I gotta stand up for myself and for what’s right.”

I love the addition of Jazmin to this show. Good Trouble is covering racism, misogyny, sexism, body shaming, politics, so why not throw in a transgender story, right? Good Trouble is truly the most progressive show on television. And they’re doing this without even really realizing it.

The story with Jazmin and Gael is heavily focused around the relationship between brother and sister. It’s about their feelings of their parents as they grow older. It’s about being SOL and needing to borrow some money. It’s about deciding between your dream of a freelance artist or working full time to pay the bills. But through it all, Jazmin is a trans woman in the workforce and we’re seeing how far we still need to come as a society to make trans people feel safe and accepted.

I loved watching Gael’s shift from thinking Jazmin brings a lot of this on herself to understanding that actually, some people are just bigots. She’s being treated poorly in so many different situations, and unless you’re going through that, you can’t really understand what it’s like. It was good for Gael to see Jazmin at his work party because he finally began to realize that she’s not the issue here.

I’m learning more and more about our justice and legal system every episode and it truly sickened me when Jazmin was explaining her legal issues to Callie. I’ll be excited to see where this goes next.

Final Thoughts:

• Can we all just be jealous of Callie for one minute, who is finding herself in the middle of a dream love triangle. I honestly can’t decide between Gael and Jamie. They’re both jackpots in my book.
• Speaking of Callie, I was shook that the judge was so accepting of finding out about her and Malika’s relationship. Is that going to come back and bite them in the butt? Was he only doing it because Callie has something on him? But also, TAKE THAT BEN.
• Now speaking of the judge, how is this conflict of interest going to affect the story going further? Will the judge be open about it all or hide it like Callie tried to do?
• Does Callie now have some dirt on the Judge?
• Finally Davia was a nice person for a minute this episode. That girl needs to watch what she says before it comes out of her mouth.
• My heart is and will always be with Dennis now. I will protect him at all costs.
• Where was Rebecca? It’s unusual when I find myself missing background characters in a show but I absolutely feel a shift when certain people aren’t around. Specifically Malika, Rebecca, and Alice this episode. Give me more!

Good Trouble airs Tuesdays on Freeform at 8/7 p.m. CT.