‘Party of Five’ Finale: The U.S. Makes ‘The Worst Kind of Trouble’

March 4th, 2020 11:22 PM

Freeform’s Party of Five reboot has been a mess from the start. Nearly every episode has had some promotion for illegal immigration, to the point of advocating tax fraud for transgender illegals. Hopefully, this season finale gives us the last time we’ll have to deal with the progressive nonsense of the Acosta family.

The March 4 finale “Diaspora” has the entire family sans Emilio (Brandon Larracuente) visiting their parents in Mexico. Sadly, the tensions only seem to get worse despite the family reuniting as secrets start coming out between them. To summarize, the Acosta parents have gotten a divorce, Val (Elle Paris Legaspi) decides she wants to stay in Mexico with her separated parents, and Lucia (Emily Tosta) is now a lesbian who has a crush on her social justice mentor. On top of all these issues being ridiculously selfish given the circumstances, they’re also ripe for more politics.

For one thing, Val’s argument for staying with her parents includes the idea that Mexico will keep them together, unlike the terrible United States that separated them. “Because if we stay any longer, we’re gonna get in trouble with the country that’s made the worst kind of trouble for us. That said we don’t belong together. Well, no one in Mexico is saying that!” she exclaims.

Her eldest brother Emilio even seems to agree with her, despite being in a different country. To a parents’ peer group, he complains, “I am not the problem. What this country, what they did to my parents and to their children, that’s the problem. That’s never gonna get fixed in here.”

For a show that supports illegal immigration into our country, it doesn’t seem to have a high opinion of the United States. In fact, Val ends up staying with her parents in Mexico, so apparently the U.S. wasn’t that important to her in the first place. I guess we’re not worth the tens of thousands of migrants attempting to enter into the country every year. Perhaps we should start mass immigration to Mexico, if it's so much better.

Then there’s Lucia who quite suddenly in a previous episode decided that she’s a lesbian now in love with her activist hero. She’s conflicted about this because she comes from a religious family, but her mother, of course, accepts her anyway because that’s how TV works in 2020. “There’s nothing you could ever do, no way you could ever be, no one you could ever love that would make me love you any less,” her mother replies.

Party of Five has yet to be renewed for a second season, and it’s probably for good reason. The show pulls in poor ratings, and the plot has nothing to go on except for tired liberal clichés. The country may not be good enough for the selfish Acosta family, but we’re definitely better than this.