We’re slowly starting to see the arrival of numerous television reboots aimed at discussing the issues with immigration in the United States. Earlier this year The CW rebooted the sci-fi drama Roswell, albeit taking the high school alien metaphor and making it literal. And three months ago Freeform announced plans to do something similar with the 1990s family drama, Party of Five. Now the first trailer has been dropped and it looks like an emotional roller coaster.
The new Party of Five follows the Acosta children, whose lives are turned upside when their parents are detained by ICE. As the trailer shows, a deportation order is soon passed down and the parents must leave. Oldest son, Emilio (Brandon Larracuente) is left responsible for his younger sisters, who all grieve the lost in different ways. While Emilio tries to take his father’s advice to “stay strong,” he narrates that his brother, Beto (Niko Guardado) is “failing school;” sister Lucia (Emily Tosta), who once was seemingly perfect is now “so angry at the world;” littlest sister Valentina (Elle Paris Legaspi) is about to enter adolescence without a parent to guide her, and that’s not including raising their infant brother. At the same time, Emilio has to deal with the possibility of Social Services deeming him unfit to keep his family together. A series of quick cuts show tears shed, birthdays celebrated, and the growing belief from the Acosta children and their parents that they just might be able to pull this off.
It’s interesting that the marketing plays up the connection to the original series, marking it as the show that “defined a generation” albeit under highly different circumstances. Right now most of these reboots do little more than tread on name recognition, but Freeform is reminding fans of the original specifically so that they’ll want to see this, opening it up to a wider spectrum. The series certainly looks intense and if you missed out on being a Party of Five lover in the mid-90s, here’s your chance to try again. Now let’s talk about bringing back that Bodeens theme song in some way!
There’s no current release date but it is anticipated to be a midseason premiere.