In this LitHub article, Kristen Martin argues that:

“In pop culture, foster care is always—like life in an orphanage or with a poor family—something a character has to escape or overcome in order to have a fighting chance.”

She goes on to a review a number of American television dramas, including Party of Five (1994-2000).

For Martin, Party of Five doesn’t “break any new ground” because “it reinforces one of the oldest stories in the orphan book: the adventure plot.”

However, Party of Five “does get one thing right” says Martin. Because the Salinger family are middle class, the siblings are “able to avoid foster care and stay together”.

This was also the case for Kristen Martin and her brother: her father had named a legal guardian so she never went into the formal foster care system.