Ever since "The Fast and the Furious" came out in 2001, people have been wondering what makes this franchise so special. What about the "Fast and Furious" movies get such high critical praise and financial success, to the point that it has been going strong for 16 years with 8 movies? After all, the "Fast and Furious" movies are just about car chases and explosions.

At least, that's what I thought before I actually watched any of them. But after watching the first seven movies within the last couple of months, I found myself standing in line Thursday night, excitedly waiting to buy tickets for "The Fate of the Furious". I'm a woman in her early twenties, there's nothing about "Fast and Furious" that should appeal to me. They're movies centered around big, buff men taking part in violent action sequences. So what about "Fast and Furious" makes it so addicting?

The first mistake people make is assuming that it's all about car chases and explosions. Yes, that's one of the major draws, and it's basically all the trailers ever show. What the trailers don't show is that "Fast and Furious" really centers itself on the idea of family and loyalty. Throughout the eight movies, these rough and tough guys (and a couple women), who live on the outskirts of society because of their criminal ways, find each other and create deep bonds that go beyond blood. These movies promote the idea of found family and its importance, something we rarely see onscreen.

The bonds that these characters create aren't flimsy, either, written only so that we're forced to feel an emotional impact when something bad happens to one of them. When I watch these movies, I truly believe in Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian's (Paul Walker) friendship or the hatred Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) has for Shaw (Jason Statham). Even when two characters start out hating each other (i.e. Dom and Hobbs or Hobbs and Shaw), they end up creating a different, sometimes even more complex bonds. The relationships between all of the characters are probably the most interesting part of the "Fast and Furious" franchise.

These movies also have the most diverse cast I have ever seen in huge Hollywood productions. Every single character is a person of color aside from Brian and the villains. It's not even something that the movies draw attention to, it's just a simple acknowledgment that we live in a diverse society. Even when the movie draws attention to a character's race it's usually in the best way possible, like Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) casually speaking Spanish or Hobbs teaching his daughter's soccer team a Samoan chant.

Speaking of diversity, a lot of complaints about the "Fast and Furious" franchise are about its treatment of women. I agree that there are way too many gratuitous shots of women's butts for me to handle, but the few female characters that are in it are amazing and incredibly complex. So none of the movies pass the Bechdel Test, but I don't mind because the women are given these awesome roles within the main crew, whether it's being a badass driver or a hacker.

There's so much about these movies that I could go on about, such as the representation of healthy relationships and fatherhood as a motivation (not to mention the very creative titles) but I'd rather everyone just watch these movies themselves to see what I'm talking about. Whether you're looking for thrilling action or deep and meaningful relationships between characters, "Fast and Furious" is an amazing series of films.