TV Review: Life Unexpected

Almost sixteen-year-old Lux tires of bouncing from foster home to foster home and decides to seek emancipation. Before she can face the judge on her birthday, however, she needs to get signatures from her birth parents waiving their custody rights. She is shocked to find that her dad, Nate Bazile (Baze), is a 32-year-old living above the bar he owns, and her mom, Cate Cassidy, is the co-host of her favorite radio morning show and recently engaged. Her presence reunites the two, who haven’t talked since their fateful hookup during a high school formal, especially when the judge finds Lux unfit to live by herself and grants them joint custody.

The show explores family, growing up, and relationships with humor and a lot of heart. In the pilot alone, the writers have set up some fantastic relationship dynamics that will be interesting to watch unfold. Lux has to come to terms with a mom who gave her up at her own age, but who she’s been listening to on the radio for years, and a dad who never knew she existed that she bonds with over YouTube videos. Baze and Cate have to reconcile their long buried teenage passions with the fact that Cate’s engaged (if a bit reluctantly). And Cate’s fiance, Ryan, has to accept that his wife-to-be suddenly has a grown child. Luckily, the casting seems to be spot on and the actors can pull off these roles and relationships without making the show a schmaltzy drama-fest. I love Shiri Appleby (Cate) and Kerr Smith (Ryan), so I’m glad to see them here, and Brittany Robertson as Lux is a dream. She’s got the disaffected, but still a tiny bit hopeful teen thing down pat. We’ll see if Kristoffer Polaha (Baze) grows on me, but right now I don’t want him and Cate to get back together. Of course, as a CW family drama, there are bound to be some predictable storylines and the plot really is a bit of a stretch if you think about it too much. But, I’m willing to give it a shot and look forward to tuning in next week! Airs Mondays from 9-10 p.m. on the CW.

Interestingly, the show’s creator, Liz Tigelaar, has also written some YA novels. PrettyTOUGH and Playing With the Boys (Pretty Tough) are part of a girl’s sports series about soccer. She’s also written novelizations based on Dawson’s Creek and American Dreams, two other TV series she’s worked on.

January 23rd, 2010  ♥  Television  ♥  No Comments »