I wanted to love this new CW show about two former high school classmates who meet the daughter they left behind at 16.
I dig Shiri Appleby and have been hoping she’d have a comeback since Roswell ended. The ten minute preview (which amounted to the first ten of the show) was decent and gave me hope for the rest of the cast. The young woman who plays Lux, their orphaned teenage daughter gives off an Allison Lohman vibe (certainly not Juno as the ads keep pushing).
I really wanted to love this show.
But for now I’ll have to settle for ‘like’.
There’s nothing unexpected about this show. The characters often feel like two dimensional, cookie-cutter cliches. The plot twists were not only completely obvious, but given away in the commercials. There’s virtually no chemistry between Kerr Smith and Appleby, aside from a strong possibility of friendship. And oftentimes Appleby herself seems to be the biggest problem– at least in the first half.
In short, the show reeks of ‘pilot episode’.
That said, the show has something. Heart, I suppose you’d call it. See, while there doesn’t seem to be an ounce of originality to the script, there does seem to be genuine emotion. Shiri Appleby is really good at crying. That’s pretty much what she did for 3 seasons of Roswell. But once she settles into her role, she draws you in– even the crying. Lux, her teenage daughter, is that typical precocious teenager character with a bit of Avril Lavigne- faux punk sprinkled in. Roles like this are easy to make annoying, but fortunately the actress pulls it off. The father, called Baze, also stands a good chance of pissing off the audience with his manchild antics. And yet he too evens out mid-way through the script into something more intelligent.
The thing that worries me most about Life is network expectations. The CW makes no bones about it’s desire for the show to be the next Gilmore Girls. And also Juno for some reason.
It’s not gonna be. Life Unexpected doesn’t feel like those two stories in any way, nor should it. Network pressure to make One Tree Hill a rip off of Dawson’s Creek nearly ruined the show. But once it was allowed to stand and grow on its own… well, OTH is now Life’s lead in and on its seventh season. If the CW gives Life the opportunity to find it’s own way, the show could blossom into something better.
I’m not hooked, but I want to stick around to see if Life grows on me.
