Life Unexpected
MOLLY FORMAN
Issue date: 2/3/10 Section: Entertainment
MOLLY FORMAN
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Lux is a bright, vivacious teenage girl just days from her 16th birthday. Put up for adoption as an infant, she's bounced from one foster home to another ever since. When a foster child turns 16, he or she can legally appeal for emancipation - and that's just what Lux decides to do. Due to a systematic glitch, however, Lux needs the signatures of both of her parents for the process to be complete.
That's the premise of the new series Life Unexpected, which premiered Mon, Jan. 18th on the CW.
In the first episode, Lux finds her father, Nate Bazile, who is now around 30 and never knew she existed. Thought caught off guard, he bonds a little with his daughter and sets off to find the mother, a popular radio personality named Cate Cassidy.
All three have to deal with some deep wounds as they figure out the best route to take once they are reunited. The parents have bent up anger towards one another and haven't talked since high school. Lux's mother thought that her child would have been knit into a happy family right away; she never expected her to be in foster care her whole life.
The show is evocative of other CW series' - such as the witty side jokes that appear alongside dramatic situations.
Written and produced by Liz Tigelaar (Brothers & Sisters) and Janet Leahy (Gilmore Girls), the show is fun and somewhat family friendly -minus the few sexual references, and seems to target a pre-teen/teen audience.
Life Unexpected has been constantly compared to Gilmore Girls, but the two are only mildly related. Sure, both mothers are indecisive and happened to get pregnant at a young age - but that alone characterizes a large group of people in America. The quick banter and the tons of pop culture references that Gilmore Girls had are not shared by Life Unexpected. However, Gilmore Girls fans may be able to settle for a show that contains the same type of dramatic subject matter -teen pregnancy.
Lux, played by 19-year-old Brittany Robinson is just the adorable, smart orphan that will steal the hearts of viewers. Her shy smile and tears seem genuine, and helps the viewers sympathize with her confusing and stressful situation. Shiri Appleby plays Lux's long lost mother, and does a fine characterization of the damaged, quirky, commitment-phobe whose world is shaken by the sudden reappearance of the daughter she gave away. Lux's father is played by Kristoffer Polaha, who perfects the role of a slacker man-child in his 30s who lives in the apartment above his bar.
The pilot, directed by Gary Fleder, was engaging; most of the suspense however, was gone in the first half of the episode. The episode concluded with no cliffhangers, but rather a well-rounded close. Sure, the audience may want to watch more, but the feeling that they need to watch more is nonexistent.
Molly Forman can be reached at mf43687n@pace.edu.
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Lux is a bright, vivacious teenage girl just days from her 16th birthday. Put up for adoption as an infant, she's bounced from one foster home to another ever since. When a foster child turns 16, he or she can legally appeal for emancipation - and that's just what Lux decides to do. Due to a systematic glitch, however, Lux needs the signatures of both of her parents for the process to be complete.
That's the premise of the new series Life Unexpected, which premiered Mon, Jan. 18th on the CW.
In the first episode, Lux finds her father, Nate Bazile, who is now around 30 and never knew she existed. Thought caught off guard, he bonds a little with his daughter and sets off to find the mother, a popular radio personality named Cate Cassidy.
All three have to deal with some deep wounds as they figure out the best route to take once they are reunited. The parents have bent up anger towards one another and haven't talked since high school. Lux's mother thought that her child would have been knit into a happy family right away; she never expected her to be in foster care her whole life.
The show is evocative of other CW series' - such as the witty side jokes that appear alongside dramatic situations.
Written and produced by Liz Tigelaar (Brothers & Sisters) and Janet Leahy (Gilmore Girls), the show is fun and somewhat family friendly -minus the few sexual references, and seems to target a pre-teen/teen audience.
Life Unexpected has been constantly compared to Gilmore Girls, but the two are only mildly related. Sure, both mothers are indecisive and happened to get pregnant at a young age - but that alone characterizes a large group of people in America. The quick banter and the tons of pop culture references that Gilmore Girls had are not shared by Life Unexpected. However, Gilmore Girls fans may be able to settle for a show that contains the same type of dramatic subject matter -teen pregnancy.
Lux, played by 19-year-old Brittany Robinson is just the adorable, smart orphan that will steal the hearts of viewers. Her shy smile and tears seem genuine, and helps the viewers sympathize with her confusing and stressful situation. Shiri Appleby plays Lux's long lost mother, and does a fine characterization of the damaged, quirky, commitment-phobe whose world is shaken by the sudden reappearance of the daughter she gave away. Lux's father is played by Kristoffer Polaha, who perfects the role of a slacker man-child in his 30s who lives in the apartment above his bar.
The pilot, directed by Gary Fleder, was engaging; most of the suspense however, was gone in the first half of the episode. The episode concluded with no cliffhangers, but rather a well-rounded close. Sure, the audience may want to watch more, but the feeling that they need to watch more is nonexistent.
Molly Forman can be reached at mf43687n@pace.edu.
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