"A Life Unexpected"

What: New drama on the CW network airing Mondays at 9/8c

My Rating: Eh, it's OK. Very mixed feelings about this TV show. Very. If I was giving star ratings it would be a 3 1/2 out of 5. A nice middle ground.

Why: This drama on the horrible nighttime soap, teeny-bopper channel CW has potential. It does. It has received pretty good reviews, so I was hopeful. There are good and bad aspects to this new show. The show is basically about a 15-year-old girl, Lux, who was bounced around in the foster care system all her life. One day she decides enough is enough and wants to be emancipated. To do so she needs the consent of her natural birth parents. So she finds them in Portland, Oregon. Her parents are 30-somethings who had a one night stand in high school. The girl gave the baby up at birth with the promise that she would be placed in a good adoptive home. The kid, didn't obviously. The court denies Lux's request for emancipation and puts her in temporary custody of her parents. So basically the show is about a couple who is not a couple and who never was a couple, and who have to raise their teenage daughter. The premise of the show is a traditional, good, heart-wrentching drama. I liked the pilot very much so I continued watching. But, there are problem areas of the show.

My first big problem is the mother. Cate Cassidy is a local radio personality played by Shiri Appleby from Roswell fame. This character is just as annoying as her character on Roswell. Coincidence? I think not. One would only have to assume it's the actress's fault for two of her characters to be so irritating. She drives me crazy on this show. She whines, tears up all the fricken time and is always presented as the bad guy on the show. Just as she was perceived on Roswell. She bugs me so much on this show that it's actually very painful for me to watch her on screen. I mean, I really can't stand this character. Maybe Appleby is just really that good of an actress? Or maybe this actress is just irritating in all the rolls she plays and she can't play a roll any other way? Or maybe it is really just how the characters are to be played? Only really the creators and writers of the show know for certain. Only they can tells us if this is just how the character is suppose to be. And if it is how the character of Cate is, well, then maybe that is why Appleby got this role. She is just too damn good at being annoying. I really hope for her sake she is just a really good actor. I wanna like her. I do.

The second problem with the show for me is the background music. What's the problem you may ask? Well, there IS background music. I mean, hipster, Indie bands and musicians are being played throughout EVERY SINGLE SCENE. Or so it seems anyway. And it's not just as the background music. Oh no. It's as a loud and obnoxious extra character on screen. However, I do enjoy the artists they play. Matt Hires, Brett Dennen, Joshua Radin, Eric Hutchinson, Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson, all very nice. Love the music being played. I do. But seriously, do they really need to play the music so loud that it almost overshadows the actors saying their lines? Very annoying. It completely takes away from the scene. They need to only play it a at specific moments in the show. And they need to keep it soft and low. Otherwise it is just insulting to the cast. It makes it seem as though the cast isn't good at being dramatic so they need to put in some dramatic music to make the scene. Enough already.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the show in its entirety so far. So far being the opperative phrase. The show is getting old very fast. And it's getting very predictive. The other characters are great. The actress Britt Robertson is amazing as the teen, angst-ridden Lux. Kuddos on that casting. Kristoffer Polaha as Lux's father Baze is pretty decent too. Dawson's Creek alum Kerr Smith plays Cate's fiancee and radio show co-host, Ryan. His character is obviously used as an obstacle for Cate and Baze's upcoming all-dramatic, romantic relationship. Sooo obvious. Writers get a clue. Be a little more creative, please.

So those are my feelings on "A Life Unexpected." I will continue to watch until it gets too boring, but I do hope the writers tone down the irritability factor of Cate's personality. And I hope they come up with new story lines other than the obvious. Last night's show was just way to predictable. Predictability gets boring real fast.

http://www.cwtv.com/shows/life-unexpected (Photo from)