Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Life Unexpected: Viewer Disappointed?

Before it even premiered, I really wanted to love Life Unexpected. The premise sounded like a lot of the WB shows I loved back in the day, and it even had Shiri Appleby and Kerr Smith, both of whom I really liked from Roswell and Dawson's Creek, respectively. And it started off pretty great, maybe a little emotionally overwrought, but I could tell its intentions were good. Things did get rather repetitive towards the middle of the season, but I liked the finale a lot and you could really see how far the characters had come.

So I was definitely happy that the CW renewed the show for a second season. But after watching the premiere...I'm worried. I think there might have been a little network meddling, a push for more "juicy" storylines, because what else can explain why Lux was subject to two of the most cliched teen plot points? 1) Getting proposed to at 16, and 2) meeting a new guy she likes only to have him turn out to be a teacher at her high school (this is a storyline shared with Pretty Little Liars for crying out loud! I know that show has its fans but I didn't think this was supposed to be the same type of show).

Cate and Ryan and Baze don't fare much better...Cate gets fired (rather harshly) in favor of a ridiculous self-help book author, Ryan seems to have a secret something named Julia that he doesn't want Cate to find out about, and Baze's bar burns down, thanks to a new, careless bartender who turns out to be Ryan's sister?

Show! I thought you were better than this! I still like all the characters and there are still some of the heartstring-tugging moments, but I'm disappointed in where this season seems to be heading. I'm not giving up on it yet, but I am concerned...

1 comment:

burkie said...

i'm sorry to hear that. i watched most of the first season and mostly liked it, but as the season wore on, i become more and more concerned that they would fall into clichéville. i'm sorry to see that they succumbed :(