Disappointment Unexpected

Every so often a show comes along which I wish to hell I hadn't heard anything about it prior to viewing. In general, I shy away from other people's reviews so that they don't taint my perceptions, and to large degree with the CW's newest drama Life Unexpected, I avoided other opinions. But, little bits of this and that filtered through and I ended up expecting the much heralded return to the halcyon days of the WB and a new Gilmore Girls to bring me joy, but was rather met with a pretty pedestrian, mediocre, fairly cheesy program bent on tapping into what's left of the fervor over Juno. I have to assume that if I hadn't heard anything at all, I'd have gone in with low expectations and been pleasantly surprised that the show was decent-ish. But, as is, I went in expecting something great, so it seemed to fall even shorter than it probably actually did.

What have we learned from this? Keep expectations low.

Words to live by.

The show had been touted as delightful and charming and while it certainly had its moments, if I had to boil the pilot down to a couple of adjectives, I think I'd have to settle on "annoying" and "ridiculous." That makes it sound like I really hated it, but in all honesty, it was... okay, I guess. While high expectations were my first problem with this pilot, however, they certainly weren't my last.

Life Unexpected centers around Lux (a soon-to-be 16 year-old wide-eyed ingenue who thinks she's a lot more savvy and street smart than she is) who, after being bounced around from crappy foster home to crappy foster home, ultimately finds the biological parents she never knew (Cate and Nate--hey, at least it's easy to remember... and type), and who end up taking her in. Cate is a radio talk show host and falls into the typical female character stereotype of being a bit shrewish, kind of hysterical, and constantly emotional. She ended up having a bit more edge than expected, but she's still damned unlikeable. Nate is a bar owner and falls into the typical male role of shlubby underachiever. It was starting to feel like the stereotypes so ardently adhered to in Knocked Up (which I hated) and was starting to fear the worst, but fortunately it turned itself around to some extent. In and of itself, it isn't exactly my kind of set-up, but I do think it has potential (even if the pilot quickly devolved into ridiculous plot points and cheesiness). I don't want to belabor the rationale behind some of the characters' actions, but there's some absurdity that needs to be addressed first off.

Lux's crusade to find her biological parents stems from a desire to become emancipated and apparently she needs their signatures in order to do this... I know, it's already starting to sound stupid, but wait! There's more! So yeah, apparently since she was never adopted, her biological parents (at least her father--who never signed away his parental rights) still technically have custody. I'm not exactly an expert in this arena, but yeah... no they don't. If, when Cate was giving up the baby she had indicated who the father was, as far as I know, he would have had to have been informed. Things may have changed since the mid-nineties (holy hell, for this girl to be 16 she would have had to have been born in like 1994... I'm suddenly very old...), but as far as I know, that's how it works. In this alternate reality, however, Nate was never informed that Cate (which I keep typing as "Cake"--so maybe it's not so easy to type... although far more delicious) had even gone through with the pregnancy, thinking she had had an abortion. The more annoyed I became with the show, the more I was wishing that had been the case as well. Anyway, back on the crazy train, apparently Lux did absolutely no research into become emancipated because she actually thought that a minor with no income, no housing, and no family or other support would be allowed to emancipate herself. It's the stupidest thing I've come across in a good long while (well, not including all the major plot points in Human Target's first two episodes). The absolute stupidest part? At the court hearing it's revealed that some social worker gave Lux all this information. I can believe that some stupid teenager didn't understand that this would never work, but a social worker? You've got to be kidding me.

That was just one ridiculous step on the annoyingly convenient journey that led these three people together. At the end of the day (er... episode), it rather gratingly felt like the writers were desperate to come up with some possible way for these people to have to come together. Well, they should have tried a little harder because I can think of a dozen other ways this could have played out, all of which would have been a million times less absurd than this.

Sorry, one more absurdity: that Lux was never adopted. The writers add a couple of throw away lines about a hole in her heart (that's as deep as a well, for that poor little boy who's trapped halfway to hell--thanks, Sting, you just ruined a touching moment) that needed to be fixed so no one would adopt her. Possible, I suppose, but I'm not buying it. She would have been scooped up immediately. A very treatable condition in an otherwise healthy, non-drug addicted blonde haired, blue-eyed infant? Not a big deal. But, if that's what the writers have to come up with to make this conceit come together, fine.

Ranting aside, Lux eventually finds Nate and Cake (screw it, I'm not fixing it). Nate is kind of charmingly open to the idea of having a daughter although the actors playing Nate and Lux look a little too close in age for comfort. The girl playing Lux is 20, so even though Nate is appropriately 33, when he's sitting close to her and kind of gazing at her (picking out inherited features), it really looks and feels more like he's checking her out... which is pretty squicky given the circumstances. The actor playing Nate isn't particularly appealing, but I can see where he might grow on me. Shirri Appleby (of Roswell fame) in the role as Cake, however, isn't so much likely to grow on me as irritate me to death. Even her persona on her radio show is irksome and after Nate contacts her on Lux's behalf, she becomes even more irritating and unbearable.

Back in the day, Nate was the hunky sports guy and Cake was kind of the nerd (the show seemed to not be able to quite pin down who they wanted her to be). They hooked up at winter formal and Lux was the result. There's a hell of a lot of bitterness on Cake's part which is totally understandable (Nate refused to even acknowledge they knew each other), but the level of hysteria it brings to her present self is grating at best. Add to that the fact that she cheats on her radio co-host/fiancé (played by Kerr Smith of Dawson's Creek fame (infamy?)) with Nate (whom she claims to loath) and I think I'm going to have a hard time liking her all that much. Which, come to think of it, I have to give some props to a show that's willing to have an unlikeable character as one of the leads. They get even more points because I think that was their intention. It doesn't make her any more fun to watch (I don't love to hate her, I just hate her at this point), but at least they were willing to take a chance and give the show a bit more to chew on than your standard fluff piece.

I think the show presents some interesting dynamics, albeit dynamics I'm not sure I'm in love with. I generally take issue with children who were given up for adoption feeling contempt for their birth parents and it's especially palpable here. Lux is more than a little upset that Cake gave her up and that Cake never considered keeping her. Apparently the fact that Cake was 16 never crossed Lux's mind. There's no way in hell Cake could have become anything in life if she'd had to drop out of school or devote her every teenage waking hour to child care. I can see where a whiny 16 year old would feel that way, but again, it doesn't make it any less annoying to watch. Much more interesting, by far I'd say, are the dynamics among the adults. I'm genuinely interested to see how Cake's fiancé plays into everything, although I get the feeling the writers want us to pull for a Nate/Cake hook-up and at this point, I really really don't. I find them both unappealing for different reasons and don't have any real desire to see them together. I'm hopeful that over the evolution of the show I'll grow to appreciate them both, but based on the pilot alone, I'm underwhelmed.

So yeah, those two fairly off-putting people end up taking in their off-putting daughter... to create an off-putting trio (because clearly the missing ingredient in this show was more off-puttingness). The series of events leading up to Lux moving in with her bio mom (and dad?) are ridiculous, but they're over now and the show can move on (at least here's hoping). The cast is rounded out by a couple of Nate's friends who, in spite of very little screen time, were easily the most likeable characters on the show (and we all know it's a good sign when the minor players are more enjoyable to watch than the leads). I'm hopeful they factor into the show in a more substantive way in the future, but I'm not holding my breath. At this point, they just felt like convenient place holders.

In better news, the show really does have some decent bare bones to work with. While I admit I'm not in love with the conceit, the writers have legitimately set up a dynamic that you don't see everyday and managed to write with some wit and humor that didn't feel sit-comish. In spite of their clear break with reality when it comes to anything legal or logical, the wacky happenstance that got us to the end of the pilot can be forgiven if the show can pick things up from here and create a solid character base out of a fairly silly narrative base. I'm willing to forgive a hell of a lot of if the characters are interesting enough, so here's hoping they can pull this one out of the bag. The dialogue was pretty solid for the most part (although comparing a show to Gilmore Girls is just begging for a world of hurt), but the cheesier aspects of the storyline made for some unfortunate moments (you know, like when Lux tells her mom that it's like she really did raise her... because Lux has been listening to her on the radio... oy). I'd argue that the pacing was too fast and that too much happened way too quickly, but most of what happened annoyed me so I was happy to see it go. I suspect they'll slow things down in episodes to come and make it more of the character piece I think they intend it to be.

Overall, it honestly wasn't a bad pilot, but I expected better. The good aspects only slightly outweighed the annoyances for me and that's not a ratio that leaves me smitten. The final scene alone was so cheesy and absurd and sappy that it kind of tarnished many of the wonderful scenes earlier in the pilot. As Lux sits down to her birthday cake (the food this time, not the bio mom) to blow out her candles (because of course the man who never knew she existed and his bar-hopping buddies would throw her a birthday party) she is told that if she doesn't blow out all the candles, her wish won't come true. All together now, in cheesetastic, teary-eye bliss, "I think it already has." Yeah, I think we all saw that coming, and when I say "all," I mean there's an 87 year-old Amish man out there who's never seen a sappy drama before groaning at the use of such a trite cliché. It was an eye-rollingly predictable and ugh-worthy note to leave the audience on and that's a real shame.

Life Unexpected certainly had some good points, but it also has a lot of negatives to overcome if it's going to make it into my regular rotation. I'm just not lovin' it so far. The ending scene left me shaking my head and taking away points that had been gained with some funny one-liners earlier on, but I think the thing that wins them the most points back is that they fixed the title. It was going to be called Life UneXpected (which is how they came up with "Lux"), but decided against it. Good. Call. More shows should follow in these footsteps (HawthoRNe, I'm looking in your direction). Although, the fact that they ever even considered that makes me a little uneasy about the creators of the show... Here's hoping the good decisions keep on coming and this turns into a show I can really sink my teeth into.

Pilot Grade: C+ (before the final scene, I had settled on a B-, but I just can't allow that kind of writing to be rewarded)