Life Unexpected

After I fell head over heels for Bunheads, Amy Sherman Paladino's spectacular spiritual sequel to Gilmore Girls, and then promptly ran out of new episodes to watch... I've been searching for another family drama to swoon over. Preferrably something with that old school WB feel. 

I saw Life Unexpected listed on Netflix and knew I had found my match. This was a show that aired a couple of years ago on the CW, billed as a return to classic WB aesthetic. I had only watched it absent-mindedly back then, so it was overdue for a rewatch.

The show revolves around a teenage girl named Lux, who has been shuffled through various abysmal foster homes since she was a child. On the eve of her 16th birthday she is seeking emancipation, to escape her foster life. To seek emancipation she needs her parents signatures, so she seeks out her birth parents. But when she goes up against the judge, instead of being granted emancipation, the judge puts her into the custody of her birth parents. But neither of these blokes is a very able parent, they're still trying to get their own lives together.

I'm not quite convinced it's a Bunheads or Dawson's Creek calibur show as of yet, but it's winning me over. Episode s1e7 totally impressed me, that montage of Kate alone juxtaposed against Lux feeling warm and fuzzy and accepted was truly heartbreaking. I pretty much hated Kate Cassidy until that scene really started making me feel sorry for her. I adore the glowing moments of schmaltz that the show ends most episodes with, but it was this ep that shows how good the depressing drama can be, which is an essential ying to the yang.

I was almost turned off from the show just by how truly awful these parents were in the beginning. They actually reference aborting their daughter <i>right to her freaking face</i> several times in the first few episodes and they never even act like it's a big deal. ARGH HOW EVIL ARE THESE PEOPLE. But they've been improving slowly as the series progresses. I get that it's sort of the whole premise: bumbling adult-child parents get set up with their precocious, world-weary long-lost daughter and they both have to learn to deal with each other. It's not an ideal family but it's a <i>family</i> and that's worth something, that's the point. And I can accept that, it's sort of a touching premise. Lux can handle their inadequacies, she's had worse.

The plot does carry its share of basic teen drama tropes (e.g. the preppy jock who woos the outcast girl by demontrating that he's actually a sincere, sweet guy; the adult-child parents being kept in line by their precocious offspring) but the adoption angle makes it genuinely unique and I find the characters interesting and their struggles, while not excruciatingly unique, seem real and relatable. And I have to admit, I ship Lux with the jock. Ever since she told him that story about the necklace and so he brought her a necklace, that was too adorable!

Anyhoo, it's a quality show, I reccomend it for anyone with a love of sentimental dramas or the old WB.