Life Unexpected: Checking in on Lux and company

Due both to the timeslot crunch and my waning interest in the show, I haven't written about "Life Unexpected" lately. But last night, I caught up on last week's episode and this week's, and I was pleased (moreso with the first episode than the second) to see the stories start to move along, and to see the show go more in-depth with Lux's history as a foster kid.

That said, I'm not crazy about where we seem to be heading with the wedding, Baze's rekindled interest in Cate, etc. Cate and Ryan have already broken up once over Baze, and if it happens again - and in such short order - it's going to even more annoying than starting off the series with so many episodes in a row of "Ryan and Cate screw up, Lux runs away, then they win her back with a big speech."

Who's still watching? What do you think of the show's progress heading into the final episodes of the season?

Life Unexpected, "Truth Unrevealed": I'm on the radio EVERY DAY!!!!

A review of last night's "Life Unexpected" coming up just as soon as I go to prom with a thesaurus...

Okay, they're getting there. Definitely getting there. That's a couple of episodes in a row completely free of Pilot-itis, and Baze being obnoxious on Ryan and Cate's show was a blast. And even though I unsurprisingly like the adult characters more than the teens - and even though I could see every beat of this particular story coming way in advance - I felt engaged throughout by the Lux/Jones/Bug triangle.

On the other hand, Cate's late visit to Lux's story was the only part of the episode where I liked her at all. I recognize that the writers have stuck Cate into a lot of difficult situations, and also that there are times when the two men around her get off easy for the same actions she gets slammed for (case in point: the listeners don't hold the secret relationship against Ryan), but the character still comes across as grating, particularly in the scene where she accuses Baze of raping her eyes by having sex with her boss. I thought it a nice bit of symmetry that Cate and Lux tell the exact same story to their respective men, only Cate's lie gets Ryan back while Lux's truth sends Bug running, and yet I feel little sympathy for Cate after an episode that was designed (I think) to put us in her shoes and make us realize how tough this situation is on her.

(Some of this, I think, also comes down to performances. Baze was an ass on the radio, I think, but Kristoffer Polaha has an innate charm that I'm not sure Shiri Appleby does. If you put an actress in a role that's supposed to be adorable, and that actress doesn't present as adorable, the character will just seem annoying. Case in point: the early career of Monica Potter.)

But Cate did give Lux good advice, even if it didn't work out, and even if she didn't have the guts to follow it herself. So "Truth Unrevealed" wasn't a total loss for her.

Overall, the show remains pleasant but unremarkable, with occasional drops of sharp dialogue (Baze describes Cate's voice as "like seagulls fighting over a cheese sandwich"), some characters I like, some I don't. With the TV schedule getting busy again next week post-Olympics, and with "LuX" heading for the 8 p.m. trainwreck slot in two weeks, my reviews of it may become more intermittent, with me checking in with a post if an episode's particularly good or bad. But I'll be watching.

What did everybody else think?

Life Unexpected, "Turtle Undefeated": The queen of beer pong

A quick review of last night's "Life Unexpected" coming up just as soon as I have a food baby...

"Turtle Intercepted" was less prone to pilot-itis than the episodes before it. Lux never runs away from one or both parents (though Bug briefly shanghais her in the stolen car), and the conflicts were a bit more varied: Lux vs. the mean girls, Baze vs. his dad, Cate vs. her own uptight nature.

Still, I think I may wait a few weeks - or until the show does a wholly formula-busting episode - before I write another review. I'm enjoying the show, but there's not a lot of meat here right now, nor enough variation. There's only so much time I could spend observing that the drunken Cate does the exact same victory dance Baze was objecting to in an earlier scene with Lux, or that Baze and his dad's frosty relationship feels like a male, less funny version of Lorelai and Emily Gilmore.

What about the rest of you? Are you fine with the show's very familiar rhythms, or are you hoping it'll branch out already?

Life Unexpected, "Bong Intercepted": Lux unmasked

A very quick review of last night's "Life Unexpected" coming up just as soon as I nurse my drink...

Well, at least they're mixing up the "Lux pushes away from her parents and then moves back towards them" stories by having her only mad at Cate this week. Which means, I suppose, that next week Baze will upset her in some way while Cate gets to play sympathetic ear.

Despite the repetitiveness of the overall story (which I've talked about before, and which I suspect we're going to have to deal with at least until episode 7 or 8), I continue to like the characters (particularly Baze and Lux), like the fact that the supporting players outside Baze/Cate/Lux/Ryan are starting to get some depth, and I like the shaggy, chaotic vibe to this world. Cate and Ryan's secret affair plot has been put to bed, because it seemed an unnecessary contrivance, and I was glad that one of the angry callers also brought up the dumb "you lied about having a baby" story from episode two.

At some point, the show will need to start telling other stories. So far, though, I can deal. Frankly, I had a bigger problem with how much of the episode Lux spent without her trademark knit cap, which helps create the illusion that Brittany Robertson is 16 in the same way that Clark Kent's glasses make people believe Superman could be a big nerd.

What did everybody else think?

Life Unexpected, "Rent Uncollected": Family affair

A few quick thoughts on the latest "Life Unexpected" coming up just as soon as I fire up the DeLorean and grab the condoms...

Each week, it seems, we meet, and/or Lux meets, a different part of her family. In the pilot, she found her birth parents. In episode two, we discovered her surrogate family of fellow foster kids. Tonight brings in Lux's grandparents (and aunt) in the form of familiar TV faces Robin Thomas and Susan Hogan (as Baze's parents), Cynthia Stevenson (Cate's mom) and Alexandra Breckenridge (Cate's sister). At some point, the show will need to put the brakes on this before we get to "Episode 21: Lux is horrified when her second cousin Frank is murdered," but for now the expansion of the show's world - and the many potential character combinations, ala "Modern Family," that we now have - has felt natural and interesting.

And in showing us how Baze's dad disapproves of him, it continues the character's evolution into something more human and likable than just the generic Peter Pan character he could have been. I never thought much of Kris Polaha (good or bad) in his previous series gigs, but more than anything else, he's what has me wanting to keep watching "Life Unexpected" past this episode (the last I saw in advance via a screener).

Again, we get the push-pull of the Lux/Baze/Cate relationship, with everyone backing away and then coming back together for a more formal meeting between Baze, Cate and Lux's friends. I'd like to see the show evolve past that soon, but the performances, and moments like Lux halfway scamming her way into the popular clique(*), still have me enjoying it.

(*) And that worked entirely because two of the girls didn't buy it at all. Had Lux successfully talked herself in with the whole crowd at once, it would have been too much, and too easy.

What did everybody else think?

Life Unexpected, "Home Inspected": You can pick your friends, but...

A quick review of "Life Unexpected" episode two coming up just as soon as I turn a bong into a lamp...

There are some very good things in "Home Unexpected," particularly the continuing performances by the three leads, and the expansion of Lux's world (along with an explanation of what she was planning to do if/when she got emancipated). But there are also some very frustrating things, too, as the show falls victim to the "Repeat the pilot a half dozen times" pattern that so many new series feel compelled to follow. In the pilot, and this episode, and next week's, and (based on some comments Liz Tigelaar made at press tour), we're going to get a lot of stories in which things seem to be going hunky-dory between Lux, Cate and Baze, then Lux has some reason to back away, then realizes in the end that they care about her (and vice versa) and everyone tries to make a fresh start.

And I get why networks push for that approach - not everyone sees the pilot of a new show, particularly on a less-viewed network like the CW, and one without big stars, and so you want to give any potential newbies something to grab onto - as well as why Tigelaar might think it makes sense for the characters. (Not that this is a very realistic show, but on whatever level of realism we think it takes place on, it would be weird if there weren't some early bumps in the road for the trio.) But for those of us watching every episode, it can get a little wearying.

Also, the story about Cate's radio job bugged me. Yes, they established in the pilot that she and Ryan have to keep their relationship a secret for the sake of the show, and so it might follow that she has to do the same with her kid. But there comes a point where all the secret-keeping can be more detrimental to the show's success - sooner or later, won't they be spotted around town as the minor local celebrities the show wants us to view them as? - and Cate's on-air confession at the end seems particularly damaging. First she says on-air (in the pilot) that she has a kid, then doubles back and lies about it early in this one, then goes back to the truth again at the end. If the whole point of these shows is that listeners begin to feel like they know the hosts and have a kind of one-sided friendship with them, how are they going to react when it starts to become obvious how fake the host's on-air personalities really are?

What did everybody else think?

'Life Unexpected' review - andreikirilenkotattoo on TV

In today's column, I review "Life Unexpected," which I enjoyed largely because of how it reminded me of the old WB shows I used to like.

No time for a separate blog post to run after tonight's premiere, so feel free to talk about it here.