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.
Monday, January 18, 2010
'Life Unexpected' review - Sepinwall 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.
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24 comments:
I've heard good things about this. My biggest objection, though, is it running on Monday nights. My TiVo gets a work out on Mondays.
Do they address how OLD the mother is supposed to be? via imdb, Shiri Appleby is only 31. Birttany Robertson, the girl playing her daughter, is 19!
Really? This just seems distracting largely because Appleby looks pretty young for her age and Robertson looks,well, more like a 20 year old than a 16 year old.
Robertson's playing 16, and Appleby's playing 32 or 33, I guess. Not the first time an actor's age has been fudged before for the sake of plot logic.
Maybe it's because I'm kind of close in age (or because Birttany Robertson looks to be in her mid-20s), but the age fudge is really distracting in the commercials.
You, it often happens that I see Alan post about a new show that I hadn't heard of that I forgot about and I think, "Hey that sounds interesting, let me check it out on Hulu". Occasionally these shows make it into my regular DVR rotation.
But, of course, CW doesn't do Hulu. They don't even post many episodes on their own website.
Oh well, whatever.
My biggest issue with the show is the name of the main character. Lux? Really? To quote Joey from Friends, "That's not a name. It's barely even a word."
I'm looking forward to this one, even though I know it's going to make me - at 34 - feel old. Back when Gilmore Girls was on I was at more of an in-between age as a viewer. Now I'm fully older than the parents of a teen characters. Yeesh.
@ Alan: Thanks and yes, very true. (No more absurd than Drea DeMateo's supposed son on Joey). Makes sense, though one of the promo stills made me wonder if they were supposed to be sisters!
Steph, I feel your pain-I'm several yrs. older than you so I know what you are talking about.
This show has gotten some good buzz so I'm going to give it a shot.
Sometimes, I have to say stop when a laundry list of shows pile up on the DVR and I don't have time to watch.
Age disparity can be distracting. I did notice that mother and daughter look much closer in age in the previews.
I'm just assuming that Appleby's character had her daughter at a very young age. Also, from what I've seen, Robertson does look around 16. I can live with that.
Very much looking forward to the show.
Thanks for the reminder, Alan. My head's all full of the 3rd and 4th hours of "24" being on tonight, so everything else is blocked out.
Appleby's character had the baby when she was a teenager. That's why she gave her up for adoption. Appleby is supposed to be around 32 and Robertson around 16. Neither of those ages is a stretch.
Not sure how this movie works as a TV show. At least from the commercial I saw on... HULU! ...its initial draw and premise is pretty much done in three shows tops. Better have some damn good writers than can continue to make this interesting to those viewers (read: not me) who start watching it.
I'm always happy to see Appleby get some work. I really liked her on Roswell, but some of the hardcore Roswell fans did not seem to like her at all. I think she's generally a solid actress. I even liked her little bit in Charlie Wilson's War.
I liked it. I'll keep watching and see where it goes...
Thoroughly enjoyed this show way more than I expected
Maybe, like Alan, it's simply due to my longing for a classic WB dramedy but hands down this show just hit the spot
I agree with everyone else about the unrealistic-ness of it... but really, are you going to argue that anything about Stars Hallow (or for that matter rowing a boat up a creek all alone at night) was realistic?
i gave up taping tonight's ep of heroes for it--so i'm hoping it's at least decent---(figured i can always see heroes on demand where its been for this entire season so far) had to run into the other room to switch the channel from chuck (which i was taping to get this) while flipping between cbs sitcoms and 24...easier to do then it sounds believe it or not.
if the show is decent it might make a good stopgap between chuck and castle---if not at least there's always 24....on a slightly related note---I miss when Tuesday nights were full of network shows worth watching. (just three or four short years ago you could go from Gilmore Girls to House to NYPD Blue back to back to back....hell last spring you could go from Reaper to Fringe to Without A Trace back to back to back---now you're pretty much stuck with NCIS--cause that's the only game in town at 8-- Melrose Place vs ncis la at 9 and The Good Wife vs forgotten abc drama at 10---jeebus networks i know you're tues night reality is highly lucrative for you but good lord do tuesday nights suck for people who don't care about reality tv.
Meh. It felt warm and fuzzy but I think I'm just grown too cynical to appreciate the warm and fuzzy anymore. Plus I am still bitter about the way Gilmore Girls ended that I resent the CW hyping this show as Just Like Gilmore Girls!
It's better than most of what's on the CW but that's not saying alot.
Just had to laugh that the show's creator wanted to skip "the diapering-changing and other early childhood stuff and just have a teenage daughter..." Oh, the sweet innocence of those who have never raised a teenager - especially a teenage girl! I'm still chuckling to myself.
I really loved it. It did an excellent job of getting to the essential truth of being a birth mother. I was surprised that it's so realistic, while still managing to be a good show in general. It was a little hard to watch some scenes, but, overall, I was mighty impressed. I'll continue to watch it.
This show has had more ads for it than any TV show that I have seen. It is a great show so far. The plot is a great idea. It is a common practice for children on TV to be played by people older than what they play. Lux may be a new name now, but wait until all these parents name their babies, Lux. Good Lux with this show.
I like it, great cast and very heartwarming, looking forward how the maiden season plays out, I hope it succeeds so CW would get to their senses and stop producing slutty shows, Gossip Girl is enough
Lux is an awesome character. The You Tube scene with her and the birth dad was cute. Many of the lines the birth mother had were too glib and the character was not believable. Maybe future episodes will be better.
And yes, Lux is 16 and her birth mother is 32. I agree not a stretch, as Anonymous at 3:54 says.
As I started watching and heard it was set in Portland, Oregon, I got excited. But, of course, it's actually filmed in B.C. Oh well. If CW puts the episodes up on its website I will watch, but I fear it's just the pilot that is up there.
Imamarilyn said: Many of the lines the birth mother had were too glib and the character was not believable.
Imamarilyn, I'm curious why you think Cate isn't believable. I found her very believable.
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