A Man. And His Blog.

Am I getting bored with my life, or is LIFE UNEXPECTED really getting boring with every episode in this season? During those 40 minutes, I was mostly doing something else than being focused on why Ryan (Kerr Smith) is having an affair, why Emma (Emma Caulfield) doesn’t “want” Baze (Kristoffer Polaha) to be her next best boyfriend, and why the writers focus so much on the forbidden Lux/Eric relationship. Yes, this episode was boring as hell, and now I’m just gonna write to Santa Claus that my wish is for the series to be canceled. The CW failed with getting into the production and telling everybody what to write and shoot, and I’m losing interest in the once good family show.

So, let’s get into it: The only “cute” story was Baze’s, since it was the only bright story, and the only one with a “feel-good moment”. Finally he gets into making out with Emma, and finally the writers can put up some more relationship trouble, after those seem to be the theme of the season. The whole thing with fake-dating Steve (Ryan Bittle) was tedious though, but at least it didn’t give us more time and another episode for Baze to say the three famous words to his boss.

Ryan’s flashback story was completely ridiculous though. I barely couldn’t remember Julia (Jaime Ray Newman) anyway (though I can remember there was something of a secret here), and despite the writers clearing everything off here, it was not interesting enough. The pregnancy-scare was a big cliché, Ryan and Cate (Shiri Appleby) finding out about each other’s affairs was a big cliché, and now this married couple is in some relationship stress. Again. The tenth time in the series already? I lost count. I wonder when the writers are starting to build in the divorce storyline.

Lux (Brittany Robertson) and Eric (Shaun Sipos) were boring too. I was waiting for the “learning disability” thing for the whole season now, and I was waiting for the Eric/Paige (Arielle Kebbel)couple to break up, after they were so suddenly introduced in the last episode. I don’t know though, if Eric actually has feelings for Lux, as he told Paige, or if there is another woman in his life. Considering the writing for this season so far, I could imagine latter.

Yawn, that’s all I have to say. 5/10

"OMG, I'm having flashbacks"

That's the split moment before a kiss

Ready for more conflicts: a broken family

It was a sheer miracle that Life UneXpected was such a charming show on The CW during the last midseason. Even though the series couldn’t completely convince me, it was at least better than any other glamour-teen-soaps on the glamour-teen-soap-bubble-network. And after the season premiere ratings of 90210 (0.9/3) and Gossip Girl (1.0/3), it should be a sheer miracle, when Life Unexpected is actually surviving this season. The little family drama was a critics darling, and its network still tries to find new audiences. So here’s top hope that Life UneXpected will find its ratings and eventually beat the glamour-teen-soaps. The season premiere “Oceans Uncharted” showed the quality the series had during its first season. Nothing really changed much – the writing is still the same, the characters didn’t develop over the summer and/or honeymoon, and the usual new characters (also known as troublemakers) are to find in the first episode of the sophomore season. In addition, every story told in here was already known, somewhat predictable, but promising for an interesting second season. Or what the writers make of it.

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The first season of The CW's family drama aired between January and April 2010

Teenager Lux (Britt Robertson) had been through the foster care system for almost her whole life. Cate Cassidy (Shiri Appleby) had given birth to her while still a teen but gave her up for adoption believing a better home could be found for her. Most likely because of her heart problems as a baby, Lux was never adopted. On her 16th birthday, Lux has finally decided to become an emancipated minor, but before that occurs, she has to get signatures from her unknown birth parents. During her journey through the legal maze, Lux finds her biological father, 30-something Nate “Baze” Bazile (Kristoffer Polaha), who lives above a bar and is astonished to learn he has a daughter. Lux learns that her mother is Cate Cassidy, a star on local radio, along with her boyfriend, Ryan Thomas (Kerr Smith). When a judge decides that Lux isn’t ready for emancipation and unexpectedly grants temporary joint custody to Baze and Cate, the new-found family tries to live through all the expected and unexpected troubles, which lie ahead.

Episode 01: Pilot
I already watched and reviewed it during the midseason reviews. Click here to read it. 8/10

Episode 02: Home Inspected
It was a good episode, and the second half was more interesting than the first half. What the first half made so uninteresting were Lux’s friends. Not only were they stereotype characters, but I actually couldn’t buy these characters as Lux’s friends, especially one of the guys as her boyfriends. For that, Lux’s friends almost looked … more criminal than Lux herself. I don’t know, but I couldn’t start to begin something with them, and hopefully this won’t be a storyline for the next couple of episodes.
I liked the home inspection story, because it brought some funny moments (the sheep and the bong lamp); only letting Cate say in the radio, she wasn’t pregnant and doesn’t have a daughter was just dumb. First it was just a story bump for Lux trying to love her mother, second it was a pretty dumb plot device storywise. Fortunately it got undone at the end of the episode. The rest of the episode was nice; that Cate is now the primal parent is an interesting story, which can mean character development for Baze and Ryan, and I hope Keegan Connor Tracy will appear in more episodes, because I am starting to like her. 7/10

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Lux wants to be an adult - and gets parents instead

The CW is one of the networks you have to keep an eye on. Either they surprise with a good series (Supernatural), with stupid ideas (bringing back Melrose Place), or they have a real rating success in their schedule (The Vampire Diaries), as well as the fastest cancellation of the current season (The Beautiful Life: TBL). “Life UneXpected”, the first pilot The CW ordered for the 2009/10 pilot and the last one picked up to series, could have been all of this: good, stupid, a success or a surprise. After watching the first episode: It is good, and after watching the ratings today, it might even be a success for The CW.

The story is simple: 15-year-old Lux (Brittany Robertson) lived her whole life in foster care and was never adopted due to a hole in her heart. Two days before her sixteenth birthday she decides to get emancipated, so she can live her own life and doesn’t have to wait for another two years. But for that to happen she needs the signature of her birth parents. And that’s the start of the series, when Lux lands in Portland to meet her birth father Nate “Baze” Bazile (Kristoffer Polaha), who lives above a bar, and her birth mother Cate Cassidy (Shiri Appleby), a hot radio hostess short before getting engaged. Lux’s entrance in the world of the former high school couple brings lots of trouble, and not just because Baze and Cate have to be Lux’s parents, after her emancipation gets declined in front of court.

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