Heart & Soul

I was going to title this entry "Show Unexpected," just to be clever, but decided against it. Though I clearly still wanted to share that little tidbit with you.

I'm often wary of watching a new TV show I expect to like. This of course is because of the love I develop for shows and characters that end up not working out, either due to short-sightedness by the network (Firefly, Wonderfalls, Drive) or simply because people weren't watching while the network managed to bring the show back after a failed season (the recently-ended Dollhouse).

Last weekend, as a receiver of the frequent "New on iTunes" e-mails, I noticed they were offering the pilot episodes of The Deep End, and a show called Life Unexpected for free. The Deep End recently caught my eye, not because of the premise - because I had no idea what it was before watching - but because one of the leads is Tina Majorino, and she was so great in Veronica Mars, I jumped at the chance to see her in a new show. And then it's a show about lawyers, and well, I'm not sure if I intend to um, dive back in. It's not bad by any means, but law shows aren't usually my thing.

Life Unexpected, however, is. This one I knew even less about, I just grabbed the pilot on a whim. Imagine my surprise, as a huge fan of Roswell, to see the lovely Shiri Appleby as one of the show's stars! And while I drifted away from the show eventually, I recall liking Kerr Smith on Dawson's Creek back in the day, so that's two wins so far. The real star, of course, is Britt(any) Robertson:

Adorable.

So, premise. In a nutshell, Britt stars as Lux, a 15 year old living in Portland, Oregon with her seventh (or so) foster family, and being pretty unhappy about this. As one could imagine. She has money saved, and her plan is to become emancipated to finally be free of her situation. The trick is that she needs her biological parents' signatures to do so, and manages to track down her father, Nate Bazile, who typically goes by "Baze." It's through him that Lux learns that her mother is part of a morning radio show duo she's listened to most of her life. Since it seems as if she hasn't aged a day, it's hard to see Shiri Appleby as a 32-year-old mother at first, but considering she really IS 31 in reality, you can't argue too much. Maybe I'm just used to Liz Parker. In short, upon learning of Lux's paltry savings, lack of income, and the presence of her parents, the judge does not approve her emancipation, and instead grants temporary custody to Nate and Cate (love those names), who haven't seen each other in years and don't exactly see eye on eye on most things.

That's where things start off, but I won't go past that, since I recommend anyone reading this to check out the first episode either via iTunes (and note its 5-star average score on over 350 reviews) or on The CW's site.

The first reviewer on iTunes mentions that this show reminded them of a 'classic' WB show, from the era of Dawson's Creek, and I'm inclined to agree with that. The show is smartly written, and has a cast of characters that feel like real people, actual and whole. It seems like it would be very easy to write Lux as an overly-emotional... well, brat. Remember Tia in Uncle Buck? It's true that she has trouble adjusting to a new life, and with her experiences in foster homes, that's to be expected. Where the show succeeds is that she manages to keep this side in check. She actually does know and acknowledge that her parents care for her, even when they're not doing a great job at parenting. More than that, she *wants* a real family and a home to come back to after school. Something real. Something she's never had before. This is my favorite part of the show so far, because it exemplifies what I said earlier about the depth of the characters. They - Lux especially - are very much layered as we all are, and rise above the one-dimensional characters we see in far too many shows. And let's face it, reality.

What makes me elevate a show above others is what made me love Firefly. It's what makes me feel How I Met Your Mother is the best sitcom on TV right now, and that it will go down as one of the all-time greats in the end. Heart and soul. HIMYM shows this all the time, as it overcomes the typical sitcom formula of modern times of simplistic people who live to mock one another. Instead, you have these friends with diverse personalities who all truly care for each other when all is said and done, and for all the laughs and silliness we get, there's always a sincere moment waiting. Again, heart and soul. It's why that show works so well I feel, and why Life Unexpected does too. It manages to bring us a family drama with just enough comedy, none of the immaturity seen in many "teen" shows, and none of the overly in-your-face heavy-handed morality you may find in a typical "family" show. It's simply just the right combination of everything.

We're only three episodes in, but I already can't miss a week. I do hope the show finds an audience and sticks around, because I truly think we need more of these kinds of shows on TV.