January 20th, 2010 3:03 am

Life Unexpected

A real flashback to The WB’s good old days, ‘Life Unexpected’ is a funny and heart warming dramedy the entire family can enjoy.

Prior to The CW, there existed The WB network – this was a place to find heartwarming, family dramas where the whole family could sit in front of the TV to enjoy the likes of ‘Gilmore Girls’ and ‘Everwood.’ Unfortunately due to financial difficulties it was forced to merge with fellow struggling network UPN. This saw the end of The WB’s distinct brand, giving rise to what we see on The CW right now, with most shows focusing on filthy rich teenagers who have too much time on their hands.

Last fall, The CW tried to buck the trend with ‘Privileged,’ which coincidentally focused on filthy rich girls without the sex and bitching, but that failed. This time around they have come up with ‘Life Unexpected,’ ‘Life Unexpected’ was so different to The CW’s other shows that The CW didn’t even know what to do with it. The title of the show changed three times in the space of a couple of months, from ‘Light Years’ to ‘Parental Discretion Advised’ to the ridiculous ‘Life UneXpected’ and then finally settling on ‘Life Unexpected.’ And for those who haven’t noticed, the capitalization of the ‘X’ was supposed to put emphasis on its main antagonist Lux.

Lux (Brittany Robertson) has been in the foster care system for a long and treacherous 15 years, on the eve of her sixteenth birthday she decides she wants to free herself from the system, to do this she must be legally emancipated, which requires the signatures of her birth parents. Created by Liz Tigelaar, this is where ‘Life Unexpected’ picks up the story. To obtain the signatures she must seek out her parents, her father Nate “Baze” Bazile (Kristoffer Polaha) is a thirty-something living above a bar still unsure of his future. On the other hand, Cate Cassidy (Shiri Appleby), her birth mum, partners up with Kyle, her soon to be husband (Kerr Smith) on a successful morning radio program.

Lux was a result of an accidental one night stand between high school students Nate and Cate. But when Lux confronts her parents, one of which who didn’t know she existed and the other who didn’t give a second thought of keeping her, both are naturally shocked. To complicate the matter, Lux’s emancipation hearing is rejected by the judge handing Cate and Nate joint custody of their biological daughter despite just meeting the distant individuals. This forces Cate and Nate to realise they must mature quickly and become responsible parents.

No doubt, the proceeding episodes will focus on the complicated matters they face as they try to juggle their everyday lives with the addition of a teenager, Lux’s eagerness to find out her parent’s past and the possible problem of having Lux, Cate, Nate (and his friends) and Kyle live under the same roof and or the fight for custody of Lux.

Despite the plot holes – the bleeding obvious, why wouldn’t anyone want a smart, pretty teenage caucasian as their daughter, there is plenty to like about this warm family drama, ‘Life Unexpected.’ The characters are funny, charming and the relationships are well played out making them believable and hopefully this will be the breakout role for Polaha who charmed and entertained us on the short lived CW series ‘Valentine.’ ‘Life Unexpected’ is a flashback to the feel good dramas on The WB, where it was more about being nice to each other than bitching and whining.