I’m not surprised that “Life Unexpected” (8 p.m. Central Mondays, The CW) is good — after all, the cast is incredible and exec producer Liz Tigelaar boasts an impressive resume with “What About Brian” and other credits — but I am surprised that I love it as much as I do only five episodes into its run. Already, it feels like a fully formed series with distinct locations in rainy Portland, Ore., and a wealth of characters and possibilities.
The pilot episode hits the right tone, selling a premise that is ridiculous in so many ways. A judge orders two adults to take custody of their 15-year-old daughter because no one else will take her; the mom (Shiri Appleby of “Roswell”) isn’t aware that the kid had never been adopted and the dad (Kristoffer Polaha) doesn’t even know he has a kid.
It’s the way the unwanted teen, Lux (Britt Robertson), delivers her lines, deadpan or dead serious, that got me.
On the stairs outside the courthouse: “Well, that was the opposite of being emancipated.”
Cate: “Was (being in foster homes) really that bad?” Lux: “Worse.”
But like an adult drama answer to the kid comedy of “Punky Brewster,” the seriousness of the pilot’s issues quickly give way to the weekly workings of the show, as Cate and Baze learn — slowly and awkwardly — how to be parents 15 years late.
I can’t think of a show with this deep of a character roster since “Once and Again,” where Tigelaar had a small behind-the-scenes role and clearly soaked up tons of knowledge.
There’s Cate, the co-host of a relationship radio show with her fiancé, Ryan (Kerr Smith, in his first notable role since “Dawson’s Creek”).
Polaha, good in “Miss/Guided,” gets something meatier here as a bar owner learning to be a dad even though he has a rocky relationship with his own dad, from whom he rents the bar. (The bar and Baze’s loft above it already feel like iconic locations, as does Lux’s attic bedroom in Cate and Ryan’s house.)
Britt Robertson, who pops off the screen as a ’70s kid in “Swingtown,” finds a balance between being an immature teenager and being street smart (her boyfriend and best friends — ex-foster kids themselves — somehow manage to rent an apartment of their own, as was Lux’s intention before the judge’s ruling). She makes the decisions of a kid but has a mature demeanor — Lux does stupid things like throw a kegger in Baze’s loft, yet she understands why Baze yells at her for doing it.
The character roster keeps spinning off in intriguing directions. There are also Lux’s potential friends at her new school, Baze’s buddies from the bar, Cate’s best friend at work and Cate’s mom (Cynthia Stevenson from “Dead Like Me”). Most shows are content to focus on the regulars, bringing in side characters only rarely, but on “Life Unexpected,” any of these folks could weave in and out of the story any week. That’s logistically difficult to pull off, but it adds a lot of realism to the proceedings.
Early on “Once and Again,” Lily and Jake hook up, leaving Rick hurt. On Monday, it looks like Cate and Baze might engage in similar behavior, leaving Ryan in the lurch. I hope Cate and Ryan become a happy couple with a wonderful makeshift family just like Lily and Rick. I hardly know a thing about Ryan (there hasn’t been a Ryan episode yet), but I’m already rooting for the guy, even though I like Baze also.
That’s just another example of how “Life Unexpected” gets under your skin. Without seeming to try to hard, it has become my favorite show on TV.