I don’t get as emotionally involved in the cancellation of shows as I used to (“Angel” in 2004 was the last one that really hurt). I just try to look at all shows as being one season long, and any more than that is a bonus.
But if “Life Unexpected” (7 p.m. Central Mondays on The CW) were to be canceled after one season (actually, half a season, since it started in January), it would hurt.
Right now, the Ausiello Files’ Bubble Show Scorecard over at Entertainment Weekly has “Life Unexpected” in the “could go either way” category. And considering that The CW canned the similarly wonderful “Privileged” last year, I’m nervous, I really am.
“Life Unexpected” stars my favorite actress, Shiri Appleby, and I suspect the show’s writers kind of love her, too. In Monday’s episode, Cate’s sister, Abby (Alex Breckenridge) and Baze (Kristoffer Polaha) mention that she always pronounces soft Gs with a K sound, and that’s a weird (and cute) Appleby trait, not specifically a Cate trait.
I’m not predisposed to like any show with Shiri in it. If anything, her presence, and my love of her first show, “Roswell,” makes me more critical of her work.
However, there’s a lot to like (and analyze and obsess over) about “Life Unexpected.” For starters, it features the best kind of love triangle: One where there are no villains. TV Gal over at Zap2It.com is rooting for both men in the Ryan-Cate-Baze triangle, and I also think both guys deserve happiness.
But actually, I don’t see Cate and Baze as a couple. I see Cate and Ryan (Kerr Smith) as soul mates (in addition to being co-hosts of a morning radio show in Portland), and Baze as the guy who will find his happiness elsewhere. But then again, it’s still early in the series, so maybe a night of Spin Doctors and Zima can resonate through the years more than one might think. And Cate screws things up with Ryan (Kerr Smith) so badly — by reverting to a high school mindset for one night and sleeping with Baze — that I suppose anything’s possible.
I want Cate and Ryan to live happily ever after just like I rooted for Liz to make it work with Max back in the “Roswell” days. Subconsciously, I probably imagine myself in the Max or Ryan role; Appleby was adorable as Liz, but now she is a classic example of a woman who gets more beautiful with age (and she is by all accounts a nice person off the set, too).
Liz Tigelaar, the show’s creator, will get to make another show if “Life Unexpected” doesn’t keep going. Talent in Hollywood isn’t always rewarded with the renewal of your show, but it is often rewarded with a future job, and Tigelaar’s show-shaping talent won’t go away.
But a great ensemble cast with amazing chemistry is nothing to take for granted. There’s no guarantee that her next show will come together as magically as “Life Unexpected” has; in fact, it almost certainly won’t.
Think of Joss Whedon’s “Firefly” — and then the hit-and-miss “Dollhouse.” Or Bryan Fuller’s “Wonderfalls” — and then the mediocre “Pushing Daisies.” Or Mitchell Hurwitz’s “Arrested Development” — and then … whatever his next show was called (I watched about 15 minutes of it and gave up). Great, groundbreaking shows are rarely followed up by another great show; not because the writing talent goes away, but because that lightning-in-a-bottle combination of premise, writers and actors is such a rarity. Miss by just a little bit and it doesn’t quite work.
Still, I’m trying not to let the pain of a potential cancellation increase just because “Life Unexpected” keeps getting better.
The jokey side storyline of Math (Austin Basis) having a 16-year crush on Cate is building into something subtly compelling. After Monday’s episode, where Math takes Cate to the Winter Formal as a co-chaperone and she has a good time, it seems like maybe there’s something there. And maybe Math will just get his heart broken, but regardless, it’s a great storyline to pursue (and actually, I’m more of a Math than a Ryan, so maybe I’m rooting for him a bit). And then there’s the whole Baze-and-Abby thing (she admired Baze from afar just as Math admired Cate). I suppose the proper term for all of this is “love pentagon.”
I even kind of like the show’s other love triangle. Lux’s (Britt Robertson) squeeze, Bug (Rafi Gavron), does that only-on-TV thing where a person’s solution to a problem is to disappear to another city for a couple of weeks. Bug thinks he isn’t good enough for Lux, so he takes off for Sacramento even though she simply asked him to treat her better. In a real-life scenario, Bug would indeed aim to treat Lux better. Few real people are so egotistical yet simultaneously so unselfish that they’d split town in a situation like that.
At any rate, Bug is back, and now Lux is torn (as in being pulled in two directions) between new beau Jones (Austin Robert Butler) (the nice, boring preppie guy) and old beau Bug (the not-as-nice, edgy street guy). It’s like the opposite of Rory Gilmore’s love triangle with Dean and Jess, which is more of a cliché where the girl with the nice boyfriend is drawn to the guy who was “wrong for her.” Here, Lux is kind of intrigued by the nice guy, and I like that. Unfortunately, neither Jones nor Bug jumps off the screen the way the older actors do, but maybe that’ll change with time.
Here’s the biggest sign that I’m in love with “Life Unexpected.” I’m no longer bothered by the most ridiculous aspect of the show: The premise that Cate is Lux’s mother (the actresses are 12 years apart). We live in an age of surprisingly immature adults and surprisingly mature teens, and this show is a funny and poignant illustration — like “Gilmore Girls,” only with the drama-comedy ratio leaning more toward drama.
Yep, TV still has the power to break my heart. That’s what’ll happen if “Life Unexpected” gets the ax.