TV on DVD: Life Unexpected

Life Unexpected was a CW show that lasted for a year from January 2010 - January 2011 airing 26 episodes. In the last month, I watched the entire two seasons on DVD. Here are my thoughts on the show and obviously spoilers are throughout this entry.

Life Unexpected is about a 16 year-old girl named Lux (Britt Robertson) who grew up in foster care. The show filmed mainly in Vancouver, Canada, but took place in Portland, Oregon though on occasion they filmed in the US. Her mother Cate (Shiri Appleby) got pregnant in high school by Nate Basile nicknamed Baze (Kristoffer Polaha). Lux's conception happened during a one night stand in the back of a van parked in the school lot, while the winter formal was going on inside. Cate had the baby and gave her up for adoption. At 16, Lux wanted to be emancipated and needed to find her biological parents to sign off on the paperwork. Instead of getting her wishes, Cate and Baze ended up with shared custody of their daughter and eventually got their rights reinstated as Lux's parents. Fern (Lucia Walters) was the case worker that looked after Lux.

When the series began, Cate was a successful radio host with Ryan (Kerr Smith). They had an on again off again romance, and eventually were married. Ryan accepted Lux and was another father to her. Cate's best friend was Alice (Erin Karpluk) who worked as their producer at the radio station. For a time, Cate was demoted and replaced by Kelly (Amy Price-Francis) on the radio. Eventually things went back to normal, and Cate was back with Ryan. That said, Cate and Ryan suffered the loss of a child as she miscarried and was unable to get pregnant again. When Cate and Ryan were estranged, Ryan slept with "the one who got away" and she became pregnant. Cate discovered what happened and let Ryan go. Unlike Cate and Ryan, Baze was less responsible, he owned and ran a bar until it was burned to the ground by Ryan's sister. Baze then got a serious job working for his father's investment firm and with his boss Emma (Emma Caulfield). That relationship fell apart once he discovered that Emma and a long affair with his father Jack (Robin Thomas). At the start of the show, Baze lived above his bar with his two best friends Math (Austin Basis), an English teacher, and Jamie (Reggie Austin) who worked at the bar.

Sometimes Lux would pit her biological parents against each other to get her way. When the show began, she had a boyfriend named Bug (Rafi Gavron). They eventually parted ways when he moved out of state after proposing to Lux. He couldn't take being around her if they weren't together. Lux's best friend Tasha (Ksenia Solo) grew up with her in foster care. Eventually Cate and Ryan became Tasha's guardians though she lived on her own. Lux also dated Jones (Austin Butler) and Eric Daniels (Shaun Sipos) who was her tutor. When Eric and Lux met they had no idea, that he was going to teach at her school. Lux and Eric never had sex, and he broke it off with her once he realized how wrong their relationship was. This was after Lux admitted how she was nearly raped by a potential adoptive father that Tasha hit with a shovel to protect her best friend.

Due to how quickly the show ended, they did a time jump the final episode. It was graduation day for Lux, Jones and Tasha (who had returned from her time in detention for protecting Lux). Lux gave a speech, and we saw how both, she and Tasha had an unconventional family. Baze and Cate were dating and Lux referred to them as Mom and Dad. Math and Alice were having a baby and Ryan was with Julia (Jaime Ray Newman) and their son.

While this show focused on the teenaged Lux, the 30-something characters also had a lot of story. I appreciated the two-tiered storytelling, but at times it was humorous that Lux was more grown up than her parents.  This was a coming of age story not just for the kids, but for the parents too. None of the characters were shown as ideal, and trying to live their lives as best as they could.