LIFE UNEXPECTED is an Unexpected Treat for TV Fans (Watch First Ten Minutes)

One of the best new shows of the Winter TV season is The CW’s Life Unexpected. This show is classic WB in the best possible way. At the core are strong characters who are finding their way through life through their relationships with others. With strong writing, fantastic acting, and good stories to be told, Life Unexpected fills a void I’ve felt since the days of Everwood, Felicity and Dawson’s Creek.

The show brings us into the world of Lux (Brittany Roberston, “Swingtown”), a girl who was given up for adoption at birth and has floated around from one miserable foster home to another her whole life. At 15 she’s ready to become an emancipated minor – a move that requires proof that she can survive on her own. Hoping to get the next stage of her life started, Lux sets out to track down the parents that gave her away so many years ago.

Lux’s journey brings her to the doorstep of Nathan “Baze” Bazile (Kristofer Polaha, “Mad Men”), a  former high school quarterback who now lives a life of leisure above the bar he owns (or rather his father owns). Not what one might deem Father of the Year material. Needless to say he is a bit taken back when the daughter he never knew arrives on his doorstep. But Lux is the one in for the real surprise when she discovers that her birth mother is Cate Cassidy, (Shiri Appelby, “Roswell”, “ER”) a morning radio host who Lux has listened to her whole life.

Cate and her co-host (on air and off) Ryan Thomas (Kerr Smith, “Dawson’s Creek”) are local celebrities whose personal and professional lives are in upheaval when Lux enters their lives.

When a judge refuses to emancipate Lux and awards temporary custody to Baze and Cate, the three plus Ryan, need to learn how to become a family. Not an easy task for any of them, but especially Lux who has never really had one before.

Life Unexpected shows us a world in which past mistakes don’t always come back to haunt you. Sometimes they come back to teach you things about yourself that you never knew. It’s the best new show of the winter season. A real win for The CW…and for fans of great storytelling.

The show premieres on The CW on Monday, January 18 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET) and on March 8, Life Unexpected will move to the 8:00-9:00 p.m. timeslot.

If you listen to The TV Talk Podcast then you’ve heard great things about this show. Both Dan and I have seen the first three episodes and we are absolutely smitten. Now, courtesy of The CW, you can watch the first ten minutes of Life Unexpected right here, right now. Just enough to whet your appetite a bit.

Take a look and let me know what you think. Do you think Life Unexpected will be on your winter TV calendar next week? It will most definitely be on mine.