except for me. There will be a lot of Me.
Theme by nostrich.
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” I love that you think it’s weird that Kansas and Colorado touch.”
Disclaimer: I used to write movie reviews. In high school, I used to write movie reviews. For a short while. For the teen section of a large South Florida newspaper. And, being young and unassuming (and importantly, not invited to advance press screenings), I would indulge my curiosity and read reviews. Reviews of the movies I had yet to see and had yet to write about. Always influenced by other writer’s words, I soon after decided that I would never read criticism of something I was going to review myself. At least not before I had written my own response.
That was years ago. Except for the sporadic articles I wrote while in college for the Columbia Spectator, I have gotten long out of that game. And so, with that concern out of the way, as an avid entertainment junkie, I read as many reviews as I can get my hands on. I never let them deter me from watching something, but it would be a blatant lie to say that I don’t get influenced. I’m human (or so I’ve been told.)
The above is a long preamble to this: I have been looking forward to Life Unexpected for quite some time. For months, I have read how it hearkens back to the days of the Old WB, the days of Felicity and Everwood and Dawson’s Creek, where caustic wit and tender sentimentality often went hand-in- hesitant-hand. As the poster above states, with a quote from my former colleagues at TV Guide Magazine, it’s “Juno meets Gilmore Girls.” I was already salivating.
When I started blogging just earlier today, I knew I had to review the show. But I realized I had already, unwittingly, broken my cardinal rule. No reviews before writing. I don’t want to be effusive and praise something just so I can write in a snappy, overblown fashion…while parroting some other writer’s thoughts. So I stupidly counteracted and expected less of the show.
And that’s what I got. Life Unexpected starts out pleasant enough. I sat there thinking, ”It’s quippy, it’s warm, it’s got a great plot… It’s nothing special. Certainly not groundbreaking and, in retrospect, not even as solid as the original pilots of those old WB Shows that is has been compared to.” The show to watch in 2010, the show I had such high hopes for seemed to just be passing in front of my eyes. My, at that point, dry eyes.
At about the three-quarter mark, by the time the show returned from its last commercial break, something in the ethos shifted. My eyes had by this point become wet with salty, sentimental goodness. Although it may not be as ambitious as other “brilliant” shows like Lost or Mad Men, Life Unexpected is, in it’s own little way, just as wonderful. I had fully innoculated myself from its charms in an effort to be journalistically sound, to not be sucked in by other reviewer’s praise. And Still. It still got me by the end.
Life Unexpected is one of those shows that will grow on you. From just one episode alone, I can see it, feel it.
Watch this. Knowing what the plot is doesn’t matter. It never should. When something is done well, that should be reason enough. You have your reason.
