...Set: Life Unexpected 1x01 "Pilot"

I had a feeling going into this show that I would like it, and like it I did. Everywhere you look it's been heralded as "Juno meets Gilmore Girls" and while I see the GG comparisons, I'd say it's closer to another much beloved and missed WB show, Everwood, than Juno. It's got that old school WB feel that has been very sadly missing from much of The CW's lineup of late. That earnest family-teen-drama-comedy of yore is back, thank god. I cannot take any more of the stuck up rich kids.

Anyhow, on to the actual plot. Things were pretty basic here, as it generally needs to be in a pilot to get the story going. We get glimpses into the lives of our main characters before things get uprooted. Cate Cassidy (Shiri Appleby) is a radio personality for station K100 in Portland, Oregon. And, as a side note, I'm from Portland, and I really loved seeing all of the shots of the city, though I know the show itself is shot in Vancouver, BC. I'm not sure if the pilot was actually shot in Portland or not, but in any case, it looks good. Incidentally, there is no K100 in real life, as is to be expected. There is a Z100 and a K103 and 105.1 The Buzz. Okay, I'll spare you from more Portland talk. Anyway, Cate cohosts her talk show with her paramour Ryan Thomas (Kerr Smith), though it seems they keep their relationship strictly off air, though Ryan does want to make Cate his wife.

Nate "Baze" Bazile (Kristoffer Polaha) lives above the bar that he owns, and is a general man-child, as we would expect. He has a couple guy friends who seem to hang around or work at the bar as well, and as I'm not sure what their names are, that will have to wait until some other episode.

Finally, there is Lux (Britt Robertson), the 15, almost 16-year-old, foster child who has had enough of the foster system, and decides to track down her birth parents: Cate and Baze. They are both baffled to see Lux. Baze because he had assumed that Cate had "taken care of it" back in the day, Cate because she thought Lux would've been adopted right away. But, it turns out, little Lux never was adopted because the poor thing was born with a hole in her heart (how metaphorical!) and had to have multiple operations to fix it, thereby passing her easily-adopted window.

Although Lux manages to get Cate and Baze to sign the paper for her emancipation, things don't go as planned at the hearing, with the judge deciding to give custody of Lux over to Cate and Baze, who both showed up for the hearing. Outside the court, though, things turn sour when Cate and Baze start arguing, resulting in Lux deciding she's better off in the foster system than with them, particularly after Cate confesses she never even thought of keeping her when she was born.

That night Cate and Baze catch up on old times, and I have to say I think this was my favorite scene of the episode, particularly when they mention "Two Princes" by the Spin Doctors, then when they engage in that hot, torrid kiss that leads to more sexy times, the song blasted onto the soundtrack. Love it! Especially since that was probably my favorite song back in 1994. It's a fun development that they started early on - the sex, I mean. Particularly since Cate goes back to Ryan and tells him she wants to marry him. Ryan, incidentally, seems very cool with the whole Lux situation at the moment. Will that last? And will he find out about Cate and Baze's night of passion? We have to assume it will come out at some point.

Anyway, the episode ends with Lux getting kicked out of her foster home, and Cate deciding she's going to take her in. The show looks to be a coming-of-age story for both Lux as well as her parents. I don't know about you, but I'm along for the ride.

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