Life is Wild is based on Wild at Heart, the UK series and definitely not the David Lynch movie – it's been called the African 7th Heaven by some critics. That's probably apt. I was one of the few adults with no kids and a sense of irony who had no issue with that other saccharine CW show – it did what it was trying to do very well, and the fact that it wasn't trying to do it for the likes of me was just fine. But Life is Wild seems to be reaching for both the hip teen factor and the wholesome family fare, resulting in an uneasy blend that might not appeal to either audience.
The pilot available for review has since had the roles of the parents recast, so I don't know what that means for other changes. The series revolves around a recently blended family who move to South Africa to reunite the father's kids with their estranged grandfather, take the mother's son away from the temptations of city life, and to help the two sets of children bond with each other and their respective new step-parents.
The show is filmed in South Africa, and the animal scenes and scenery are spectacular. Its setting makes the show unique on the American dial, and any episode that starts with a teen reluctantly performing the chore of feeding the cat – a cat that turns out to be a lion – and with an adorable lion cub featured prominently in the plot isn't exactly in The OC territory. That could help or hurt the show finding an audience, depending on whether the novelty factor wins out over the geocentric factor.
There's a lot of emotional territory to be explored here, with dead parents and teen angst and strangers in a strange land, and the pilot starts to do so in predictably sappy and uplifting ways, in keeping with the 7th Heaven comparison.
The recasting seems like a positive step. Though the parents aren't the focal point in the original pilot – that would be teen daughter Katie (Leah Pipes, Clubhouse) who acts as the narrator – Judith Hoag and Brett Cullen were completely forgettable. At least Stephanie Niznik (Everwood) and D.W. Moffett (Hidden Palms) should bring a likable familiarity and proven acting abilities to a show that desperately needs them. The acting in this original pilot, particularly by some of the teen and child actors, has all the depth of a two by four, making it virtually unwatchable to me. On the other hand, that never hurt 7th Heaven.
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