TV Review: Life Unexpected Ended Unexpectedly - Comments Page 2

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• 26 - Mark

  Feb 03, 2011 at 7:30 pm

  Is it just about advertising dollars that makes a network pull the plug on a series?

• 27 - Jack

  Feb 04, 2011 at 4:15 am

  Spoiler warning.
  
  I didn't want to see LUX cancelled either, but it's too late now that they completely ruined the show with that abomination of a finale, where they took everything ambiguous and interesting and daring and oversimplified all of it with cliché after cliché. The whole finale had studio fingerprints all over it. Everything the show had been building up over its first two seasons, they blew up completely. Every single prevailing relationship was blown up in the finale. I was lost for words when I watched it. If, in the finale of the The O.C, "two years later" flashed across the black screen, and when it disappeared we were informed that Ryan was now getting married to Summer, and Seth was instead marrying Julie Cooper, I think that would have been the equivalent to what happened in the Life Unexpected finale. It was equal parts disappointing and just flat out ridiculous. Lux kissing Jones while Tasha sat there and smiled? Julie, Ryan, and Kate, and Julie's baby, all one big happy family? What??? I mean, they spent the first two seasons mostly developing Kate and Ryan, and they blew that up in the last 10 minutes of the show with no warning. They spent the entire second season developing Lux and Eric's relationship, and painting him as the good guy who genuinely loved her, the antithesis of the typical evil older man taking advantage of younger girl scenario; but not only did they end up blowing that up too, they also vilified him, compared him to the actual rapist--Lux's stepdad, who raped a young teen girl, and made him leave town. We didn't even get to see the Lux and Eric say goodbye to each other. The last we see of Eric is him being threatened by Baze and Kate that if he doesn't leave town, they're going to call the police. And then there's Baze and Emma, Emma being Baze's only romance of the second season; they blew that up too. Even Kate's pregnancy, they went inside her womb and blew that up too.
  
  Is there anyone out there who can explain to me what the fuck happened with this show in the last two episodes? As you can see, it seems like absolutely everything the show was about, that the show's creators had been developing the whole time, they completely went against in the finale. In particular Lux and Eric. The whole season, they didn't paint him as a predator. They took painstaking care to make sure everyone thought of him as a good guy, who only started dating Lux because he didn't even know she was a student, or even underage, who genuinely loved Lux and she loved him back, so they decided that love should conquer all, and that they shouldn't let society's preconceptions, a society which knew nothing about their relationship on a specific, personal basis, get in the way of their relationship when they know it is true, and real, and good, and more full of love than most relationships involving two adults or two minors. That is how they developed the relationship. That is how they painted him, and the relationship. He was the good guy, and was always supposed to me. Yet, in the finale, he gets compared to a real rapist, threatened with incarceration, and exiled, and everyone tells Lux how wrong the whole thing was, even Eric; he says whatever punishment he gets, "I deserve it;" basically, every character on the show, from Baze and Kate initially, to Eric, to just the way it all gets painted, all end up telling the viewer how wrong it all was. It all just seemed so at odds with absolutely everything that came before, like the people who wrote and directed all the previous episodes were replaced by completely different writers and directors with completely opposing viewpoints right before the finale, and those new people didn't understand any of the characters, or what the previous people were trying to create. I mean did something like that happen? Did the studio step in and tell the creative forces behind the show that they had to paint Eric as the bad guy in the end, that they couldn't just end the show with him and Lux together without causing unwanted controversy? What exactly happened here to completely implode every aspect of the show during the finale and steer it all in the opposite direction of where it had been going the whole time before? I don't understand it. Someone with more inside knowledge of the situation than I please explain it to me, if you can. Thank you.

• 28 - Jack

  Feb 04, 2011 at 4:37 am

  To clarify, this isn't about me "liking" Eric, and wanting Eric and Lux to be together, or me "liking" Ryan and Kate more than Kate and Baze. This isn't one of those Brooke or Peyton, who do I want Luke to be with, where there's an argument to be made for each of them because romances with each have been well developed over multiple seasons. This was more like, if you had to pick only one of the following to get happy endings in One Tree Hill, would you pick Luke or Dan? What I'm saying is this isn't about picking between two options who are likable, who the viewer was always meant to like. It's not like Eric was supposed to be a bad guy, but he just ended up seeming like a good guy on accident, because the actor did a bad job and did the opposite of what the creator intended. Eric was the good guy on purpose, because that's what the creative forces behind the show chose. I didn't want Eric and Lux to have a better ending just because I chose to like Eric, subjectively, like someone picking Brooke over Peyton. This isn't like that. He is the ONLY one they developed with Lux all season. They made me like him. They wanted me to like him, that was their intention. They painted him that way on purpose. So this isn't about, you know, they developed two romances with likable people with each character, and it's up to the audience to decide which one they like more. This isn't like that at all. Throughout season two, it was Eric and Lux, and that was it. That was who they chose for her. That was the relationship they developed, that they let the viewer gets emotionally invested it. Jones was barely in season two, and when he was, he was with Tasha! It's not like they developed a relationship with Jones, and they developed one with Eric, equally, and it was up for us to decide. They wanted us to like Eric, to root for him. They got us invested in him. And then they pulled the rug out. They went in one direction the whole season, and then in the finale, they went the opposite direction. They told us he was a good guy, they painted him in a positive light, and then at the very end, even if they didn't say he's a terrible person, they pretty much said what he did was way wrong, and he's toxic to Lux, and he deserves to at least be exiled, if not put in jail.
  
  And the same goes for Baze vs Ryan. It's a little bit closer to the audience choosing here at least, because they did develop Kate and Baze in season one, but even so, for the ENTIRETY of season two, Baze was with Emma, and Ryan and Kate were married, and working on their relationship the whole time. For all of season two, the direction they were going was Kate and Ryan, all the up until there were about 10 minutes left in the show, where Kate and Ryan were professing their love for each other on the radio show. Then, out of nowhere, the exact opposite of Kate and Ryan, it's Kate and Baze now. We're going to tell you Eric is a good guy for 11 episodes, but in the 12th episode he's a bad guy. We're going to develop Kate and Ryan for 11 episodes, but in the 12th it's going to be Kate and Baze. Kate and Ryan have been talking about pregnancy for ages, and Kate finally got pregnant halfway through this season and we've been developing that ever since, but now in the last episode, she's going to have a miscarriage.
  
  So it's not about my subjective preferences not being met, or anything like that. It's about the fact that everything they developed, that they CHOSE to develop of their own accord for the ENTIRE season, they went back on ALL of it at the end. They chose to go one direction all season, and they got us invested in those directions for each character, but instead of paying us out on our investment, instead of putting a bow on everything they'd been developing, that we'd become involved with, and calling it a show, they decided to change the whole story of every character and every relationship with 5 minutes left. You can't write a 500 page book about how interesting mice are, and make a great argument for that thesis, and get everyone believing that mie really are super cool, but then on page 499 say, "actually, mice are really, really stupid, but you know what's cool? Hawks! You know what's the coolest thing about them? They eat all those little mice I've just spent the last 498 pages writing about and convincing you how cool and sweet they are, and getting you to fall in love with them! They swoop down and bite their little heads off, causing those stupid mice incredible pain! Isn't that great? Aren't you glad you read my book now?"
  
  You can't do that! That should be obvious, which is why I don't understand why they did. Do any of you?

• 29 - Jerome Wetzel

  Feb 04, 2011 at 6:03 am

  LOL at the hawk / mice thing. I very much enjoyed reading your comments and agree with what you are saying. It didn't make sense based on the story lines they were currently playing out. I think, knowing the series was about to end, the writers may have jumped to the ending they were planning on moving towards. Problem is, there was a whole lot of steps to get there that we never saw.
  
  As far making Eric a bag guy, I can totally see why Baze and Cate thought of him that way. I wish there had been time to redeem his name, and I do wish we had seen some scene of Eric after being threatened. But were I in Baze or Cate's shoes, seeing and knowing only what they know, I can't say I would have handled it differently.

• 30 - Niki

  Feb 07, 2011 at 4:58 pm

  This was the best show how can you take it off the air please put it back on

• 31 - Mya

  Feb 12, 2011 at 12:20 am

  I will MISS this show! It honestly hurt inside when i found out it's over! i love cate! and ryan! and baze! and lux! and tasha and everyoneelse! it was such a great storyline and the actors were SO DAMN GOOD!!! i was gonna write especially cate..and lux..and ryan and i realized ALL of the actors were awesome!!! i can't believe it ended. it does hurt :(

• 32 - mike

  Feb 17, 2011 at 1:31 pm

  BRING IT BACK!!!!!! PLEASE DO ANOTHER SERIES IF ANY ONE HAS ANY INFO ABOUT ANOTHER SERIES [Personal contact info deleted] THANKS :)

• 33 - Jerome Wetzel

  Feb 17, 2011 at 1:41 pm

  I assume you're British, or from another country that orders a series of shows at a time. Sadly, that's not how it works in America. Shows are given another season, almost always before the previous one ends, or they're canceled permanently, with a few exceptions like Family Guy and Futurama that were resurrected years later. This one has been canceled, so no more. Sorry. :(

• 34 - bob g.

  Feb 19, 2011 at 11:11 am

  I was a great fan of life unexpected. I thought the pilot was nearly perfect, and showed great potential. The writers made the show so negative, i often cringed. The writers ruined what could have been a great show. I stopped watching after the camping episode, when most of the shaparones treated the event like a date, and lux continued her romance with her teacher.

• 35 - Katy

  Feb 21, 2011 at 4:41 pm

  I agree, i hate all the crap ott humor shows they put on the t.v nowerdays. I've forgotten the catory name but like doing stupid actions and crap surpossibly storylines. Like a really bad friends, friends was realistic nowerdays its all lets jump on a car a scream with stupid faces....? All we have in england as t.v shows are, casualty, holby city, eastenders, corry, the bill (stopped)hollyoaks and neighbours and doctor who. Only two of those shows are good, rest shit!
  
  E4- One Tree Hill, Life Unexspected, House and friends! WOOT! Amercian shows are just better and now there not showing any of that instead we have, when i met your mother, scrubs???? they good for 10 mins you get annoyed you flick....
  
  Keep life unexspected on for us!!! We need amercian shows like it or we might just not have any t.v life whatsoever!

• 36 - Kerri

  Feb 22, 2011 at 4:54 am

  My problem with the ending was that Ryan fought so hard in the last episode to get Cate back on the air (and their relationship), only to run back to Julia. It just didn't feel right and that was the only part of the finale that left a bad taste in my mouth.... I really liked this show (after seeing it air on E4 in the UK) and sad that its been cancelled.

• 37 - tausha

  Mar 22, 2011 at 11:03 am

  GOSH I AM SOOOO SAD THAT THIS SHOW IS OVER< I WANTED IT TO GO ONE FOREVER...I love this show so much more then any of the others.. it felt like real life stuff you know... i just wish they would give it another chance... i think now that baze and cate ended up togeather like i knoe everyone really wanted , the show will pick up... Gosh i am sooo mad that they got me liking this show and they just take it away like that....its crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BRING LIFE UNEXPECTED BACK

• 38 - Nour

  Apr 06, 2011 at 9:16 am

  Thank you for the great review! I completely agree with the Kate and Ryan situation. It hurt to see that after a season full of effort to be together, they're not together in the last minutes of the season finale. In reality, a group of people with that much history could have never taken a group photo without any tension. I find that the ending was exaggerated a little. The show could make sense out of those two last minutes if right after the photo we could see some tension between them, for example the Tasha Jones Lux triangle, the Baze Kate Ryan triangle and the Julia Ryan Kate triangle. The show made out the characters to appear complex over the past two seasons, how could they suddenly be at peace with each other? A third season is definitely needed for more explanation!

• 39 - guilou0875

  Sep 09, 2011 at 11:32 am

  That Lux is getting on my nerves, lies ...and more lies, drama, depressing, I want less of her in the show!!!!!!!

• 40 - Yo Mama

  Sep 17, 2011 at 12:15 am

  OMG I AM SOOOOO SAD THAT THIS SHOW IS GONE THIS TOTALLY SUCKS BOOO!!! I LOVED THIS SHOW!!

• 41 - CB

  Oct 30, 2011 at 6:44 pm

  I *just* found this series on Netflix, and am so sad it was cancelled before its time! Few shows hook me from the get go like this one did. Loved the characters, loved the love triangles, loved the acting and the actors. Kris Polaha could sweet talk a stone, he's so smooth, and Britt Robertson could not be more magnetic if she tried (or more beautiful - I will miss those adorable dimples). This show had everything going for it, including that magical quality that makes you wonder how in the world it didn't make it when so much pure rubbish does.

• 42 - Michelle

  Jan 26, 2012 at 10:49 pm

  I discovered this series n Netflx and found out part way through watching the first season that it was only 2 seasons. I went back and forth wanting Cate with Baze apor Ryan but in the end I felt Ryan made more sense and I really liked his character, no more or less than Baze. I always suspected Julia was lying to him and that she really was pregnant so I saw that coming right away. But as things were coming to an end I thought he would stay with Cate and still have a relationship with the child he fathered with Julia. When I saw Cate sitting between Baze and Ryan but Baze affectionately touch Alice's belly I thought they had ended up together and I thought they seemed like a good fit. I liked Jones more as a best guy friend for Lux than a love interest, I love him but I feel like in someways a guy who is just your friend can invaluable and so rare, and it made it feel like Tasha was nothing more than a consolation prize and she deserved more than that. So in a lot of respects I was disappointed but I was often pulled in different directions with this show and the ending was no different. Everyone looked happy, truly happy and grounded, no longer a twisted mess, so I was happy for the happy ending they deserved. I also would have liked a shot of Eric in the distance smiling on seeing Lux happy and at peace. So I will just assume he was there and they just didn't reveal it. ;). At times I was very pissed off with the never ending crises and the characters never learning from their mistakes, which I guess is another way of saying the writing sometimes pissed me off. :). That being said, I watched both seasons over the course of less than one week so I guess you can say they hooked me from beginning to end.

• 43 - Michelle

  Jan 27, 2012 at 12:06 am

  Oh and having Lux call Baze and Cate Mom & Dad was a really great moment, without a doubt. I think what bothered me most about the ending was that throughout the show they seemed to support the idea of unconventional families and yet in the end they went all out conventional with everyone. As if everything had to be so need and tidy. If I and ended the show it would have been Lux single, Jones and Tasha still together, Cate and Ryan together but he maintained a relationship with the child he fathered with Julia and them all being amicable. Baze with Alice. Math with Lux's Social Worker because I think they share similar values at their core and both obviously want to make the difference in the life of a child. Bases other friend/roommate I have no idea but its not as if you need to pair up everyone. And I think it would have been fun to set Paige up with another woman, a fun little twist with a character who was far from conventional.

• 44 - Sydney

  Mar 26, 2012 at 3:41 pm

  Well, first off i think the show was already running on borrowed time from the beginning the fact the show never got a full season wasn't a good sign. Also i felt at times the show didn't have a direction of where it was going and i agree a lot of the ending didn't seem to make sense because were not sure how they got their or how these characters even knew each other. I also thought the writting was compleling enough to keep the audience interested which is why the ratings were so bad.
  I always thought cate and baz were the end game but it was confusing since in season two both baz and cate to to have no interest in each other. If i was to guess this had to have happened after ryan returned to juliet i think if the writers let us see that conversation between cate and ryan about julia and her baby then maybe we could have seen his reaction and how it lead to this. The way it has been played is the both settled for each other then being wih the person they wanted.
  Julia and ryan since we never really saw julia or heard much it is hard to know anything here.
  lux and jones this was the only one that made sense and that one small scene they had on the basketball court made them ending up together make sense. She didn't feel worthy of someone like him which is why she rejected but this wasn't that unexpected during season one jones said to her that at some point they would be together even if it wasn't today. All and all i think the writing was that great and it never reallly developed a lot of the characters or allowed the audience to connect with the show so i am not that suprised it ended.
  

• 45 - Debby

  Jun 01, 2012 at 4:28 am

  i loved this show it seem real to me i had a life some what like hers and i would have like to see another season

• 46 - Jessica

  Aug 10, 2012 at 2:07 am

  Life Unexpected was the only show on CW that was relatable and a feel good family show that contained a unique plot. It is very disappointing the CW couldn't keep this show because I got way to into it, it felt like reading an excellent book but missing the last five chapters. I hope by some miracle it returns to any channel because it is by far my favourite show and there was only 26 episodes. I feel the way they wrapped it up was to quick and didn't settle the relationships properly (between Lux and Eric OR Base and kate etc.) PLEASE BRING IT BACK IT WAS AMAZING.

• 47 - Leah

  Aug 10, 2012 at 2:21 am

  Wow Jack you are 100 percent right with this one. I felt that the build up of Eric's love for her was enticing and the fact that they just switched courses and made him out to be an antagonist really annoyed me as a viewer. He was one of my favourite characters BECAUSE of the way THEY portrayed him throughout the second season, not just because I pick favourites. How they just ended that really disappointed me!

• 48 - John

  Aug 10, 2012 at 2:23 am

  BRING THIS SHOW BACK ITS AWESOME

• 49 - Carly

  Mar 18, 2013 at 6:32 am

  i hope they make more season then justb to i was put in forther careand i just love this show soo much

• 50 - busymom

  Mar 20, 2013 at 5:49 pm

  I just found this show on next flix and was very sad when I found out it was the last episode. I really enjoyed the show watched the whole 2 seasons in 3 days around my busy schedule of working and taking care of 4 kids wish the series was longer.

• 51 - Tbf

  Apr 10, 2013 at 3:47 pm

  I didnt know this show was on CW other wise i would have watched it. Me and my friend found in on netflix and just in love with it. I wish they did a 3rd serious it just ended so fast.

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