Life Unexpected
Oh, Lux. I will admit that I've wanted you to act like a damn kid and NOT be the most mature one in this group of people. I mean, I know that the basic premise of this show IS the fact that Lux is more mature than the so-called "grown-ups". I get that. But at the same time, I was starting to handwave the scene in each episode where Lux gives a wise-beyond-her-years pep talk to Baze and/or Cate.
BUT.....well, Lux acted like a teenager tonight, and I was suddenly reminded just why TV shows try to mature these kids. It's because they are generally ANNOYING AS HELL.
Okay, yes. When I was sixteen, and somebody tried to take my best friend away from me, I would have been every bit as dramatic and flail-y as Lux was. And hell, it's not even like I was a foster kid and she was the ONLY person I had. So was it realistic? Sure. Unfortunately, realistic or not, it still made me shake my head in a rather unsympathetic fashion.
Figures - I'm 28 and already an old woman. Damn kids off my lawn!
It's just....you know, I GET Cate's point of view. Her fiance just walked out on her. Even if she and Ryan were together and perfectly happy, taking Tasha in would have been a big step, something that needed to be discussed and thought out.....not just decided on a whim because Lux asked for it. I mean, dude, she didn't even have five minutes to breathe or cry after Ryan left!
It was about that time that I realized the grass might be greener on the other side after all.
Lux using Cate's own words of comfort to essentially blackmail was of the ick, but.....you know, there's that teenage behavior I asked for. I hate to admit it, but I probably pulled shit like that quite often back in the day. (You know.....in the late 90s). When I really felt bad for Cate, though, is when Lux bailed on her and moved in with Baze. Granted, I don't think it would have happened if the custody situation hadn't suddenly changed.....but, ouch. Your fiance finds out you cheated, reams you out, and leaves you, and then your kid gets mad because she didn't get her way and storms out as well.
Of course, Ryan reaming Cate out was a long time coming, and I was totally on his side in that. I feel bad about Lux leaving her, but not so with Ryan. I did like the way it played out, though. In the end, Cate IS the one who told Ryan the truth.....but like he said, only because she got caught (or thought she was, anyway).
What's sad is that, while Cate has her moments....she's kind of the least likable character, at least compared to everyone else. And I really hate to admit it, but I think part of it is how Shiri Appleby is playing her (or, in her possible defense, simply the way the character is written). Ryan finds out she slept with Baze, and what is her reaction? Yelling and talking over the top of him. Okay, she was panicked. But she portrayed it more like Cate was simply trying to get her way, and that Ryan was really ridiculous for having an issue. Uhm, no. Not that I've been in this situation (thank god), but I imagine if your fiance just finds out you cheated on him, the correct response is NOT acting like he's an overemotional wuss for caring.
Same with the ending. I kept waiting for her to cry or....something. Not stare pensively out the window. Again, maybe it was a choice. Maybe we were supposed to believe that Cate was just numb. I can see that.....but, I don't know. I just feel like we need SOME clear moments of emotion from her, and not just panic and self-righteousness. Even when she went to the bar to ask Baze to back out of the contest, she effed it up. I honestly believe that, if she had told Baze flat-out that she lied to Ryan about them getting together and she's afraid he's going to find out the truth and leave her.....I think Baze would have gone along with it. Not happily, mind you, but he is clearly protective of Cate. He doesn't want to admit it, but he is. He admitted himself that he didn't think she deserved what happened to her.
Of course, then we wouldn't have had this huge ego-driven contest, so.....yeah. That was worth it simply for Jamie and Math acting as Baze's support team. I'm pretty easy on that one, though - I feel any scene is automatically better with Jamie in it. He WILL drop some knowledge on you if you need it, after all.
On that note - it cracks me up that he refers to Cate as "Math's girlfriend". Ohhh, poor Math.
The Tasha story.....okay, I don't LOVE Tasha, but I don't have the fire-breathing hate for her that I did in the first few episodes. So that's good, right? Hmm. It was obvious that the situation with her biological mother wasn't going to work out. Not only would that have wrapped things up way too neatly.....but she ended up on her doorstep before the halfway point of the episode! Obvious flame-out ahead.
I did feel pretty damn awful for her, though, and not just because she has to leave her best friend. Lux said that no matter what happens, she wouldn't be worse off than she was. Well, Lux was wrong. At least before, Tasha had the stand-by that her mother was just too stoned, too fucked up, to be her mother. It was the drugs - it wasn't her mother making a rational decision that she didn't want her child in her life. Well, now she knows - it's not just the drugs. Her mother looked her in the face, stone-cold sober, and told her she didn't want her. The fact that she has two new kids now has to make it hurt worse. She can have them in her life.....but she can't have Tasha, because all Tasha is to her is a bad memory she'd rather forget.
Lame. Forget what I said about Cate - Tasha's mother is the least likable character in this show.
Next week: I was sort of hoping Life would stay at 9 and they'd put Gossip Girl back to 8.....but, well, I never get my way. At least this way I'll know to turn the TV off long before Taylor Momsen or Blake Lively show their faces?
BUT.....well, Lux acted like a teenager tonight, and I was suddenly reminded just why TV shows try to mature these kids. It's because they are generally ANNOYING AS HELL.
Okay, yes. When I was sixteen, and somebody tried to take my best friend away from me, I would have been every bit as dramatic and flail-y as Lux was. And hell, it's not even like I was a foster kid and she was the ONLY person I had. So was it realistic? Sure. Unfortunately, realistic or not, it still made me shake my head in a rather unsympathetic fashion.
Figures - I'm 28 and already an old woman. Damn kids off my lawn!
It's just....you know, I GET Cate's point of view. Her fiance just walked out on her. Even if she and Ryan were together and perfectly happy, taking Tasha in would have been a big step, something that needed to be discussed and thought out.....not just decided on a whim because Lux asked for it. I mean, dude, she didn't even have five minutes to breathe or cry after Ryan left!
It was about that time that I realized the grass might be greener on the other side after all.
Lux using Cate's own words of comfort to essentially blackmail was of the ick, but.....you know, there's that teenage behavior I asked for. I hate to admit it, but I probably pulled shit like that quite often back in the day. (You know.....in the late 90s). When I really felt bad for Cate, though, is when Lux bailed on her and moved in with Baze. Granted, I don't think it would have happened if the custody situation hadn't suddenly changed.....but, ouch. Your fiance finds out you cheated, reams you out, and leaves you, and then your kid gets mad because she didn't get her way and storms out as well.
Of course, Ryan reaming Cate out was a long time coming, and I was totally on his side in that. I feel bad about Lux leaving her, but not so with Ryan. I did like the way it played out, though. In the end, Cate IS the one who told Ryan the truth.....but like he said, only because she got caught (or thought she was, anyway).
What's sad is that, while Cate has her moments....she's kind of the least likable character, at least compared to everyone else. And I really hate to admit it, but I think part of it is how Shiri Appleby is playing her (or, in her possible defense, simply the way the character is written). Ryan finds out she slept with Baze, and what is her reaction? Yelling and talking over the top of him. Okay, she was panicked. But she portrayed it more like Cate was simply trying to get her way, and that Ryan was really ridiculous for having an issue. Uhm, no. Not that I've been in this situation (thank god), but I imagine if your fiance just finds out you cheated on him, the correct response is NOT acting like he's an overemotional wuss for caring.
Same with the ending. I kept waiting for her to cry or....something. Not stare pensively out the window. Again, maybe it was a choice. Maybe we were supposed to believe that Cate was just numb. I can see that.....but, I don't know. I just feel like we need SOME clear moments of emotion from her, and not just panic and self-righteousness. Even when she went to the bar to ask Baze to back out of the contest, she effed it up. I honestly believe that, if she had told Baze flat-out that she lied to Ryan about them getting together and she's afraid he's going to find out the truth and leave her.....I think Baze would have gone along with it. Not happily, mind you, but he is clearly protective of Cate. He doesn't want to admit it, but he is. He admitted himself that he didn't think she deserved what happened to her.
Of course, then we wouldn't have had this huge ego-driven contest, so.....yeah. That was worth it simply for Jamie and Math acting as Baze's support team. I'm pretty easy on that one, though - I feel any scene is automatically better with Jamie in it. He WILL drop some knowledge on you if you need it, after all.
On that note - it cracks me up that he refers to Cate as "Math's girlfriend". Ohhh, poor Math.
The Tasha story.....okay, I don't LOVE Tasha, but I don't have the fire-breathing hate for her that I did in the first few episodes. So that's good, right? Hmm. It was obvious that the situation with her biological mother wasn't going to work out. Not only would that have wrapped things up way too neatly.....but she ended up on her doorstep before the halfway point of the episode! Obvious flame-out ahead.
I did feel pretty damn awful for her, though, and not just because she has to leave her best friend. Lux said that no matter what happens, she wouldn't be worse off than she was. Well, Lux was wrong. At least before, Tasha had the stand-by that her mother was just too stoned, too fucked up, to be her mother. It was the drugs - it wasn't her mother making a rational decision that she didn't want her child in her life. Well, now she knows - it's not just the drugs. Her mother looked her in the face, stone-cold sober, and told her she didn't want her. The fact that she has two new kids now has to make it hurt worse. She can have them in her life.....but she can't have Tasha, because all Tasha is to her is a bad memory she'd rather forget.
Lame. Forget what I said about Cate - Tasha's mother is the least likable character in this show.
Next week: I was sort of hoping Life would stay at 9 and they'd put Gossip Girl back to 8.....but, well, I never get my way. At least this way I'll know to turn the TV off long before Taylor Momsen or Blake Lively show their faces?