Reunion is Bases of New TV Drama Series

 CW is premiering a new series January 18 entitled Life Unexpected. View trailer.

After spending all of her 15 years bouncing from one foster family to another in Portland, Oregon, Lux (Britt Robertson, "Swingtown") has decided it's time to take control of her life and become an emancipated minor.

Her journey through the legal maze leads Lux to her biological father, 30-something Nate "Baze" Bazile (Kristoffer Polaha, "Mad Men"), who owns a bar, lives like an aging frat-boy with two slacker roommates, and is astonished to learn that he has a teenage daughter.

Lux is equally astonished when Baze reveals that her mother is Cate Cassidy (Shiri Appleby, "E.R."), a star on the local "Morning Madness" radio show, along with her on-air partner and real-life boyfriend, Ryan Thomas (Kerr Smith, "Eli Stone"). Lux has been listening to Cate's voice on the radio as long as she can remember, so she feels an instant connection with the mom she's never met.

The teen meets tbe couple who decided on adoption while they were both in high school, in what is being called a follow-up to Juno.


Baze takes Lux to meet Cate, who is shocked and saddened to learn that Lux, a beautiful blonde, has grown up in foster care, but thrilled to finally meet her beautiful daughter. When a judge decides that Lux isn't ready for emancipation and unexpectedly grants temporary joint custody to Baze and Cate, they agree to try to get past the awkwardness and make a belated attempt to give Lux the family she deserves.

The unlilkely life in foster care allows writers to creeate reunion scripts without dealing tih adoptive parents dramas. The same technigue was used in August Rush, the over-the-top melodramatic film about the child music prodigy.  It allows the audience to totally root for the reunited family without any loyalty battles.

Beceause this is a series, no doubt tales of abuseive foster carers may be slowly revealed as well.