Life Sentence: Re-inventing the Abbotts

The CW new series Life Sentence is meant to be quirky and whimsical, lightly hitting on serious issues and using montages to make it feel like your typical cancer-based movie; but it, sadly, falls short of its full potential.

It’s only been on the air for two episodes and I’m questioning whether I want to continue watching. There have already been too many moments where I was able to predict what was going to happen next as well as the actual dialogue that would be used. Quirky and whimsical only goes so far.

From the beginning I have been irritated with Stella’s older brother Aiden, the prototypical loser sibling who still lives at home and has done nothing with his life. He hides away in virtual reality, impregnates his married lover who he sells drugs to on a regular basis. I’m supposed to like this character? No thanks!

Stella Abbott is clearly a clueless former cancer patient who has a new lease on life now that she has been diagnosed as cured. I like Lucy Hale, who plays Stella, but I’m not sure if I like the character. Sure, her entire family lied to her for years – and they were wrong to do so – but was she really that blind to everything going on around her?

Her parents have been hiding the truth about their rocky marriage, her sister has been hiding her insecurities over having a family and not following her dream path of being a writer and even her husband, Wes, has been pretending to be the perfect husband. Why not just be honest? Sure, they all thought she was going to die and wanted her to have a happy, perfect life leading up to her presumed death. But was that really the wisest course of action?

I will give the show a few more episodes before I pull the plug. I was certainly hoping for more from the show, and perhaps that “more” will come along in later episode. I don’t know just yet. What do you think of the show?

Life Sentence will air its next episode on Wednesday, March 21 on The CW at 9/8c.

[Photo Credits: Eric Milner/Jack Rowand/Bettina Strauss/The CW]