PILOT REVIEW: Life Sentence

LIFE SENTENCE

Starring: Lucy Hale, Elliot Knight, Jayson Blair, Brooke Lyons, Carols PenaVega, with Gillian Vigman, and Dylan Walsh

Created by Erin Cardillo & Richard Keith
Written by Erin Cardillo & Richard Keith, Directed by Lee Toland Krieger

THE PREMISE
Life Sentence is an interesting new dramedy with a twist on the "live like you were dying" theme. It is centered on Stella Abbott (Lucy Hale), who spent the past eight years thinking she was dying of cancer. When she is surprisingly cured, she has a new lease on life but also finds out all the secrets her family has been keeping from her such as a deteriorating relationship between her parents, Ida and Paul (Gillian Vigman and Dylan Walsh), a brother, Aiden (Jayson Blair), heading nowhere in life, a sister, Lizzie (Brooke Lyons) very unhappy with her life, and a husband, Wes (Elliot Knight) who opens up about how he really feels about some things he said he liked.

THE REVIEW
I think this is a very interesting premise and Lucy Hale is completely charming in the lead role but I wasn't completely enamored with the pilot and I think the reason is I didn't find the rest of the cast likable aside from Hale and Elliot Knight. I know the characters are supposed to be messed up, but I just didn't find them sympathetic enough that I want to root for the family. That doesn't mean they can't get there, but right now I found myself annoyed with the characters more often than entertained by them.

If this show does work, a large part of the credit will go Lucy Hale. She is definitely endearing in the lead role and effective with the voice-overs (a technique that sometimes works well and sometimes goes horribly wrong). I thought the show did a really nice job in the beginning of telling the backstory through flashbacks. Even though it probably would have become cliche, it was something I almost wanted to see a little more of and I think that means it was done to an effective degree. This is an optimistic show but with a cynical undertone, it's not trying to be a Hallmark movie. My only complaint of both the opening and a couple other points in the episode was the too frequent use of slow motion and with seemingly little reasoning behind it.

I'm curious to see where this show goes from here. Although it's an interesting premise, the cancer storyline can't really be an ongoing theme because this show is all about getting a new lease on life. So will it morph into a family drama and if that's the case, does Lucy Hale stay in the center of all the stories? That's where my hesitation comes from with this show going forward because I don't really like the rest of the family all that much so a family drama all about them is not nearly as desirable. If I was one of the people in charge of this show, I would play up the Lucy Hale-Elliot Knight characters and relationship big time or find a way to make the rest of the family a little more sympathetic.

WILL I WATCH IT AGAIN?
Yes I'll watch at least one more episode and see if I can gauge what kind of show this will be.