Dear CW...

[dunmurderin]

Critics may love "Life Unexpected" but me? I'm not a fan. Firstly, the premise that the pretty, blond, white Lux couldn't manage to get adopted as an infant leaves me wondering if this is supposed to be an alternate universe story -- which, admittedly, would be kinda *cool*....

Secondly, just ONCE could we have a kid go looking for their birth parents and it doesn't turn into a big ol' bonding moment? Not every birth parent wants their kid back and not every kid wants to be reunited with the folks who gave them up. Particularly when the birth parents seem more interested in using their return to heal the defects in themselves. ("She came back to us for a reason!" says the tearful female lead -- yeah, lady, she came to get you idiots to sign her emancipation papers, that's it. You didn't want her fifteen years ago, so why the hell do you think giving her a "real" family now will make everything all better?)

Thirdly, I know you have to promote your new show but could you quit running the damn ads on nearly every single commerical break? Or come up with some NEW ads? The fact that I can damn near quote them does not help bolster my opinion of this whingy glurge-fest of a show.

Comments

[lunatron.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm adopted. Have never wanted to find my biological parents. Just not interested. But a story about someone who is adopted and happily never finds her biological parents is probably pretty boring!

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

Yeahh, particularly from the point of view of a television marketing exec. *G*

I'm adopted too (though, in my case, it was within my father's family, so it's more adoption lite). And the 'adopted kid desperately NEEDS to find family!" thing has gotten on my damn nerves since I was a kid -- though, to be fair, I could have easily gotten in touch with my birth mother more or less at any time.

It's more the whole 'this representation is shown so much that it's almost the only one ever shown' that bugs me. That and, dude, seriously, they play the commercials over and over and over and over and over and gahhh!

[lunatron.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're right. Some other perspectives on the matter in the media would be a breath of fresh air.

It's actually kind of insulting, really. 'adopted kids NEEDs to find family'? As far as I'm concerned, I have my real family already. I don't NEED to go find my biological relatives. So that is kind of a diss on the adoptive parents, that all these shows imply they're not enough for the adopted child.

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

Exactly; yeah, I'll admit to having been curious about my birth mother growing up but the idea of leaving my mom to be with her was never really on my mind.

It really annoys me to see adoption treated as less 'real' than biological parentage. So far, I think the best depiction of an adoptive family I've seen is Mitch and Cam and Lily on Modern Family.

Addendum:

[dunmurderin.livejournal.com]

To be fair, in Life Unexpected, the kid needs to find her folks to have them sign her emancipation papers so that she can leave the foster care system. She's not, far as i can tell from the commercials, looking for them to make herself whole, as is sometimes the case.