Last Night the CW Premiered it's new midseason show Star-Crossed. Hopefully everyone who decided to tune in watched the entire episode, and tweeted #StarCrossed while watching. Even if you hated it!
As we now know Star-Crossed centers on two teens, one alien and the other human, who must overcome several obstacles in the name of love. While yes this is the central theme of the show, it's not the only theme of the show.
As a guy who happens to love some pretty epic TV couples, I will not be ashamed that the idea of romance in a TV show does not turn me off, if handled properly. Does Star-Crossed meet this criteria?
While the pilot was a bit romance centric for me, it did establish a few things, and leave us with a few open-ended questions, such as are Aimee Teegarden's champagne problems keeping her from connecting to the work? We will never know....
But what we do know is what went down in this episode, so let's commence shall we?
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love
We open on September 17th, 2014, Arrival Day, as we will soon call it. We see a young Atrian and his father crouched in the bushes, hiding as troops search the dark for the intruders from the crashed ship. We hear the voice over of present day Roman, and he speaks of how this was supposed to be a day of liberation and refuge but earth saw it as an invasion. (Why were they seeking refuge?)We watch as the Atrians in fear for their lives fight back against the troops attacking them while the young atrian runs for his life.
Next we meet the young Emery, peering from the steps as her parents watch the news about the invasion, they tell her to take her medicine. As she is taking her medicine, she sees the shack door swinging and goes to investigate(She obviously does not watch horror movies), inside she finds the boy, and she asks if he's one of them and tells him she'll be right back. She returns with a blanket and comforts him, telling him he can stay the night.
The next morning she returns with a bowl of cold spaghetti for him and she watches him as he eats it. As they begin to bond over the string game thing, they hear the search dogs in the distance, but it was too late though as the troops came in with the crazy hunting dogs and phasers on stun. The young Atrian quickly throws himself in front of Emery to protect her, as she begs for them to not hurt him, unfortunately it fell upon deaf ears and they shoot the young Atrian boy and he falls to the ground, and her parents pull her away from the scene.
We also hear our first mention of the Atrian's supposed mystical Cyper and it's healing powers, and learn Emery used to be in the hospital too.
The Atrian Seven arrive at the school greeted by several protestors, declaring it at a "Tattie-Free" zone(Those signs were hilarious). As they make their way into the school, Emery is getting schooled in the way of High school by Lukas, except she wasn't paying attention. She was locking eyes with Grayson(Who can't just be a pretty face right?). And then she needed to gaze down onto the really attractive aliens coming in below(I mean seriously if aliens are just hot people with tattoos, why isn't the government funding more space exploration???!!). As she looks down on the chaos below, Roman is staring up at the beauty above. BOOM! Star-Crossed lovers united again. Sort of.
Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy peace
Gloria Valdez then pulls our Atrian seven into a room to brief them on what they are in for. She says she is well acquainted with each of them, she wants to set ground rules. She tells them they could graduate and go to college, and that it's up to them to prove they weren't out to destroy the planet.(No Pressure)Gloria Valdez, what is your end game?
Grayson, being a creeper is obviously just lurking in the shadows watching Emery because he just shows up when she can't get in her locker, and drops a tidbit about him transferring last year. (Because he can't just be a pretty face right?)
Of course the Humans are not gonna make it easy for the Atrians, especially teen humans. Specifically Blonde Douche bag human, otherwise known as the BDH. BDH is upset that they don't pledge to their flag. Boo Hoo. They are not citizens. Romans parent's greet him and his sister as they arrive from school, and Roman demonstrates his mastery of sarcasm. You see here that their mother may not be as all in with integration as you'd think, she quickly shuts down her daughter who exclaims she wants to make friends with the humans.
Emery visits Julia in the hospital and learns that she is losing her battle to cancer and would rather go home to die. So Emery decides to sneak into the Sector and get the Cyper herb for Julia. (How is it that, a government guarded facility is capable of being infiltrated by two teen girls so easily?)
Once inside they just ask the first Atrian they see for some Cyper(Because that will end well) which ends up causing some sort of fight between a merchant and the atrian that promised to get them some cyper. Roamn appears out of nowhere and takes the two girls tot eh roof where they grow cyper. Oh and Cyper? It's just Saffron, no healing powers at all, nothing to see here, move it along. Julia is downtrodden, but she sees the bright side.
And then the mother of all forced plots begins, Emery sees the scar from the gun, and puts it together that Roman was the Atrian from the shed, She thought he was dead, and he knew who she was this whole time. He thanked her for saving his life and tells her she was kind when no one else was.(Swoon)
The next day BDH, is harassing Roman's sister and Roman is having none of it, he shows up to her defense and BDH does not take kindle to it. He and BDH get into a fight and after which Roman is taken to meet with Gloria.
Gloria tells Roman that she has been watching him for a long time and that she worked closely with his father to create this program, so he should stop acting like an animal, or else they'll be researching his testicles.She also calls him an investment.
Gloria Valdez, What is your endgame?
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
Drake later decides to go out and send a message to BDH and his friends at their party.Meanwhile Nox, Roman's father, seems to be cryptically telling Roman he is the chosen one to lead their people to peace with the humans, because he has faith in them. The way Nox leaves when Teri arrives leads me to believe their is some history between these two, she drops a line about how the humans will one day bow to them, and she saw him with Emery(Jealous much?).
Teri, lets it be known that Drake was heading to the party to teach BDH a lesson, Roman went and found Weevil, who deactivated his tracker so Roman could then sneak out. At the party, Emery was successfully feigning interest in Grayson, when Taylor calls them over to see what someone did to Brock(who?). Drake reveals it was him and headbutts BDH. Roman shows up just as the cops do and in the scramble somehow Emery falls and he goes to help her up. Taylor, BDH and Grayson plead for Emery to come with them but she chooses to stay with Roman("She chose a tattie over you, own it"). As they walk through the woods, they somehow find time to connect with each other, because she's the only kind human on the planet and whatnot, they then choose to press their palms together and almost kiss, but Em's mother calls, because Julia is not doing so well(Fine timing you got there Julia) and Em has to go.
Roman decides that he must follow her and shows up at the hospital to see what is going on. At the same time, Nox is looking for Roman, and he goes to Weevil, who told Roman how to get out and confronts him. The patrol sees therr seems to be an issue and investigates, they see the tech and get antsy, so Weevil pulls out a weapon and Nox reaches out to stop him and is shot, BY EMERY'S DAD! (DEATH MARK'D LOVE, SO STAR-CROSSED.) While this was happening Roman sneaks into the hospital room and mixes the Cyper with his blood and uses it to heal Julia! Emery sees the Cyper on the floor and realizes what happened while Roman gazes on them in a distance.
Not much had changed from the version I saw, so my feelings still remain the same as when I wrote the preview. The show will have an uphill battle proving it's more than just BATB meets Roswell. The Atrian versus Humans component could prove compelling in the future(HINT: IT DOES), the romance on the other hand felt forced and rushed. Out of the two leads Lanter seems to be the star of the show, the way he delivered his one liners was pretty good, and after all those love interest on 90210 he knows how to handle soapy dialogue.
The pilot to me was just average, it accomplished it's goal of establishing our two leads and setting up conflict for them, for that I give it a C+. The music was also good, did anyone else like Digital Daggers Age of Aquarius?
Like I've stated before Episode two is an improvement upon the pilot, and for those choosing to sticking around I think you'll enjoy it, there will be a carnival, at least three character related reveals, the introduction of two rebel groups and an attempted assassination.
Your turn! Did you like Star-Crossed, or was the romance putting you off? What was your favorite line from the pilot? What potential storyline do you think it should tackle? Do you think Grayson can be more than just a pretty face? Do you think Julia will wonder how she was healed? How do you think Roman will react to Em's dad killing his? How do you feel about the real life symmetry to racism?
Also, according to the live tweeting that was going down last night, the fandom's official name shall be StarGazers.
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