Calvin University's official student newspaper since 1907

Calvin University Chimes

Since 1907
Calvin University's official student newspaper since 1907

Calvin University Chimes

Calvin University's official student newspaper since 1907

Calvin University Chimes

The CW’s ‘Star-Crossed’ is predictable, but has potential

Admittedly, when I first read about the CW’s new series “Star-Crossed,” I was skeptical. It sounded interesting but cheesy and, despite the promise of aliens, I was unsure how I felt about the idea of a love story. But I gave it a shot anyway.

“Star-Crossed” starts out in modern-day Louisiana, where extraterrestrial beings called Atrians have landed on our planet. Their tattooed faces set them apart from humans and they are immediately seen as a threat.

During a battle, a young Atrian, told by his father to run, finds shelter in a small shed where a little human girl spots him. A friendship is made.

No more than 12 hours later, they are found by authorities and the Atrian boy is shot as he tries to protect the little girl.

Fast forward 10 years.

The human girl, Emery — portrayed by actress Aimee Teegarden — starts her first day of high school after four years of being in a hospital for immune deficiency. At the same time, an experiment integrating seven Atrian teenagers into a public school, started by the head of the Atrian species and the U.S. government, begins.

While Emery’s transition to high school runs smoothly, the same cannot be said for the Atrians. The disapproval of several human high school kids is obvious as they mark the Atrians’ lockers, stare them down in the halls and try to start fights with them.

Through all this, an Atrian boy, Roman — “90210’s” Matt Lanter — takes a special interest in Emery. From the moment he saw her on their first day, he knew that Emery was the girl that let him hide in her family’s shed when they were only six years old.

Emery finds this out later on in the episode, after she and her friend Julia (who also suffers from immune deficiency) sneak into the Sector, a highly secured area where all the Atrians live, to try to find an Atrian healing herb called Cyper — one of the many rumors about the aliens and their lives — which Roman informs them is merely an Atrian form of saffron.

Ultimately, the pilot wasn’t terrible, but it was a little too predictable for my taste. Roman being the little Atrian boy Emery helped when they were younger was no surprise, and neither was the choice Emery made when a party was crashed by some cops.

Additionally, it moved a little too quickly. A lot of things happened in the 42-minute episode: Emery found out that Roman was the little boy, she was welcomed by the popular group without knowing much about her, there were fights and there were feels. Perhaps this was a plan to prove that the series will be interesting and unique, but I thought there were too many things thrown at the audience in a span of one episode.

Moreover, the plot (a girl and a boy from two different worlds that don’t like each other fall in love) has been done before.

However, I would be lying if I said I’m not going to watch the next episode, and perhaps the one after that, just to see what happens in the relationship between Roman and Emery and between the Atrians and the humans. Also because Matt Lanter is one very attractive alien.

To be honest, the show has potential. Assuming that the next episodes goes a little more slowly and that a few more interesting plot twists show, I can see the show doing alright.

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