I adore Lucy Hale, even before anyone had ever heard of Pretty Little Liars I've been a fan so it goes without saying that I was going to give this show a chance. However with that said, Life Sentence is a pretty good little show in its own right for a first outing. You have to wonder, whatever your disease of choice, you effectively put your life on hold, for years possibly, and told you're near certainly going to die. Then against all odds...you don't. Then what do you do? Did you bother with much of an actual life - not just the highlights - because you didn't expect to have one? Do you find out just what kind of sacrifices were made on your behalf? This show attempts to answer those questions and so far, admittedly on the pilot episode, it was a fun outing...
That being said, I really thought what Stella's family really is like and the sacrifices and facade they've made for her should've been teased out over the next few/several as things felt a bit rushed. They also made sure to check just about every box on the PC checklist now a days with your recreational drugs, stoner family member, kids to soon and sexual orientation and marriage that's falling apart (as opposed to a strong loving marriage but guess that's not PC...). Regardless I have to give a shout out to how minorities are portrayed in the episode, as just people just like anyone else. They're not portrayed as ethnic, eccentric or stereotyped and a particular shout out to Sadie the young black female cancer patient Stella relates to late in the episode as it could've easily been just a pretty generic white girl but yes regardless of race or color we all come down with things, even minorities... About the only thing not checked was Stella's college professor of a father having a relationship on the side with one of his students young enough to be his daughter (but it was only the first episode...).
So I'd give it a seven to an eight out of ten and we'll see where it goes...
