By Blair Thill, Gavel Blogger -

There’s something everyone should know about me, the entertainment blogger: I am, and forever will be, a fervent fan of Gilmore Girls. In my mind, there has never been a show that has blended genuine emotion and true wit like Amy Sherman-Palladino’s brainchild. I was a blubbering mess during the series finale – from the moment Rory and Lorelai pulled up to the tented town party to the last cups of coffee Luke poured for them at his diner. I lived and died with each questionable life choice made by Lorelai, and simply died laughing with every perfectly placed pop culture reference. I will passionately defend my opinion on who Rory should have ended up with at the end of the series (Jess, of course. Dean was over and done with, and Logan? Can you say douche?). I think Paris Gellar is one of the funniest secondary characters I’ve ever watched. In short, Gilmore Girls has a special place in my heart.

That being said, you can imagine my consternation upon hearing that The CW’s new skein, Life Unexpected, was being routinely compared to the show I devoted seven years of my life to. Every advertisement made sure to remind me that Life Unexpected is “Juno meets Gilmore Girls!” I dare you to find one ad for the show that doesn’t contain that phrase. But I wondered what, exactly, that phrase could mean. Does the show contain a constant barrage of pop culture references, phrases like “honest to blog,” hamburger phones, and monkey lamps? Do the teenage girls make poor choices that lead to pregnancies that only enhance their wit and snark? I vowed that despite my fears, I had to investigate the credibility of this comparison.

Before we go any further, let’s do a quick run down of the story of the LU pilot. We find our female ingenue in Lux, an almost 16-year-old girl who’s been kicked around the Portland foster care system her entire life. On her 16th birthday, Lux wants nothing more than to become emancipated so she can legally take care of herself and rent her own apartment. This brings her to the door of her birth father, bar owner and eternal slacker Nathan Basil, a.k.a Baze. Lux needs both her birth parents to sign her emancipation form to make everything kosher. Baze helps her track down Cate, birth mom turned popular radio DJ. Let unresolved mommy and daddy issues, unresolved feelings resulting from a one night high school stand, and awkward family reunions commence!

Turns out Life Unexpected is beyond delightful, albeit not the result of a Juno and Gilmore love child. The only comparisons I could draw between the new CW series and those two venerable predecessors is the teen pregnancy aspect. But Cate is no Lorelai Gilmore – sure, she screws up her personal relationships, including an on-off-on engagement to radio cohost Ryan, but she doesn’t have one iota of the humor Amy Sherman Palladino or Diablo Cody infused into their characters.

What LU should be touting themselves as is a return to the glory days of The WB. Because it does have one more similarity to Gilmore, and that’s heart. The tone of the family drama hearkens back to the days when Everwood inhabited Monday nights and Gilmore graced Tuesdays at 8 p.m. In fact, if I were to retool the ads for this show, I’d say LU is as if an orphaned Rory Gilmore lived on the streets for 16 years and went to find her parents in Everwood, Colorado.

Lux will be forced to reconcile her penchant for independence with her desire to know what a real family feels like. The ingenue behind the ingenue, Britt Robertson brings a doe eyed twinkle necessary to the success of the role. I cannot wait to explore the well that I suspect is her untapped talent. I predict that big things are going to happen for this young actress, as she has the potential and star quality to surpass anything Alexis Bledel has been doing lately.

Shiri Applebee is admittedly just all right for me, but I’m also a big fan of the actor who plays Baze, Kristoffer Polaha. What I find so annoying in movie slackers such as Seth Rogen is that no girl would actually go for them because they have no redeeming qualities. No job, no charm, nothing. Baze is a girl’s dream slacker, successful in his bar ownership with an endless supply of witticisms. I mean, hey, he may have picked Lux up for school in a cab in the second episode, but at least he didn’t drink and drive.

The charm of the second episode was tenfold from the pilot, which means every Monday The CW will be offering a refreshing retreat from its usual schedule of angst ridden teen debauchery. Life Unexpected is going to go places, and I’m already declaring it my new favorite show of 2010 … at least until Lauren Graham swings back into TV in March in the new NBC dramedy Parenthood.