The 9 Lives of Chloe King

Last week I wrote a review of the new ABC Family show, Switched at Birth. If you read it, which I find hard to believe, you’ll remember that I was less than impressed with the show. I was hard pressed to think of a show in resent memory that was more heavy-handed while having less acting talent contained therein. Enter Chloe King.

The simple premise of the show is that Chloe, a teenager is descending from an ancient race of cat people. That’s the believable part. It’s the rest of the show that’s hard to swallow.

It’s established early on that Chloe is a bit of an outcast who is not content with only having two friends and not being more popular. At the same time, she clearly has nothing but contempt for the popular crowd at school and is physically repulsed by the hot jock who so badly wants to do whatever high school kids on ABC Family do with each other. By the way, Chloe’s best friend makes a point of saying this jock is extra hot because he comes from London, yet his accent is clearly Australian.

Throughout the show, Chloe exhibits a host of cat-like behavior. Heightened agility, super hearing, spontaneous nail generation and other not-so-subtle nonsense to make it clear this girl is part feline. There’s also some sort of thrilling intrigue about people trying to kill Chloe but I could barely stay interested.

The true disappointment of this show is it’s depiction of teenagers. Just like Pretty Little Liars and Secret Life of the American Teenager, this show depicts some idealized version of teenagers who all live fabulous carefree lives where they do and say the most creative and amazing things. I just can’t buy it. Until someone can produce a show about teenagers who fight with each other and talk about Justin Bieber all day, I’m out.

Hear more from the King of TV on The Paul Goebel Show podcast and at his website, www.TheKingofTV.com. You can also follow Paul on Twitter @PaulGoebelShow.

Tags: Chloe King - Paul Goebel - TV