Lucy Hale is perfect as Stella Abbott in the dramedy Life Sentence
The new dramedy Life Sentence starring actress Lucy Hale premiered on Wednesday night. Pretty Little Liars fans will recognize Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery. Life Sentence is about cancer survivor Stella Abbott (Lucy Hale). Despite the serious subject matter, Life Sentence is a lighthearted, humorous and inspirational show that centers around family.
Stella's been focused on preparing for her impending death. Stella and her husband (Wes Elliot Knight) go cake shopping. Not for a wedding cake, but a funeral cake. They have a living funeral planned for later that night. Her family members have even prepared eulogies to read at the funeral. Stella doesn't want people to feel sorry for her, though. Her life has been pretty amazing.
From the minute Stella was diagnosed with cancer, her family gave her unwavering support. Her brother Aiden (Jayson Blair), sister Elizabeth (Brooke Lyons), dad Paul (Dylan Walsh) and mom Ida (Gillian Vigman) put aside their own needs and desires to help Stella live life to the fullest. They helped Stella face her fears so that dying would seem like the next great adventure.
Stella has spent the last eight years of her life living as if she were dying. She's crossed off all the items on her bucket list. She jumped out of airplanes, had dance parties and traveled the world.
She wanted to find true love, so her father scraped together enough money for Stella to go to Paris. Stella went to Paris and waited for her soulmate to appears. It didn't take long for her to literally bump into her future husband Wes.
It was the perfect match. Wes was a British guy afraid to live life and Stella was afraid to die. They fell in love in Paris and had a whirlwind romance. Her life became like a character in those romantic cancer movies. Wes quickly proposed. It was a rash decision to get married so soon, but they didn't think about it too much. It was only a 6-8 month commitment, so they thought.
In the pilot episode, Stella learns that she's completely cured. Her family is relieved, but the family dynamic changes fast. Stella's family has been keeping secrets. They wanted to surround Stella with positivity while she was battling cancer. Now that she's cured, those secrets start pouring out.
The day after Stella announces that she's cured, Ida leaves Paul. It comes has a shock to Stella, since she thought her parents were happily married.
Stella is even more shocked when she catches her mother kissing Poppy. Turns out Ida is having an affair with her best friend Poppy. By the end of the episode, Ida comes out as bisexual and announces that she's in love with Poppy.
The family is also having money problems. Paul might have to sell the family house. He spent all the money on giving Stella the best life possible. He paid for Paris, Stella's wedding and her rent. So now he can't afford to pay the mortgage.
Stella's older brother Aiden sells his ADD medication and uses Stella's cancer to guilt soccer moms into having sex with him. Aiden claims that he doesn't regret selling drugs and sleeping with those soccer moms, though.
Aiden has his own share of problems. He resents their dad for giving Stella handouts, while being too hard on him. His dad thinks he's a loser. And after Stella was diagnosed with cancer, Aiden closed himself off emotionally. He dates married women, since he doesn't have to get too emotionally involved. That backfires, though. Aiden gets his married girlfriend Marlene pregnant.
Stella's sister Elizabeth resents her children sometimes. Elizabeth made career sacrifices in order to have children early. She wanted to give her mom and dad something positive to focus on. She now regrets that decision.
Elizabeth also harbors some resentment towards Stella. Elizabeth's dream job was to be a writer, but she gave that up for Stella. Elizabeth gave up her scholarship to Columbia so she could come home and take care of Stella when she was sick.
Stella's relationship with Wes is going through changes, too. They've had a sexy and romantic marriage. They have sex every night surrounded by hundreds of candles. Stella always falls asleep with her head on Wes's chest. After all, they never knew when it might be Stella's last night on earth. Stella doesn't want anything to change in their relationship.
Wes did whatever it took to make Stella happy, even if it didn’t make him happy. Now he doesn't think he can keep that up for the rest of their lives. And they've got the big issues to worry about, too. Turns out Wes lied about not wanting to have kids. So what's next for Stella and Wes? Can they work out their issues?
They take the first step by being honest with each other. Wes admits that Love Actually isn't his favorite movie. He doesn't like Stella's favorite food: hard boiled eggs. Yet they've been eating them every morning. And Wes doesn’t like Sara Bareilles' music, even though they've been listening to the Sara Bareilles song "I Choose You" while having sex every night.
And speaking of sex, he'd also like Stella to spank him occasionally during sex. And he can't keep going outside every time he has to fart. "Winter's coming. I'm not going to be able to spend that time outdoors," he says. And possibly the most shocking news to Stella is that he doesn't want to be her pillow anymore when they sleep. His arm falls asleep and he's afraid he'll get permanent nerve damage.
Stella realizes that she doesn't really know Wes that well. And it's not just Stella's marriage that's facing uncertainty. Stella can't afford college or even pay her rent, so she gets her first job. She became a barista. Not her dream job, but it's a start.
By the end of the episode, Stella accepts some of those changes. She even obliges in spanking Wes. And she wants to get to know the real Wes. She admits that she's scared, but she does wants kids.
Now that Stella got a "life sentence", she needs to learn how to live her life, plan for the future and help her family.
As for ratings, Life Sentence was off to a slow start. 670,000 viewers tuned in to watch the pilot and it got a 0.2 rating.
Life Sentence is very different from Pretty Little Liars, but PLL fans might enjoy this new dramedy. Lucy Hale does a wonderful job in this comedic role and it's refreshing to see a humorous side to her that we didn't see often in Aria on PLL. The rest of the cast is also phenomenal. For any Lucy fans out there, you might want to check out Life Sentence. Comment below with your thoughts on the show and Lucy Hale's performance!
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