'Life Unexpected' premiere: I love the smell of The WB on The CW in the evening

Was anyone else catching some pretty intense whiffs of The WB during last night’s series debut of Life Unexpected….and LOVIN’ IT? Beyond the mere presence of Roswell‘s Shiri Appleby as the birth mother (Shiri Appleby is a mom?! Teen mom; it’s okay. Breathe.) of spunky 15-year-old Lux, we were treated to delightfully bordering-on-insane character names like “Lux” and “Baze” that just screamed “Pacey” and “Prue,” and a Gilmore Girls/Dawson’s Creek tendency to reward characters for using an impressive vocabulary while whining. By the time Baze and Cate dropped in mid-’90s references to Zima and Spin Doctors, I half expected our old friend Michigan J. Frog to hop out from underneath Lux’s warm winter hats and sing a short monologue about how Life Unexpected contained mature themes despite the rampant immaturity of its adult characters. Read Ken Tucker’s take on the premiere for some much deeper insight, and let us know if you too were vibin’ the old-school WB.