ABC Family may be the most misleading name in cable. The network, available in more than 96 million homes, isn't interested in getting grandparents and their flocks to huddle around the TV for popcorn and "Little House on the Prairie."
"Family" is part of the title only because Pat Robertson made it a stipulation when he sold the business in 2001.
No, the only audience the ABC flagship cares about is young women, ages 15 to 30, hungry for empowered female characters, sexy bad boys and great looking shoes — a formula that's put to work in two new series, "Chasing Life" and "Young & Hungry."
In "Life," premiering Tuesday, newspaper reporter April Carver (Italia Ricci) faces a barrage of challenges.
Her little sister, struggling to get over the death of their father, has turned into Lindsay Lohan, skipping school assignments to chug tequila and hang out at tattoo parlors. An estranged uncle is desperate to squeeze back into her life. A work rival wants to stomp her out with her impossibly high heels. Her gruff editor makes Clark Kent's boss, Perry White, look like the Dalai Lama.
Oh, and she's just gotten a cancer diagnosis.
Terrible stuff — except this is female fantasyland, which means there's also a sassy best friend who makes for an ideal drinking partner, a dreamboat date on a rooftop and a shot at landing the biggest story of the year.
Silly? You bet. A cub reporter would be covering zoning committees, not a scandal in a gubernatorial race, and her ethical code seems to have been lifted from the textbook of notorious fabricator Jayson Blair. Cancer can provide material for laughs, as proven by Showtime's woefully underrated "The Big C." But most of the quips are one-liners that wouldn't make the cut on its vastly superior predecessor "Gilmore Girls."
