The CW has always bet heavily on rearranging familiar stories with new times, places and characters, and “Star-Crossed” gets off to a promising start in its run at “Romeo and Juliet.” Roman (Matt Lanter) belongs to a group of aliens who landed on Earth in the spaceship they used to escape Atria, their dying planet. Emery (Aimee Teegarden) is a plain-old human girl who is especially welcome because it’s good to see Teegarden regularly in anything.
It’s not a big spoiler to say Roman and Emery become the Romeo and Juliet characters. But there’s a lot more than interplanetary romance going on here. When the Atrians landed, they were rounded up and relegated to an internment camp while Earthlings tried to figure out whether they constituted a danger. Atrians look and behave just like people on Earth. But as we know, anyone who might be different always will draw suspicion.
As the show begins, some time has passed and nine Atrians are being allowed to enroll at the local high school. It’s an experiment and they are to be sent back to their fenced-in home at night. The writers use their arrival at school to conjure images of the mobs that have resisted real-life classroom integration. On the other side, some Atrians are more bitter about their treatment than grateful for their opportunity.
That includes Roman’s best friend Drake (Greg Finley), a big guy who is not a disciple of Gandhi. Some of “Star-Crossed” falls into the CW’s well-trod comfort zone: young-adult romantic drama with a sci-fi twist. It shows extra ambition, though, by putting its outsiders so constantly and viscerally close to those who suspect and fear them. Add forbidden love, which can never escape the shadow of potential doom, and “Star-Crossed” could become both provocative and entertaining.
It’s not a big spoiler to say Roman and Emery become the Romeo and Juliet characters. But there’s a lot more than interplanetary romance going on here. When the Atrians landed, they were rounded up and relegated to an internment camp while Earthlings tried to figure out whether they constituted a danger. Atrians look and behave just like people on Earth. But as we know, anyone who might be different always will draw suspicion.
As the show begins, some time has passed and nine Atrians are being allowed to enroll at the local high school. It’s an experiment and they are to be sent back to their fenced-in home at night. The writers use their arrival at school to conjure images of the mobs that have resisted real-life classroom integration. On the other side, some Atrians are more bitter about their treatment than grateful for their opportunity.
That includes Roman’s best friend Drake (Greg Finley), a big guy who is not a disciple of Gandhi. Some of “Star-Crossed” falls into the CW’s well-trod comfort zone: young-adult romantic drama with a sci-fi twist. It shows extra ambition, though, by putting its outsiders so constantly and viscerally close to those who suspect and fear them. Add forbidden love, which can never escape the shadow of potential doom, and “Star-Crossed” could become both provocative and entertaining.
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