First Impressions: The Nine Lives of Chloe King

Aw summer, a time where the bar is set so low shows like Pretty Little Liars and Franklin & Bash can be considered quality entertainment. Enter the latest offering from ABC Family The Nine Lives of Chloe King that hopes to vie for the top of your guilty pleasures list. The show naturally starts with the title character being tossed out a window to her death (spoiler alert to those who did not bother to look at the title: she lives with eight lives to spare) then morphing in one of the tell tale signs of poor writing, the “two days earlier” screen.

In those two days we learn that Chloe is your typical sixteen year old wallflower with only two friends (one is so annoyingly peppy that it almost becomes entertaining, almost) and has never been kissed. Well that is until she gains unnatural balance. And excellent hearing. And claws. And heightened agility. And being able to draw the ire of dogs. And attract any guy who looks at her. Yep, she is turning into a cat, tail and all (the last one is a joke, maybe). Or technically a God descendant ancient race that has cat like features called the My (or Mi, I am too lazy to look up how it is supposed to be spelled).

I also think I have created my new drinking game: take a shot whenever the show takes elements from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A perky teen girl gets superpowers from some ancient prophecy. Shot. Raised by a single mother. Shot. She has two friends, a nerdy boy and girl that kind of like each other. Hangs out in bars despite being under-aged. Shot. Shot and shot and shot. She has a watcher (or two). Shot. There is a cute boy she cannot hook up with or bad things will happen. Shot. She dies and is brought back to life. Shot. The big problem is that the one thing that Chloe does not steal from Buffy is cleaver and witty banter. But it is summer and what better is there to do? Go outside in the high pollen count?

The Nine Lives of Chloe King airs Tuesdays at 9:00 on ABC Family. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Nine Lives of Chloe King on iTunes (which you can currently get for free).