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Feb 18, 2014 By Lily Moayeri Web Exclusive

Star-Crossed starts with an alien species, called the Atrians, crash landing in a small town. In the melee, with scared armed humans fighting the aliens, one of the young Atrian boys, Roman, runs away, ending up in a human family’s garage where the daughter, Emery, looks after him until they are caught. Pan out to the big picture 10 years later, the Atrians are living on Earth, contained in an area called the Sector—a combination of Central Bangkok, Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics district, and Harry Potter‘s Diagon Alley.

At this point in time, Emery (Aimee Teegarden) is returning to school after a four-year absence due to illness and Roman (Matt Lanter) is starting his first day of school as part of a social experiment integrating the Atrians into human society. This experiment is filled with the expected clashes between the species in the high school halls while both Emery and Roman are attempting to fit in. An encounter in the Sector between Roman and Emery’s fathers results in the former’s death and further conflict between the humans and the Atrians. The Atrians are split between the anti-humans and the pro-humans, the same way the humans are split between the anti-Atrians and the pro-Atrians.

Star-Crossed is a by-the-numbers, odds-against, inter-species, teenage love story. The human-looking Atrians have markings on their faces somewhere between artistic tattoos and skin stains, and are styled like sexy goths, like all otherworldly beings are highly attractive. And their human mates are almost as good-looking. Replace aliens with vampires and the armed guards with the Volturi and Star-Crossed is a slightly less insipid Twilight. At the very least, the acting is of a certain quality, especially with Friday Night Lights alums Teegarden and Damon, even if the writing fluctuates between the melodramatic and teenage vapidity. There are some unexpected twists in the plot that provide enough intrigue for the viewer to want to tune back in. But for Star-Crossed to continue, it has to keep twisting. (www.cwtv.com/shows/star-crossed)

Author rating: 6/10