Chasing Life is back for its second season tonight at 9p on ABC Family and I can’t stress enough to you that you have to watch this show that is about more than just cancer.
The episode takes place shortly after the season finale, and April (Italia Ricci) and Leo (Scott Michael Foster) are dealing with their new status as an engaged couple. While they are planning their wedding and everything that comes with it, April is waiting to find out if the Chemo worked. Once she is in remission, then she can get the bone marrow transplant she needs that will save her life. That is only one complication in her life. She now has to find a job since she lost her old one right before she found out the cancer returned.
While that is April’s life, her mom (Mary Page Keller) is dealing with her oldest daughter wanting to get married so quickly and she’s in denial over it. Brenna (Haley Ramm) is single again, but she won’t stay that way for long. Who will be her next lover, a boy or a girl?
As you can tell this show deals with a lot important life-changing issues and because of that it is impactful. I have said this before and I will say it again, Chasing Life has really affected my life. Shortly before the show premiere, my former boss died from the same cancer that April has. The drama with a lot of heart has helped me get through her death.
While that is my story, other people have reached out to the cast and shared with them how the show has impacted them. Recently, I sat down with them on the lot where they tape the show and they talked about how people have responded to the show and their characters.
Italia Ricci plays April, a 24-year-old woman going through cancer, and people have responded to her about more than just that. She said, “April is like the face of hope for so many people and not just people with cancer. I have gotten letters that April has helped them stay strong through their parents’ divorce or an eating disorder or bullying or depression or whatever it is they are dealing with.” Then she explained, “They have just looked at the show and been like if she can hold on, so can I. Just being the face of hope for anybody who is relating to her or anybody else in the story. It makes me want to the best that I can and never let them down.”
Haley Ramm, plays April’s younger sister, who recently came out as bisexual. After the show airs, she told me that she “logs on to Twitter and see responses from girls saying they don’t know if they would’ve had the guts to ask out the girl that they like because that might be weird where they are from.” She shared with me one story of a girl who sent her a picture of the girl she asked out and said she isn’t sure if she would’ve been able to do if it wasn’t Brenna. Then she shared another type of fan reaction she got after the episode when her character got bullied aired. She said, “I got this really sweet response from this mom that her little boy had watched the episode and brought out the fact that he was being bullied in school for quite a while. That was nice to know that a little boy out there got the courage to say something because Brenna said something.”
That is one story of how a mom and her child watched the show together; and Mary Page Keller, who plays the mom to the two sisters, had something to say about that. She said, “I have two kids that are a little younger than Italia (April) and Hailey (Brenna), but I have a lot of mom friends who have children in that sort of age group and they watch this show with their daughters. The response I am getting is that they are able to connect with their daughters in a way that they can’t with a lot of the other shows on television.” Then she added, “They can watch it together. Which I think is really neat and I love that.”
The show’s Executive Producer, Patrick Sean Smith, hears all of that and he is listening. In fact, he said, “It is gratifying and it is reassuring. It pushes us to want to continue to tell these stories in an authentic way.”
Let them know how you feel because they are listening and they are keeping the show real because of you. Chasing Life is the most authentic show on television and if you have never seen it, tune in tonight and every Monday at 9p. If you have seen it, then you are already watching it and loving it. Everyone should be watching this show. Cancer will affect us all at some point and this is show about living with it. That is just one aspect of the drama and because of that you will be able to relate to it. Not only that you can watch with anyone because it has something for everyone. How many shows can you say that about?
Chasing Life is a story that needs to be told and nobody does it better than this show.
Chasing Life was supposed to debut its second season on August 17th, but ABC Family decided to move up their premiere date to July 6th. Not only will the show be airing over a month earlier, it will be airing even later at 10p. If I am correct, this is the first ABC Family drama to air in that timeslot.
What does this means? I am not sure. I am pretty sure it is the network’s way of saying they have a lot faith in this powerful, important show that is unlike anything on television and should be watched by anyone who understands what the word cancer means.
In my mind, I would like to think the network is making this bold move because they want to the Emmy voters to pay attention and watch this show that is deserving of the gold statuettes. I seriously cannot praise it enough. If you haven’t seen it, then catch up on it now on Netflix. You have a month and a day to watch the intense 22 episodes that will make you laugh and cry at that same time.
Back to season 2, I recently spoke with several cast members and the Executive producer about Chasing Life and what we can expect after Leo asked April (Italia Ricci) to marry him in the hospital as she awaits her bone marrow transplant from her half-sister at the end of the gut-wrenching, give this show every award episode.
Before Italia Ricci was Chasing Life, she was chasing a car on Let’s Make a Deal! How awwwdorable was the 26 year old actress’ reaction when she won a car on the game show back in 2013?
The actress talked about her appearance on the game show to Buzzfeed and she said, “I won a car. Like, two months before I booked Chasing Life, I was so broke and I went on Let’s Make a Deal and won a car. I almost moved back to Canada because I had no money and then they’re like, ‘You get this!’â€
What happened to her prize? She told the site she sold it and upgraded to a Hybrid.
Chasing Life is airing its season finale at 9p on ABC Family tonight and you don’t want to miss this gut-wrenching episode.
April (Italia Ricci) learns that her cancer is back. Before she can even comprehend what the doctor (Merrin Dungey) just told her, she finds out that she has to begin chemo is less than 24 hours. If she doesn’t, she only has 2-6 weeks to live.
That means she has just one day to get everything done. Live her last moments outside of the hospital, maybe for a month or maybe forever.
If that is all she had to deal with it would be one thing, but there is so much more going on. Her mom (Mary Page Keller) decided to fly out of state to see Uncle George (Steven Weber) and she doesn’t know if she is going to make it back in time. Any woman can tell you, she needs her mom whenever she is sick, and April is really really sick.
There’s more, the newspaper where she works at is having major layoffs and she might be losing her job. So along with maybe losing her life; if she survives, she won’t have a job when she gets out.
There’s even more, April got into a fight with Natalie (Jessica Meraz) and she doesn’t know if she will still give her bone marrow, If April doesn’t get it, her chances of survival are not good to say the least. April decides to have a chat with her half-sister, and their talk will have you balling.
The whole episode will have you crying hysterically. I saw the episode two weeks ago, and I am crying as I write this review. If I was writing this on paper, I would be using it as a tissue. Seriously, I can’t even rewatch the episode because it is that tear inducing.
But the episode is all gloom and doom, there is a very sweet scene between Leo (Scott Michael Foster ) and April that you don’t want to miss.
It isn’t only the writing that makes Chasing Life so believable, it is also the excellent acting that everyone in the cast partakes in. They bring so much heart to the writers’ words that it is hard not to get emotionally invested. Why else would I still be crying two weeks after watching an episode? What other show has that power?
Seriously, if those snobs over at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences don’t nominate this show and some of the cast (especially Ricci) for an Emmy then there is something seriously wrong with the voting procedures. Watch tonight’s episode with a lot of tissues and don’t tell me you aren’t completely gutted after the closing credits role.
I know who wants to watch a show that makes you cry, I certainly don’t. But Chasing Life is so much more than that. It is heart, family, love and all of that coming together to help someone during the worst time in their life. It is a show worth watching even if it a brings a tear or thousands of them to your eyes.
Chasing Life will be back later this year with its second season.
Italia Ricci plays April Carver, a 20-something going through cancer, on on ABC Family’s Chasing Life. Part of the role calls for her to wear a bald cap, but at the end of the day the extraordinary actress has to take it off. Looks like from these photos, she can’t wait for that happen. Does anyone blame her?
When it comes to the Chasing Life if you are not watching it, then you are missing out on a very special drama. The show tackles cancer, remission and being a patient or a survivor like no other show has ever done. It shows you that can live life as you do everyday, but then one day it can all change with a phone call. Unlike most other shows that have tackled cancer, the drama shows you all aspects of life with it, going through it and what happens when you beat it. Then if you do beat it, what happens if you think it is back. That is where the show stands as of now, and tonight at 9p April will find out if her worse fears are confirmed that her cancer is back or like some people in remission the anxiety is getting the best of her. All of this leads into next week’s season finale.
So if you have never seen the show, you can watch a few of the later episodes on the ABC Family app or OnDemand. I also highly suggest that when it becomes available on home video that you buy it. It can help you if, Gd forbid, you have someone in your life who is going through cancer. I know it helped me to get over a friend, who I lost to the same type of cancer, just a few months before the show debuted.
