Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Life By Ella’ On Apple TV+, Where A Teen Girl Decides To Live A More Fearless Life After Surviving Cancer

Shows about middle school almost all have the same theme: “Isn’t middle school awful?” It is a minefield of hormones, rivalries, increased responsibility and that overall feeling that life is about to change. But what if your life has already changed because of an illness? Will those regular middle-school dramas look more or less important? That’s the thought behind a new Apple TV+ family series.

LIFE BY ELLA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We see the sky, then a teenage girl peers down. “Whoa, we’re way up here, like this is legit spleen-explode-inside-of-your-body high.” Her friend looks down and agrees.

The Gist: Ella McCaffrey (Lily Brooks O’Briant) and her friend Kai (Artyon Celestine) are standing on the high dive of their local pool, fully-clothed, as part of Ella’s desire to overcome her fears and no longer play it safe in life. She’s got good reason for doing that; after a year away from school as she got cancer treatments and recovered to the point where she was cancer-free, Ella is ready to come back on the first day of 7th grade.

Different members of her family are reacting in different ways. Her super-cautious dad Carl (Kevin Rahm) doesn’t think she’s ready to go back, gives her green tea smoothies and probiotic yogurt parfaits for lunch. Her mom Joanne (Mary Faber) seems to be a bit less stressed about Ella’s return, but has issues of her own to deal with. And her younger brother Grady (Aidan Wallace) is just happy that he’s not going to be asked about her all of the time.

Ella’s first day back isn’t without its problems, as she tries to go at a normal pace and do the things she used to in order to prove to herself that she’s not scared of taking risks. But three different times she gets nauseous, the first is when she sees her former best friend Ximena (Vanessa Carrasco); while Kai visited Ella in the hospital and talked about everyday things, Ximena didn’t visit once, and that has understandably caused a major rift in their friendship.

After the third time she gets sick, while trying to eat a burrito from a local truck, she and Kai go back to the pediatric cancer ward where she stayed so she could get checked out. But there she not only does she see her friend Gavin (Jackson Dollinger), whose cancer has returned, but she figures out what’s triggering her nausea. It makes her more determined than ever, because she knows there’s no time like the present, even if things aren’t “back to normal”, to embrace a new outlook on life.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Life By Ella has a similar vibe to Best Foot Forward, another recent Apple series featuring middle-schoolers.

Our Take: Life By Ella, created by veteran kid-show producers Jeff Hodsden and Tim Pollock, is of course supposed to be inspirational. Ella is a girl who played things safe her entire life, but living with cancer, and the knowledge that it could come back at any time, is leading her to embrace more adventure and randomness, something we all aspire to.

But what we appreciate about the series is that it doesn’t take the schmaltzy way out. The stories and humor are definitely character-driven, but there is certainly a lot of dramas within Ella’s story. First is Ella fighting the person she used to be, who always played it safe. That will be a constant as she reenters the world of middle school, one that is likely going to surprise her for how complex and emotionally raw it can be.

We also see dramas with members of Ella’s inner circle. Kai so far is just a fun, supportive buddy; he seems mildly worried that he and Ella will fade once she gets more into being in school and away from the hospital environment, but Ella seems to assure her that, because he was there for her, “our friendship is as real as it gets.” Carl has to learn to let go and let Ella live her life again. Joanne not only pretends to be busy at work so as not to have to engage with some of the rougher parts of Ella’s journey, but she hasn’t seemed to tell anyone at work about Ella’s medical issues.

What we hope to see is more exploration of all of these stories, as well as little brother Grady’s resentment at everything for the past year being about Ella and cancer and little else. It’s not a selfish resentment, but a natural one, coming from someone who just wants to remind people that’s he’s there too. It seems that Ella would love for the spotlight to be off her, but no one else seems to agree. There’s also the matter of Ella and Ximena, who seems to be truly sorry she didn’t have her friend’s back; there will hopefully be a lot of steps to that relationship being rebuilt, which should provide a lot of story material.

What Age Group Is This For?: Life By Ella is TV-G, and there is enough there for young kids to enjoy. But to understand the more mature themes, mainly around Ella’s cancer, we think the audience would need to be 8 and up.

Parting Shot: We’re back at the pool. And we’ll let you take a guess as to whether Ella and Kai jump in or not.

Sleeper Star: Maya Lynne Robinson provides some comic relief as Coach Nattiel, who seems to be overly concerned with scuffing her brand new bright-white sneakers, even as she teaches gym class.

Most Pilot-y Line: There’s a running joke about the dark eyes of a local weatherman named Rick Upchurch, and Kai, a weather buff, wonders why Ella has such a thing against him. Then we see a donor portrait of him at the pediatric cancer ward and… we don’t really get a satisfying payoff to that ongoing gag.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Life By Ella aims to be inspirational without doling out a lot of saccharine, and it mostly succeeds.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.