The L.A. Complex
Intro to The L.A. Complex
Genre	Drama
Created by	Martin Gero
Directed by	Martin Gero Stefan Brogren
Starring	Jonathan Patrick Moore Joe Dinicol Andra Fuller Chelan Simmons Cassie Steele Benjamin Charles Watson Jewel Staite Georgina Reilly Dayle McLeod Michael Levinson
Country of origin	Canada
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	19 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Martin Gero Stephen Stohn Linda Schuyler Troy Miller
Location(s)	Los Angeles, California
Production company(s)	Epitome Pictures
Distributor	MuchMusic The CW Bell Media
Broadcast
Original channel	MuchMusic
Original run	02013-01-10January 10 – September 24, 2012 (2012-09-24)
External links
Official website

The L.A. Complex (originally Highland Gardens) is a Canadian drama series which premiered on CTV and MuchMusic on January 10, 2012, subsequently airing on MuchMusic. It also began airing in the United States on April 24, 2012 on The CW.^[1]

The series stars Cassie Steele as Abby Vargas, an aspiring actress who moves to Los Angeles with nothing but her Maple Leafs hockey bag and dreams of being a famous actress.

As described in CTV publicity materials, "The L.A. Complex follows the lives of twenty year olds living in the same apartment complex in L.A. trying to make it as actors, dancers, producers and comedians. Relationships begin and end, the need to succeed is tested and all characters are pushed to their breaking points."^[2][3]

On December 3, 2012 it was announced that The L.A. Complex wasn't renewed for a third season by Much and Bell Media, but with a possibility that the series can be picked up by another network.^[4]

On December 20, 2012, The CW announced that the series was not going to be picked up by the network, making it officially canceled.^[5]

Cast [edit]

Main cast

Recurring cast

Episodes [edit]

Production [edit]

CTV's parent company, Bell Media, ordered six episodes of the series in August 2011. Shooting and production of the series began in the summer of 2011, with both Toronto and Los Angeles as primary locations.^[6]

Several hours prior to the series premiere, Bell Media announced that The L.A. Complex had been picked up by The CW to air in the United States later in the spring.^[6]

On March 22, 2012, Bell Media ordered a further 13 episodes to be produced for the first season.^[7]

The CW picked up the second season of the show for the network's summer schedule, to begin airing on Tuesday, July 17, 2012.^[8] Later, starting on August 27, the series moved to Mondays 8/7c as a lead-in for repeats of the new season of America's Next Top Model.

Critical reception [edit]

The series received mostly positive reviews from critics. Metacritic which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 from reviews of mainstream critics, gives the series a score of 70 based on 12 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews.^[9]

Rob Owen of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette gave the show a positive review stating "For the type of show it sets out to be, this Complex is surprisingly, well, complex." Alan Sepinwall of Hitfix also gave the show a positive review, describing the show as "It's a primetime soap, but one that's genuinely more interested in what the characters want to do for a living than in who they're sleeping with."

The TVLine team said of LA Complex, "It’s like everything you’d want from a CW soap, and it delivers," and that it contains "TV’s most interesting, unexpected romance."^[10]

Entertainment Weekly gave the show an A- and declared that it was "summer's hidden gem", saying that it was "unexpectedly smart", and that the bad decisions of the characters made it "far more interesting, relatable, and likable than the glambots we normally see".^[11]

However, Tom Gliatto of People Weekly gave the show a negative review, describing the show as a "blah drama about kids living in an LA apartment complex while hustling for big breaks."

Ratings [edit]

• The L.A. Complex premiered on January 10, 2012 in Canada. It was previewed on CTV drawing 351,000 viewers as well as 60,000 on its regular channel MuchMusic.^[12]
• Episode 2 aired January 17, 2012 on MuchMusic drawing 87,000 viewers.^[13]
• Episode 3 aired January 24, 2012 on MuchMusic drawing 40,000 viewers.^[14]
• Episode 4 aired January 31, 2012 on MuchMusic drawing 44,000 viewers.^[15]
• Episode 5 aired February 7, 2012 on MuchMusic drawing 16,000 viewers.^[16]
• Episode 6 (season finale) aired February 14, 2012 on MuchMusic drawing 22,000 viewers.^[17]

However, after its initial airing in the United States, the series received the lowest-ever ratings for a broadcast drama series premiere, despite its generally favorable reviews.

International broadcasts [edit]

• In France, June will broadcast the show starting November 5, 2012 (in French).^[18]
• In the United States, the series airs on The CW.^[1]
• In the Australia, the series airs on MTV.
• In the United Kingdom, the series will air on MTV^[19] & now on Drama.
• In the Turkey, tv2 will broadcast the show starting February 12, 2013
• In the Asia the series will air by April 14th 2013 with a back-to-back premier on MTV Asia.
• In the Czech Republic the series premiered on MTV Czech on April 17, 2013.
• In the Poland the series will premiere on MTV Poland on April 21, 2013.
• In the Netherlands the series will premiere on MTV Netherlands on April 21, 2013.
• In the Latin America the series will premiere under the title "Sueños de Hollywood" on MTV on April 21, 2013.
• In Slovenia the series airs on Planet TV.

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• The L.A. Complex at the Internet Movie Database
• The L.A. Complex at TV.com