# Chasing Life (2014)

> An ambitious young journalist balancing career, romance and family learns she has leukemia and must fight for her future.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/54248

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 34
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: drama, family
- Created by: Susanna Fogel, Joni Lefkowitz
- Network: ABC Family
- Cast: Italia Ricci, Mary Page Keller, Haley Ramm, Richard Brancatisano, Aisha Dee, Rebecca Schull, Susan Garfield, Ed Asner
- TMDB rating: 7.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2399794/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: none
- Tone: hopeful, wry, emotional, warm, tense

## What critics say

Audiences praised the first season's blend of career drama, family warmth and emotional honesty about illness, while the second season was rated noticeably lower.

## Synopsis

Chasing Life (2014-2015) is an American family drama series created by Susanna Fogel and Joni Lefkowitz for ABC Family. Italia Ricci plays April Carver, an aspiring journalist whose ambitious career and new office romance with Dominic Russo (Richard Brancatisano) are suddenly overshadowed when she learns she has leukemia. Mary Page Keller plays her mother Sara Carver, and Haley Ramm plays her younger sister Brenna, whose lives are pulled into the diagnosis alongside April's. Aisha Dee rounds out the principal cast as Beth Kingston. The engine of the show is April's struggle to keep her newsroom ambitions and personal life intact while hospital visits, treatment schedules and family strain keep pressing in. The series runs for two seasons and thirty-four episodes, moving in a serialized, character-driven format where each hour mixes clinic scenes with workplace and romantic storylines. Set in present-day American cities, it balances hopeful, wry warmth with the fear and grief of illness, and its tone sits between a network family drama and a young adult dramedy. Fans of Grey's Anatomy, My So-Called Life and Girls will find resonance in its blend of medical stakes, young adult ambition and family intimacy. The show was canceled after its second season, leaving its story unfinished.

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