Is 'The Nine Lives of Chloe King' the next 'Buffy'?

16 year-old blond girl discovers she has super powers? Check. The young heroine must hide the secret from those around her, including her single mother? Check. A supernatural show sending a positive message about female empowerment? Check.

Relax, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fans. We don't actually think ABC Family's new show "The Nine Lives of Chloe King" can replace Joss Whedon's masterpiece. That would just be absurd. However, we do think it has certain strands in its DNA that belong to the same family.

In the pilot episode, Chloe King discovers she is part of an ancient race called the Mai and that she may be their only hope for survival against human assassins. Substitute Mai with Slayers and human assassins with vampires and you have the basic plot of "Buffy."

Zap2it chatted with Skyler Samuels, who plays Chloe King, about Chloe's struggle to balance her supernatural abilities with a normal life.

 "She's trying to figure out who she is, how to talk to a boy, how to maintain a relationship with her two best friends, how to talk to her mom about dating or putting away her laundry, the usual things," Samuels explains. "At the same time she discovers that being a teenager just wasn't enough. She's got this added factor of these supernatural abilities that she has."

She continues, "Because of that I think it's kind of a fantastic way to look at how a teenage girl develops, having to deal with these things and becoming a young woman in the process."

Sound familiar? You can also expect Chloe to get a little quippy while fighting the bad guys, just like Buffy. "It's funny because Chloe sometimes will make jokes while she fights. She's always got a clever wit about her which makes the action portion fun and funny to watch." 

Amy Pietz, who plays Chloe's mother, says, "I try to explain [the show] to my friends using something they can relate to. Sometimes I use 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' as an example. It has romance and action."

Viewers can expect to see Chloe struggle with the decision to tell her mother about her new powers. Samuels says, "I think Chloe is a littler nervous to bring this thing to her mom because it's like, How do I tell her? Maybe she won't love me anymore. What does this mean? What does she know?'"

Pietz adds, "I don't know how long we're going to draw it out, probably until the end of at least the first season."

Do you think "Nine Lives" is similar to "Buffy" or are we just taking some crazy pills? Sound off in the comments. Don't forget to watch "The Nine Lives of Chloe King" Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST on ABC Family.