Young Adult TV Show

The Beautiful Life (TBL) is developed and executive produced by Ashton Kusher.  The show revolves around a cast of beautiful young models trying to make it in New York as a model. The show is pretty to look at but superficial and slightly dumb.

TBL’s pilot revolves around two models just starting out: the hot blonde Raina Marinelli (Sara Paxton), and the farm boy from Iowa Chris Andrews (Ben Hollingsworth). The character of Chris is based loosely on Kutcher, who left Iowa for a modeling career .

While eating in a Manhattan restaurant with his family in the midst of fashion week Chris is discovered by a talent scout and thrown into the superficial world of fashion for a few hours. He and Raina become friends, and there is some obvious sexual tension there.

The show is pretty boring, and doesn’t really have anything unique to offer.  On a postive note, the fashion show that kicks off the episode is visually well shot and the behind-the-scenes action is interesting.

In terms of other characters, there’s a drug dealer/male model (played by Musical’s Corbin Bleu),and a hypocritical British girl who is a model. They’re all struggling to attain the level of fame achieved by one Sonja Stone, played by the show’s real star, Mischa Barton.

Mischa is the best thing about The Beautiful Life. Her character, Sonja, has recently reappeared after a mysterious six-month absence, sparking rumors of career suicide. If you follow the tabloids, you know that Mischa’s own life has virtually mirrored her character’s, adding another degree of interest. She wears sparkly dresses and acts like a total bitch, both of which she does to perfection.

The Beautiful Life is a television show that you can pass on.  But if you find you just can’t get enough of the catwalk, give TBL a shot.

Glee on FOX

Fox’s Glee, debuted  with  a “special preview” strategy early on, but the season only started this  fall.  Glee is neither as good as you’ve heard nor as bad as you might have feared. The pilot, however, is  the best network pilot that has come out in a long time.

With the success of High School Musical and Bollywood coming to the forefront, why not add song and dance to entertain the masses.  Although, the shows genre is quite hard to pin down at first watch.  Is it a Musical or a Dramedy.  Its a cross between the two. The characters have voiceovers and flashbacks instead of songs where they talk about their feelings.

The story of Glee not only revolves around the kids in the show choir, but covers their friends, their teachers, their teachers’ friends, and significant others. The tone veers wildly from campy to satirical to sincerity, and the whole thing is emassed with style. The pilot’s first ten minutes almost a chore to swallow, as it tries to cram every possible plot point and character into the narrative in a way that feels cluttered.  It gives us information that we already know about high school and that has been given to us time and time again.

There’s essentially no good way to do an original teen drama anymore, so every new teen drama just tosses a few new elements into the mix and hopes for the best. Glee’s betting on large-scale musical numbers that start as laughs  and turn into plot commentary.  This is where the show begins to unveil how both its world and its characters are deeper than they first appear.

There’s no way around the impact that the renditions of “Rehab” and “Don’t Stop Believing” have on the show: they are what sets the show apart, and they are being executed at a high level.

Glee uses the show choir to show the viewers the ways we limit our own dreams and the ways they can limit us. There’s a wildly entertaining a big song-and-dance climax.

Will, a teacher obsessed with restoring the show choir to recapture an ounce of his faded glory, has moments when he pretty much seems like a complete nutball, hellbent on remembering who he was and forgetting who he’s become. Matthew Morrison manages to play all of these shades ably. He even gets to sing, and though it feels completely shoehorned in, Morrison’s voice is so nice that you’ll be willing to give that element a pass.

The cast  is superb, Lea Michele  and Cory Monteith are both agreeable and a little desperate for an outlet as the show choir’s central two singers.  Jayma Mays finds intriguing hints of sorrow in a character that could have been completely irritating. Jane Lynch is  hilarious, though she only pops up here and there, like a secret comedic weapon.

The show’s biggest misstep comes from how it treats Will’s wife, Terri, played by Jessalyn Gilsig. Gilsig’s a more than capable actress, but she seems to portray the stereotype of the wife who holds the main character back.  She is trite in the sense she is obsessed with shopping, crafts, and cleanliness. Before you watch the previews for the first episode, it is pretty obvious that she will fake a pregnancy.

Ryan Murphy is being used to promote the show. To his discredit, Popular chose not to create a world but, , to just copy other worlds and make fun of them. Nip/Tuck started as one of the best new shows on television, and went down a slippery slope it never recovered from.  Let’s hope the Glee does not experience the same fate.  There are plot points introduced late in the show that seem destined to be mishandled down the line, simply because of Murphy’s previous track record.

However, Glee is the kind of show that builds to a climax so improbable that it washes away your objections to it almost as soon as you can formulate them. It is decidedly not going to be for everyone, and I suspect it will always have its detractors opposed to something universally loved like Freaks and Geeks.  Glee is a show that knows the anticipation of the curtain going up, the excitement of the spotlight flickering on.

“Melrose Place” – CW

Since the 90210 pilot did ok for in 2008, CW decided to revive Fox’s old Melrose Place as well.  They are using the same concept.  The same soap opera for teenagers plotlines to attract CW’s regular demographic of young girls, and bringing back old characters for the Yound Adults who enjoyed the originals in their teens.

The show opens in a club with sexy scenes and great camera moves.  It is filled with good looking people and kept me watching.

Soon after the show opens, Sydney Andrews (Laura Leighton) is found dead in a pool, and there is a whodunit that arises. Sydney was dead at the series end of the original show.    She and Dr. Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro) hatched some plan to fake her death. 

Sydney’s death  brings the  people who live in the complex together.  Most of them seem connected to her in some way.   David Breck (Shaun Sipos) is Sydney’s young former lover and there is a reveal at the end where we find out that he is Dr. Mancini’s son.  Sydney used to hook up with Dr. Mancini, her brother in law that was married to her sister Jane Mancini in the original show.

Ella Simms (Katie Cassidy) is a bisexual publicist who spars with Sydney and is trying to push the career of neighbour/wannabe filmmaker Jonah Miller (Michael Rady).  Jonah’s dating Riley Richmond (Jessica Lucas) who’s an elementary school teacher.  No idea how this couple can afford to live in this neighborhood.

Other people round out the cast, including medical student Lauren Yung (Stephanie Jacobsen), who resorts to prostituting herself out for tuition money, Violet Foster (Ashlee Simpson-Wentz), who doesn’t really talk that much and, as such, can’t really be judged yet for her acting ability, and Auggie Kirkpatrick (Colin Egglesfield), a sous chef who is caught burning some very telling evidence at the end of the episode.

The new Melrose Place fits in with the CW trend to be filled with rich attractive people who deal with outlandish situations.  This show will never be as successful as Gossip Girl, which is by far their best show.  I did enjoy the 2008 Priveleged which I believe is cancelled since the star of that show is now on Gossip Girl xoxo.

I thought that the entire season was going to be devoted to finding out who murdered Sydney, kind of like the last season of The L Word. But I was wrong, they revealed the murder in the pilot to be the well mannered Sous Chef.

If you are in the younger demographic and you like 90210, you’ll probably like this show.  If you watched the original then you might be excited to learn that more original cast members will likely pop up throughout the season (including Daphne Zuniega).  I only hope the original cast members get more in-depth storylines than they have on 90210.