Product Description
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After being abandoned by her husband for a younger woman, Lynn
Kerr (Daphne Zuniga) and her two daughters are in transition.
When 16-year-old Sophie (Foret) receives a scholarship to attend
Brighton, a prestigious private school in New York City, she and
her sister convince their mother to move from their small
hometown in New Mexico. Sophie quickly finds it hard to fit in at
a high school ruled by a popular clique of wealthy society kids
known as the "beautiful people," while older sister Karen
(DeVitto) looks to break into New Yorks fast-paced and cutthroat
modeling world. As Lynn sets out to start her life over with a
job at a high fashion boutique, she and her daughters find
themselves in a city full of challenges where they embark on a
journey of self-discovery.
Beautiful People: The Complete First Season episodes include:
Beautiful People
Point and Shoot
Reload
Over Exposure
Dark, Room, s
F-Stop
Blow Up
Photo Finish
Flashback to the Future
Its All Uphill Here from Here
A Tale of Two Parties
Das Boots
Black Diamonds, White Lies
Where Are We Now?
Best Face Forward
And the Winner Is...
.com
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Take Dawson's Creek, throw in a dash of My So-Called Life and a
smidgen of Melrose Place, and you've got Beautiful People. A
night-time soap opera on all levels, the series focuses on Lynn
Kerr (Daphne Zuniga) and her daughters Karen (Torrey Devitto),
19, who wants to be a model, and Sophie (Sarah Foret), 16, who
just wants to fit into the fancy private school where she's known
as the poor scholarship kid. Though the show's title could be
used to describe the three leading ladies, it actually is the
name for the high school's popular clique. Executive producer
Paul Stupin worked on Dawson's Creek, and that earlier show's
essence is all over this series. Foret could easily pass as Katie
Holmes' slightly less glamorous sister, and she utters the same
preternaturally mature dialogue as the Creek kids as well. And
while the plot lines are never as concise or thoughtful as it was
on the Creek, they do have a clumsy charm. The back story to the
series is that Lynn moves her girls from New Mexico to New York
after her husband has an affair with Karen's best friend. While
Karen (a pouty dead ringer for Angelina Jolie) cuts ties with her
dad, sensitive Sophie keeps him filled in on their lives with
regular emails. That action, ultimately, will force her to choose
between her parents. And Melrose Place fans will delight in
seeing Zuniga verbally spar with her estranged TV husband Grant
Show (her co-star on Melrose). There are some moments in the
series that are heavy on the ick factor: an older man's creepy
serial killer-like obsession with Karen; Lynn's involvement with
her old college sweetheart, who happens to be the her of
Sophie's boyfriend; and the clumsy handling of two of the
students' sexual insecurities. There are also some
inconsistencies in the characters', well, characters.
For most of the 16 episodes--which aired on ABC Family from
April 2005 to April 2006--Sophie's friend Annabelle (Kathleen
Munroe) harbors a huge crush on their friend Gideon (Ricky Mabe).
But after their first makeout session, she rather coldly tells
him that it's not working for her. Flash forward a couple
episodes and she's pining for him again. Sophie's dream boy
Nicholas (Jackson Rath) is presented in the beginning as a
good boy with some bad friends who tries to appease her
nervousness with quips like: "Don't mistake pretension for what's
just old fashioned in breeding." Near the end, viewers are
supposed to be convinced he's a nasty boy who takes innocent
girls to sex parties. Not buying it. The casting director also
could've done a better job of hiring peripheral actors who
actually young enough to play high school students. Instead, many
of the so-called teenagers look as old as the teachers. Though
not up to par with the more sophisticated My So-Called Life or
Dawson's Creek, it's more often than not melodramatic and fun.
--Jae-Ha Kim