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  • The CW
  • Sep 16, 2009
  • The CW
  • Sep 16, 2009
The Beautiful Life

Summary Swingtown's creator and showrunner Mike Kelley and Carol Barbee develop a primetime soap that will follow the privileged lives of male and female models residing in New York City. The Last House On The Left's Sara Paxton and The Cutting Edge 3's Ben Hollingsworth play the lead roles in the soap as Raina Marinelli, an up-and-coming mod...

  • The CW
  • Sep 16, 2009
  • The CW
  • Sep 16, 2009
The Beautiful Life
Season 1
Season Premiere: Sep 16, 2009
Metascore Mixed or Average Based on 13 Critic Reviews
40
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary Swingtown's creator and showrunner Mike Kelley and Carol Barbee develop a primetime soap that will follow the privileged lives of male and female models residing in New York City. The Last House On The Left's Sara Paxton and The Cutting Edge 3's Ben Hollingsworth play the lead roles in the soap as Raina Marinelli, an up-and-coming mod...

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 13 Critic Reviews
40
15% Positive
2 Reviews
54% Mixed
7 Reviews
31% Negative
4 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 13 Critic Reviews
40
15% Positive
2 Reviews
54% Mixed
7 Reviews
31% Negative
4 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
70
The Beautiful Life, in short, is hopelessly trashy melodrama about hopelessly trashy people. But Paxton, as a tougher-than-she-looks kid with a dark past, and Hollingsworth, as a callow Iowa farmboy trying to make it in the big city, are so unexpectedly affecting that you may find yourself sucked into the show against your will.
By Glenn Garvin FULL REVIEW
60
The series is not so different from, or significantly worse--or better--than the network's other two season premieres, "Melrose Place" and "The Vampire Diaries," which also affix stock characters, played mostly by good-looking young folk, to standard plot lines sexed up with pop songs and different flavors of visual glamour. Because they do not aim particularly high, they pretty much hit what they aim at.
By Robert Lloyd FULL REVIEW
40
A model-thin depiction of the glamorous and not-so-glamorous lives of fashion mannequins that was co-created by Ashton Kutcher.
By Ellen Gray FULL REVIEW
40
The cast and writing (the showrunner is Mike Kelley, coming off CBS' vastly superior "Swingtown") are efficient enough, but nothing really pops--other than perhaps the desire to run out and eat a nice, heavy, carbo-laden meal.
By Brian Lowry FULL REVIEW
40
For all its well-designed moves, TBL is made of some pretty chintzy material.
FULL REVIEW
30
“Inside the Mind of Mischa Barton” would have been a much better bet than The Beautiful Life.
By Ginia Bellafante FULL REVIEW
0
Speaking from outside the target demo but from long-suffering experience watching bad television, go with "unwatchable."
By Tim Goodman FULL REVIEW

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