The Beautiful Life
The CW | CW | Release Date: September 16, 2009
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
40
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
7
Negative:
4

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesPaige Wiser
Season 1 Review: Most of the characters are about as distinctive as mannequins. You won't mind, though, because they're awfully nice to look at. But the disgraced supermodel is played by Mischa Barton, and this is where the show may achieve inadvertent poignancy. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
50
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: It may lack Melrose Place's flashy production values and trashy pedigree, but it makes up for that by being marginally better written, though admittedly, we're not talking about a particularly high bar here. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterRandee Dawn
Season 1 Review: For all its well-designed moves, TBL is made of some pretty chintzy material. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: The Beautiful Life is designed to fit alongside CW anchors like "90210," except that even by those standards, it's pretty predictable and stilted. Read full review
40
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: 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. Read full review
40
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: The pilot is clearly half-baked. Whether that’s due to Barton or deeper creative problems is unclear. Read full review
40
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: A model-thin depiction of the glamorous and not-so-glamorous lives of fashion mannequins that was co-created by Ashton Kutcher. Read full review
30
The New York TimesGinia Bellafante
Season 1 Review: “Inside the Mind of Mischa Barton” would have been a much better bet than The Beautiful Life. Read full review
30
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: Laughable plot, wooden dialogue, cutout characters; stupid title appendage to make it more textable; usual cynical CW glorification of teen sexuality and substance abuse; mediocre acting. Read full review
25
New York PostLinda Stasi
Season 1 Review: It keeps the proud tradition alive with dialogue so bad, it'll make you laugh out loud; acting so shallow, it could make a model look brainy; and actors so unbelievable, they can't even get the runway stomp right. Read full review
0
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: Speaking from outside the target demo but from long-suffering experience watching bad television, go with "unwatchable." Read full review
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