Beautiful People - TV-14

Drama best for teens and up lacks sizzle.

(Flash is loading. If this text does not disappear you need to install the latest flash version)

About Our Ratings

Common Sense rates it

Seen the show?

details

TV Rating: TV-14
Network: ABC Family
Genre: Drama
>Available On: DVD

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that trouble literally and figuratively lurks in all the celluloid corners of this family drama. The subject matter veers toward grown-up angst, even though it's populated by both teens and adults. The premise alone -- a mother decamps to the Big Apple with her teen daughters after her husband cheats on her with her daughter's friend -- is enough to raise eyebrows.

Families can talk about what happens when a family breaks up under very difficult circumstances and has to start afresh in a new town. How do newcomers make friends? What problems do they encounter when they start over? And when it's brought on by divorce, how do children fare in a custody battle? Add to that a laundry list of teen-oriented issues, such as battling the urge to stay stick-thin and wanting a boyfriend, and there's plenty to discuss.

Message
Violence
Sex
Language

Message

Social Behavior:

A woman's husband cheats on her with a girl young enough to be his daughter; she then hooks up with her daughter's friend's father. A teen's past includes a diet-pill dependency -- it's all in the mix.

Consumerism:

Mom's a fashion designer, and her daughters are in their teens, so labels are casually mentioned. Nothing too overdone.

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

An occasional glass of wine, a former diet-pill addiction, and so on. It all adds up to potential -- though nothing explicit yet -- land mines.

Violence

Punches and kicks are thrown in a quick street skirmish, but no guns or knives ... yet. Blurring the line between urban and suburban drama.

Sex

Some romantic entanglements, with sex hinted at from time to time, but nothing a teen can't handle.

Language

For a drama based in the big city that involves some lippy teens, this show is fairly wholesome, language-wise.

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by S. Jhoanna Robledo

After she discovers that her husband, Daniel (Grant Show), is cheating on her, BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE's Lynn Kerr (Daphne Zuniga) leaves cozy Esperanza, New Mexico, and takes off for New York City with 16-year-old Sophie (Sarah Foret), who attends a snooty private school on scholarship, and her older sister, Karen (Torrey DeVitto), who dreams of becoming a model. But as can be expected, life in the Big Apple isn't as glam or grand as it often appears to be -- what starts out promising quickly turns challenging. Things get particularly difficult when Sophie's crush turns on her when her mother starts dating his father and when Lynn's new business partner seems to be flakier than she's comfortable with.

Is it any good?

It is delightful to see Zuniga playing more than the pretty face, though it's frankly hard to believe she has a 20-year-old when she barely looks 30 herself. When she complains of being left for a younger woman, it hardly rings true. Especially when she's busy flirting with her cute, long-lost love. And fans who've followed Zuniga since her days on Melrose Place will enjoy the extra layer that her reunion with former co-star Show brings to the series.