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Hercules Knows The Ugly Truth About The CW’s THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE: TBL!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
Co-created by former model Ashton Kutcher (with “Swingtown” vet Mike Kelley), “The Beautiful Life: TBL” looks at the lives of young models and the grabby, less attractive men who want to have sex with them in New York City.
The male model from Iowa at the center of this drama finds himself slapping away the beefy mitts of a horny agent who has trouble taking “no” for an answer. I gather powerful big-city homosexuals in the fashion industry were keen to have sex with Iowa native Kutcher during his modeling days, and he felt the time was ripe to dramatize that era in his life.
Suspiciously, The CW only sent along 25 minutes of the show’s pilot. I thought those 25 minutes worked better than the pilots for “Vampire Diaries” or “Melrose Place,” but fell well short of any episode of “Veronica Mars,” a well-written show about pretty young people the netlet felt compelled to cancel.
USA Today says:
… what's dispiriting about Beautiful Life is that it's too lazy to even work as successful eye candy. …
The Los Angeles Times says:
… 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. …
The Washington Post says:
… Although only a 25-minute sampler of this series was available for preview, it's clear that the show brings a fresh eye to one of cable TV's most hackneyed, hokey and overexposed arenas: the decreasingly fascinating world of models, fashion and all that baloney about designing divas. …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
… awful, no matter your age or gender. … Luckily, by deadline, the CW had only sent a 25-minute presentation preview of "The Beautiful Life," the drama executive-produced by Ashton Kutcher about models in New York (a topic he knows about). If you are thinking shallow model culture is ripe for the CW, then you are too savvy to watch this show. But if you do (proving you are immune to the numerous warnings in this column about vapidity, pointless gloss and heinous writing), know that those 25 minutes felt like 105 minutes, so you should set the DVR accordingly. …
The Philadelphia Inquirer says:
… 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. …
The Boston Herald says:
… It’s not a great show - Raina’s selfless act late in the hour doesn’t ring true - but with some script styling, these models could be tarting up CW’s screen for a long time to come. The catwalk has never looked so enticing.
The Boston Globe says:
… the acronym “TBL’’ makes me think of two words: Troubled and terrible. In the case of “The Beautiful Life: TBL,’’ I’m going to go with “troubled’’ for now, and reserve the right to use “terrible’’ later. … Let’s see if the writers can make these sweet kids into more than cardboard cutouts. …
Variety says:
… little more than a title in search of an actual show -- less TV to talk about, per the CW's ad campaign, than TV to groan at. …
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… As an entree into a cutthroat profession, "TBL" looks good on the surface: It's fast-paced, eye-popping and seductively, shallowly interesting (words that could describe much of the CW lineup). But despite fulfilling so many expectations, "TBL" doesn't hit any high points. Posen's outfits aside, the clothes are unspectacular, and the models wearing them are just ... regular-pretty. When a fashion-show audience gasps at Raina's breakout moment, the regular-audience at home should feel those reverberations -- and they never come. For all its well-designed moves, "TBL" is made of some pretty chintzy material.
9 p.m. Wednesday. The CW.
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But when shit such as this pops up, sure, why not? It's like Herc is trying to pimp every other show on the CW except Supernatural to spit in our faces. That sure is journalistic integrity and professionalism at its best.
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Why are you wasting everyone's time with reviews of reality crap like this, instead of actually covering shows readers with half a brain would be interested in?
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Sure, there's a large variety of tastes here, but you know the overwhelming majority could care less about this. There's so many complaints about shows that don't get talkbacks and this is just a slap in the face. Either get off your high horse or admit you enjoy spurning aintitcool fans.
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Sep 16, 2009 7:34:56 AM CDT
All Of These Shows Are Interchangable
by isleptwithkathybatesandallthatigotwasthi
The problem with beautiful people is that they're damned boring. Sure, it's nice to look at pretty people but someone who has character is a lot more interesting to watch. Take Steve Buscemi, for example. He's no looker but he's damn interesting to watch. A lot of these actors have drifted into the business from modelling, thinking that their looks will get them through. Most of them couldn't act their way out of a paper bag.All of these shows are pretty much the same. Bland, stupid people cheating on one another and having sex whilst lusting after others or being lusted after. And it's boring.Sure, that's just my 2$ but i'm sure that I'm not alone in thinking this.
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Sep 16, 2009 7:40:23 AM CDT
And I also question the absence of Supernatural here
by isleptwithkathybatesandallthatigotwasthi
This is a geek website and it's fair to say that Supernatural has a big following on AICN.Whilst the movies side of AICN covers pretty much everything, the TV side just seems to cover whatever Herc feels like. I guess that's fine seeing as it's his baby, but a lot of people here have been calling for a Supernatural TB over the years. I think we had one a while back but that was it.I'm not sure why this is. It's almost as though Herc is deliberately going out of his way not to please its fans. Instead we get TBs for shows like this which are more designed for the teenage girl audience (and, whilst there probably are teenage girls here, I would say they account for less than 5%) or reality shows which we're not allowed to criticise otherwise we get banned.I'm a bit lost really. Supernatural is really, really good. In the opinion of many, it's one of the better shows airing at the moment. What did it do to upset Herc so much?
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this show looks like such a piece of crap. It's got a friggin Murderer's Row of vagine! I'll probably watch some just to look at Mischa and Sara.
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That show is SHIT and has a couple of fags playing the main characters. Enjoy!
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...as to why crap like this gets covered here, and why Harry hasn't asked Herc to start covering shows the readers actually give a shit about, instead of all this teenage girl crap (90210 ripoffs and reality shows), which are most definitely NOT what the readership here wants to read about. It just makes no sense.
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is that depicted in the show too? :)
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White people... seriously, they all look the same, want the same things, desire the same type of body, personality, etc. White people is what the CW should change its name to... WP. CW is not what it originally set out to do. Bridge the gap between white culture and all other culture. It is now all white culture (look at their shows! OTH, 90210, MP, GG, SV, SN, Etc.). It's embarrassing.
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Take that Ashton.
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At least that show had a little entertainment value.
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But it was well done. The pilot started with stock characters that by show's end, they all started to develop. Her best friend really was psychic. The pretty blond was really insecure. The brother was recovering from drug addiction, and the cliffhanger where Vicki wakes up and says "Vampire" had me wanting to see episode 2. Herc needs to let go the cancellation of "Veronica Mars" and "Gilmore Girls" and "Everwood" and just accept the fact that the network (and most of us) have moved on. "Veronica Mars" was one of my favorite shows ever, but that doesn't mean I have to hate "90210" now. Which started off a mess but has turned into ridiculously watchable TV.
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That was probably the best remake I have seen so far. She was great in it, but so were all the actors. So maybe I'll watch this tonight because she is in it. And Rumer Willis is on 90210 now to whoever above who mentioned her.
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With teens growing up on this stuff. It just keeps getting worse and worse. I guess things have to hit rock bottom before they start getting better. Is this the cycle civilizations?
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You're an idiot.
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Agreed. Either call the show "The Beautiful Life" or call it "TBL". As it stands, the show is technically titled "The Beautiful Life: The Beautiful Life". It is redundant. Like on the elevator where I live. There are two buttons, ODB & CDB. "DB" stands for Door Button, "O" and "C" are Open and Close, respectively. So "ODB" is the Open Door Button button.
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Yeah, I don't get it. The movie side, even the weekly comic reviews have multiple voices that review or make editorial coments but not the Coax section. It's just Herc and what he personally likes.
I don't get why there isn't at least one other contributor with a different perspective. If Herc wants to only cover CW teen dramas good for him but let's get real, this is a nerd site and Coax spends almost all of it's time and energy on non-nerdy shows like this.
Say what you will, love them or hate them the fact that Coax doesn't cover Supernatural or Smallville but will have coverage of the latest MTV Real World event is absurd. -
finding music for these shows. Literally every one of their soundtracks are the same and now they have about FOUR carbon copies all struggling to cram as many Top 100 songs into an hour as possible. I saw a few minutes of 90210 the other night and it felt like they played 4 different songs in the span of ONE scene.
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bias against Supernatural. However, I can't fault him for giving this, or Melrose Place, a TB for their first episodes. He is fair enough to give one TB to the first episode of most new shows, basically "here it is, love it or hate it, just letting you all know it starts tonight". I'm fairly certain he did it for Supernatural's first episode too. He'll do the odd one for many shows (even if he did completely ignore Supernatural's season premiere, as usual), it is rare Hercules has a weekly TB for a particular show. The only 3 (in the past year) I can think of are The Office, Dollhouse, and Mad Men.On the subject, though, it would be nice to know EXACTLY what the rules are for posting. Is it ok for me, for example, to talk about this week's Supernatural episode in this TB? Was it ok had I done it last week in the Vampire Diaries TB? Both shows are on the same network as Supernatural, and VD on the same night. After all, it seemed perfectly ok last year to talk about 30 Rock and Parks & Recreation, even ER, in The Office TB. In regards to both context and content, what is the line that separates acceptable comments from a bannable offense?
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they'll break the legs of your coffee table.
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I can positively state that there's not a single person that logs into AICN that gives a fuck about a show like this. Not one. Herc, wtf dude?
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You do realize herc posts reviews, of basically every new show...every season. This is just one of them, you clearly must be retarded if you think this will get a weekly TB.
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I would have sex with both. At the same time or separately.
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Er ... so the title of the show is "The Beautiful Life: TBL"? And I assume the "TBL" also stands for "The Beautiful Life"? So, one last time, the title of the show is "The Beautiful Life: The Beautiful Life"? Wow. Good thing Ashton Kucher had that modeling/acting/punking career (and Demi Moore's money), because I think he may be functionally retarded.
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Untrue.
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Tweets from BFF say it is GR8. DNT miss it. TTFN.
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I think we've only gotten complaints about spamming in the Dollhouse talkbacks, so I'm fairly certain you can yack about Supernatural in here. But if you find your Supernatural posts disappearing from other talkbacks, it means you're pissing somebody off, so you'd best take it elsewhere before you find your account suspended. For the record, AICN rules state generally that reasons for banning include trolling, spamming, personal attacks, posting off-topic and annoying the editors. (Though, honestly, I can seldom be bothered to enforce these rules unless somebody brings them to my attention.)
Few talkbackers seem to have much to say about Supernatural beyond "Why is there no place where we can talk about Supernatural?" Which is odd (and annoying to other talkbackers apparently) because AICN's The Zone has a perfectly functional Supernatural thread going. And it seems you're more likely to find people who want to read and write about "Supernatural" there than beneath a "Beautiful Life" or "Dollhouse" review. I could be wrong.
If there's something about The Zone you find repugnant, there are a LOT of people besides me writing about TV on the Internet, and a LOT of Web pages dedicated specifically to discussions of Supernatural (at TWOP and The CW site, among many others), so you may want to seek those out. I've sampled Supernatural (as I do most shows) and have no intention of watching Supernatural at the moment. I was more of a Reaper guy.
And Timahh states what I thought should be obvious to all: there are no plans to cover The Beautiful Life on a weekly basis. -
But Supernatural is one of the best genre shows of all time. Of all time! Yeah, we know that we could talk about it on other places like the ones you mentioned, but those are full of a different... type... of fan. Anyway, guess we'll have to accept that we won't be getting a column here ever. Anyone looking for a good place to discuss the show, CHUD actually has a season 5 thread going in their television board, with people who are probably the closest thing to talkbackers that we have. Thanks for giving us an answer at least, and for the True Blood talkback for the finale. *hands mic back*
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If you ever feel you've been banned unfairly, just drop me an email (herculesaicn@yahoo.com) and make your case. Sometimes people get banned over honest misunderstandings. It's just as easy to unban somebody as it is to ban him.
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There are rules? lol.
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for this!?! LOL. Oh, and Herc, are you going to have a Fringe Talkback? Please!! Fringe does start it's new season tomorrow.
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Too bad his ignorance shines through once again. True Blood and Mad Men and Dollhouse and Lost all have threads in The Zone. But that doesn't stop you from creating multiple TB's for them. You don't tell fans of those shows to take their shit elsewhere, you don't create TB that it's FORBIDDEN TO POST IN, for these shows. Also "Why is there no place where we can talk about Supernatural here, in the Coaxial section where it belongs?" is a more accurate representation of our thoughts.
Either you are so clueless or you "forgot" that though more and more people complain about the declining quality of reviews and articles around here,
they love coming here and posting in the TB's to point it out. The back-and-forth and uncensored nature of the TB's is the best thing about this site. Taking it away from us would be the final nail in AICN's coffin. You did just that to fans of Supernatural. The Zone cannot compare, most certainly not some pussified CW forum, and you know it. -
Supernatural in here (at your own risk) and then no one does.
Fucking talkbackers. -
Basically, I take it from your response that "off-topic posting" is fine, unless someone complains about it. I get that, but at the same time, I don't. To me, TBs are conversations, and sometimes the conversation evolves. For example, with the Dollhouse TBs last Spring, it just seemed like the most natural place to discuss Supernatural. Column would go up Friday morning; anything one had to say about the previous episode, including the promo for this week, was said in the previous week's TB. Until the episode aired there was little to say, so a post Friday morning would go "Tonight's Dollhouse looks great, can't wait. By the way, did anyone see last night's Supernatural?". While some may call that thread-jacking, others might see it as a side topic; something to discuss until Dollhouse aired. And while I do get that some people got upset due to spoilers, it seemed the most vocal protesters, those calling for bannings, were simply P.O.'d at the intrusion. Kind of "How dare you talk about another show in this TB" attitude. That's what I don't get. Someone taking offense to a discussion they have no interest in. Me, if I read something and think "I don't care" I just skip it and move on to the next one. At the same time, I've heard about shows I never knew existed, or given shows I initially ignored a chance, because of positive feedback by posters in TBs. Off-topic posting has its advantages. But, I guess one has to pick the right time and place.I like to avoid spoilers whenever possible so out of deference to those who just started watching Supernatural and are busy catching up, it's not really possible to do in-depth discussions of the show in random TBs. I guess it's off to The Zone for me. I like the mix of people on this site which is why I'm reluctant to go anywhere else. They've been poking fun at the more rabid fans of the show on Supernatural ("don't they know we're brothers"); I'm looking for a discussion, not someone's fantasy of Sam stroking Dean's clavicle (or whatever the line was). While The Zone is part of AICN, it is at the same time a separate community. Also, there is an eccentricity of The Zone that bugs me. Why someone thought it'd be a good idea to have a list of words that get automatically replaced by other words (I'm guessing in reference to some inside joke) is beyond me. It can be frustrating to read a post, and have to reread it to figure out the person's meaning because a keyword has been replaced by seeming gibberish. But then, there we can edit comments and do other stuff. Pros and Cons, just like anywhere else I guess.As for last night's Supernatural, hopefully without upsetting anyone, let me just say:"This isn't X-Files, pal".Oh, and "No, he's not on any flatbread".
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I got a different impression relating to the Dollhouse/Supernatural TB's from last season. I honestly thought it was people complaining about spoilers and not just throwing a 'tude. If it was a case of perfering Dollhouse over Supernatural, we wouldn't we have seen vocal Lisa whatever posting more in a dollhouse TB? Haven't seen her show up once since then. Just like the premiere Vamp Diaries TB banned BlackJack whatever for actually discussing specifics of the episode. One person mentioned spoilers in the TB - who knows how many actually took time to write to Herc - and he was deleted. It wasn't because Herc was villafied as some would like to believe. As he said, he barely pays attention until it's brought to notice.
I agree with you that's it's a bit frustrating. I like TB's because it shows up well on a big moniter and it's entirely too easy to post your thoughts. I do believe teh Zone has it's own charm though, much more than a strict board like TWOP. Pros & cons, like you said.
I enjoyed last night's SN too though. Only started watching last year. They use *buckets* of blood on the show which is just amazing to me considering when Buffy was on, they wouldn't allow such seeping through the censors.
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