Louise Roe with Subject, courtesy The CW
PLAIN JANE
Friendly Rating: Teen chicks and older.
Safety Rating: Borderline – gender issues, some mild sex joking, and questionable tactics.
Quality Rating: Blah, blah, blah.
Series premieres tonight on The CW at 9 p.m.
Makeover shows have their place on the planet. I guess. The idea with this one is that fashion expert Louise Roe gets requests from girls with less than stellar features and wardrobes and helps them glam up and get it together for an important event. In the premiere, Cristen wants to tell her best buddy – a guy – that she’s had a major crush on him for years.
Now, you can talk it over with your kids as to whether or not Cristen really needed to glam up to do what she needed to do – and whether it’s a reflection of look-ist values or not. That being said, there is a certain confidence one can derive from looking one’s best.
The other positive thing about the show is that Roe goes right to the heart of the matter and gets Cristen facing her fears, which I can support.
But does this offset the fact that most of the Janes are actually rather attractive young women? I haven’t seen any heavy girls, for example, although I’ve only seen a couple of the Janes. Or does this positive note offset the zapper used on Cristen to get her to say the right things while learning to flirt?
And, finally, the show is just not that interesting. We’ve seen makeover after makeover. There’s just not that much new here to make it worth watching.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the whole lookism thing, so feel free to comment and start the dialogue.
