On January 3, 2012, ABC Family broadcast the premiere of its latest ten drama, Jane by Design. The new series is set to air on Tuesday nights, following the network’s already established hit, Switched at Birth.
Premise of Jane by Design
Since the desertion of her mother and the death of her father, Jane, a comparative social outcast in high school, has been under the guardianship of her unemployed older brother. With financial concerns mounting, Jane decides to take advantage of her school’s internship program, but through the sort of mishap that probably only occurs in the world of television, rather than getting a paid student internship, Jane accidently gets a career in the competitive New York City fashion industry.
Erica Dasher, Andie MacDowell, Meagan Tandy, and the cast of Jane by Design”
Willing suspension of disbelief is required to see Erica Dasher, who plays the new series’ title character, as a “Plain Jane,” and the viewer’s willingness to suspend disbelief is further put to the test by the wardrobe department, which dressed Dasher in a much too stylishly eye-catching red jacket in the scene set to establish the character’s invisibility in high school.
Nonetheless, the young actress does succeed in portraying her character as likeable and sympathetic, but apart from Dasher and a few other notable exceptions, such as Meagan Tandy, the majority of the cast is lackluster.
Meagan Tandy, who viewers may recognize as a former Miss California, obtains audience interest as the high school “mean girl” cheerleader, Lulu, who is secretly fooling around with Jane’s male best friend, and although Andie MacDowell rarely gives impressive performances, she does deliver in the role of Jane’s obnoxious boss.
Other cast members show a mix of potential abilities, but the characters of the series are flatly constructed.
Jane by Design Review
This series can be summarized in one word: Boring.
It is actually excruciating to sit through the whole first episode, and while advertisers may mistakenly think that their commercials will be entertaining by comparison to the series, viewers will most likely be asleep by the commercial breaks.
The series is also unoriginal and poorly executed. It is simply a poor combination of Ugly Betty and The Devil Wears Prada, with an added touch of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead and possibly, Party of Five.
It may be possible that as the premise of the show is established the series will become less relentlessly dull, but the premise is also ridiculously unrealistic. Teen dramas regularly leave the realms of reality, but Jane by Design should be billed as a fantasy series.
As anyone who has attended high school within the past decade can confirm, there is no possibility that an “A” student, a grade point average that has become a demanding career of itself, can also hold a demanding job in a highly competitive environment. Most high-achieving high school students have trouble juggling school work with extra-curricular activities or a humble after school job.
It is absurd and objectionable that American television keeps telling the nation’s already overly pressured youths that they can be/do anything by the age of fifteen or sixteen.
While it is positive to encourage individuals to bring out the best in themselves, it is not beneficial, possibly actually detrimental, and dangerously irresponsible to keep telling children that they should be able to achieve things that many adults find impossible aims. Completely unobtainable goals set up children and teens for failure, disappointment, potentially lowered self-esteem, and/or the sort of crippling pressure that can lead to depression, eating disorders, drug use, and other very serious troubles. Such criticism may seem unnecessarily extreme, but the adolescent and teen years are a period of extreme emotions and abrupt developmental changes. A show with such a target audience cannot disregard the impressionable and delicate condition of this phase of life.
Of course, if Jane by Design remains such a tedious series, it is doubtful any young viewers will be watching for long enough to be negatively influenced.
Elizabeth Fredericks - Elizabeth Fredericks is a graduate of Oxford University, and she has worked as a freelance writer since her first paid assignment as a ...
