"For its new, Ashton Kutcher-produced world-of-modeling soap opera, “The Beautiful Life: TBL,” CW has added an abbreviation of the title to the title itself -- as if to make it seem, somehow, that the show is already popular and being talked about, in shorthand. It's a kind of wishful thinking, as if I were to name myself "Robert Lloyd: Cool," in the hope that you might believe I am." - L.A. Times http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-beautiful-life16-2009sep16,0,6889496.story

"'The Beautiful Life' strives to undo all the advancements “Project Runway” and the recently released documentary 'The September Issue' have made to spin fashion as a business populated not entirely by frivolous idiots but rather by passionate, even semi-serious people committed to Hard Work. Here, the hard work is all in makeup application. Eye shadow doesn’t look like eye shadow so much as pasted-on glitter from Dorothy’s Oz shoes. In the ’90s the short-lived Fox series 'Models Inc.' at least provided a kind of aesthetic public service, letting me know that hemorrhoid cream, for instance, relieves puffiness around the eyes." - The New York Times http://tv.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/arts/television/16beautiful.html?_r=1