Jane By Design: Volume One

This ABC Family series stars Erica Dasher as teenaged orphan Jane Quimby, who applies for an internship at a fashion house and—as a result of mistaken identity—winds up being hired as the personal assistant to top executive Gray Chandler Murray (Andie MacDowell). Think of it as the high school answer to The Devil Wears Prada, with Dasher somehow juggling the roles of student and globe-trotting professional. Not surprisingly, office politics and workplace competitiveness are essentially mirrored in the social cliques of high school, where our teenage style guru is considered an oddball with offbeat tastes. Complicating matters is the fact that she's keeping the whole double-life thing a secret from big brother Ben (David Clayton Rogers)—the only family she has left—although she's aided by her best friend, Billy (Nick Roux), another outcast who's secretly dating Lulu (Meagan Tandy), the most popular girl in school. Like a lot of ABC Family shows, the stories are familiar, while the characters are plucky and likable—leading lives that don't slip into the viciousness, salaciousness, and melodramatic excesses of their cousins on nighttime network soaps like Gossip Girl. While Jane By Design is not the best example of the formula, it's a perfectly harmless and, at times, rather charming show. Compiling the first 10 episodes from the 2012 debut season, this is a strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)