First impressions: The CW goes to camp

The CW talked a lot -- no, really, a lot -- at its upfront Thursday about how it's hyper-focused on young women and dialed into "culturally current" programming whose value to advertisers goes beyond ratings.

Considering the network's rather meager ratings, that's probably a good thing. And the execs do have a point -- a show like "Gossip Girl" may not have much of an audience, but its fans are really, really interested in what's going on -- and, the network says, more likely to buy things they see on the show because of that.

The CW's four new shows -- and particularly "Melrose Place" and "The Beautiful Life" -- seem designed to achieve that kind of engagement. Whether that makes them, you know, good remains to be seen. Here's a quick rundown of the previews the network presented at its upfront show on Thursday (alas, video is not yet available; we'll post it as soon as we get it).

"The Beautiful Life"

Executive producer Ashton Kutcher presents "The Ashton Kutcher Story" -- sort of. One of the show's central characters (Benjamin Hollingsworth) is an Iowa farm boy -- like Kutcher once was -- who gets discovered by a modeling agent in New York. The other is a seemingly naive young girl (Sara Paxton) whose star is on the rise. There's a faintly "All About Eve"-"Showgirls" vibe to the show (although Paxton's character isn't nearly as devious as either Eve Harrington or Nomi Malone), and even though it plays campy (it also stars Mischa Barton as a veteran model and Elle Macpherson as an agency boss), it's very nicely produced.

"Melrose Place"

Indulge us for a minute as we quote the description of the "Melrose Place" reboot from The CW's press release:

A diverse group of 20-somethings have formed a close-knit surrogate family. Sydney Andrews (Laura Leighton) is the landlady, still beautiful at 40, and a central figure in the lives of all her tenants, especially handsome and rebellious David Breck (Shaun Sipos). Sydney started an affair with David despite her turbulent history with his estranged father, Dr. Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro). Both father and son learned through experience that Sydney was not above using blackmail to control people. Another tenant, high-powered publicist Ella Simms (Katie Cassidy), once considered Sydney her mentor, but their friendship was destroyed by betrayal, and Sydney threatened to evict Ella and ruin her career. Sydney also played a pivotal role in the career of Auggie Kirkpatrick (Colin Egglesfield). After they met at an AA meeting, she became Auggie's sponsor and encouraged his dream to become a chef.  Now a successful sous chef at the trendy restaurant Coal, Auggie has been avoiding Sydney since she began drinking again. The other tenants include Lauren Yung (Stephanie Jacobsen), a medical student in desperate need of money to pay her student loans, and Jonah Miller (Michael Rady), an aspiring filmmaker who has just proposed to his live-in girlfriend Riley Richmond (Jessica Lucas), a first-grade teacher. The newest tenant, 18-year-old Violet Foster (Ashlee Simpson-Wentz), has just arrived in L.A. with her own secret connection to Sydney. When a bloody body is found floating in the courtyard pool, David is the leading suspect. However, as the police are soon to discover, almost everyone living at Melrose Place had a reason to want the deceased out of the way.

Wow. Just ... wow. If "90210" 2.0 is a little too earnest for its own good, the new "Melrose Place" appears to be embracing its over-the-top roots with rib-crushing force. The trailer hints at a show that's every bit as insane as its predecessor.

"The Vampire Diaries"

You'll be forgiven for thinking of "Twilight" when you see this show, but the source material (a series of young-adult books) has actually been around longer than that. If you can get past the idea that Paul Wesley, even for a centuries-old vampire, looks way too old to be a high-school student, "The Vampire Diaries" looks pretty compelling. Former "Degrassi" star Nina Dobrev looks to be a strong enough female lead as the object of the vampire brothers' (Wesley and Ian Somerhalder) interest.

"Parental Discretion Advised"

The lone midseason show The CW has picked up so far has kind of an indie-movie feel to it. It also looks like a fairly sweet and funny story about the fallout when a teenager (Brittany Robertson) seeking emancipation tracks down her birth parents (Shiri Appleby and Kristoffer Polaha), who haven't been together since the night they conceived her. Robertson is very charming in the lead role.

Related:

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The CW picks three newbies for fall
Korbi TV: Which new show will you watch?
PICS: The CW's new shows
All of Zap2it's upfronts coverage

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