Joining ABC Family’s growing list of original content is Jane By Design, a drama that follows a teenage girl who finds herself immersed in the world of fashion after landing a job assisting a designer, even though she’s still secretly in high school. This double-life scenario feels sort of like a combination of The Devil Wears Prada and Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, as Jane is working for a demanding boss in the fashion industry, except, like Sue Ellen in Babysitter, she actually knows quite a bit about fashion... and she’s a teenager.
Comparisons aside, what ABC Family has here is yet another quirky-fun drama with a set-up that has places to go. We’re introduced to Jane (Erica Dasher) as a girl who, despite knowing how to dress, is sort of a social outcast. Aside from her best friend Billy (Nicholas Roux) and her brother/legal-guardian Ben (David Rogers), she’s more or less on her own. Money troubles at home inspire her to apply for an internship in fashion, hoping it’ll help her get a full ride for college. Instead, she manages to land herself a job assisting Gray Chandler Murray (Andie MacDowell), a talented fashion designer who spends most of her screen time talking to Jane via a giant screen in her office due to all of the traveling she does.
Jane’s new job has her racing around trying to perform tasks, prove herself, and thwart Gray’s former assistant (India, played by India De Beaufort) from trying to steal Gray’s job. When Jane’s not doing all of that, she’s attending high school and trying to keep her amazing job a secret from her brother and anyone else who might put a stop to it.
With all of Jane’s rushing around, the series has a hectic pace at times, and I realized soon into it that I needed to stop trying to figure out if it would actually be possible for this girl to fit a full day of school and all of her work, not to mention time spent commuting into the city, into one day, realistically. I don’t really know if the math works there, but for the sake of enjoying the series, I stopped trying to add it all up. Jane’s crammed schedule aside, there are moments when she does appear to be enjoying herself or, at the very least, trying to make time for the people in her life who matter (mostly her brother and her best friend). There are also hints at romance from both directions. There’s Jeremy (Rowly Dennis), a dreamy coworker, and her forever-crush Nick (Matthew Atkinson), from school. These distractions serve to slow things down once in a while and fill int he space between Jane’s rushed double-life.
Erica Dasher’s performance as Jane comes off as a little frazzled at the start of the series, and I wasn’t sure what to make of her or Jane at first, however she quickly grew on me, which is a good thing, as Dasher’s charm lends a lot to the overall appeal of the series. Jane is adorable, likable and not overly perfect.
Jane By Design is likely to fit in well among ABC Family’s other dramas. While the set-up falls into lighter territory than say, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, there’s definitely a family element there, despite the fact that Jane and her brother’s father passed away and their mother isn’t in the picture. The closeness of the siblings offsets the lack of actual parents, and there’s definitely a level of convenience to that when it comes to a story like this, as there’s no mom or dad around to notice Jane’s not home much these days.
Going on the first couple of episodes, Jane By Design is stylishly dressed, well accessorized with interesting character developments already introduced, and fitting for a wider age bracket than most dramas on TV today. Teens, young adults and even more grown-up-types like me can get on board with a show like this. I went in with few expectations and came out of it wishing I could see the next episode.
Jane By Design Tuesday, January 3, 9:00 - 10:00 p.m., ET on ABC Family
