Meet Deb- a "actress/model" in Hollywood whose dream job is a prize announcer on The Price Is Right.
Her life is abruptly ended while putting on make-up for a modeling interview in traffic. Sent to the Heaven waiting station, she discovers her life hasn't really been good or bad and panicking she hits the large red return button thinking she will be returned to her old body back on Earth.
Not so much, at the time of her return Jane- an overweight lawyer was dying and Deb got sent into Jane's Body instead. Now the once skinny, vapid model whose power and self worth came from her perfect body and dreams of being a model/ actress are down the drain.
Meet Jane- an overweight, overworked lawyer who cares nothing about her looks, social life or anything but her job. When she dies she is depressed and unhappy with her life. Though she is very smart and good at her job she is belittled by the other women in the office due to her weight.
So who has the most power here? Deb is now Jane and is struggling with being "ugly and fat".
In fact most of the first episodes are of her trying valiantly to "fix" this new body into her old one's shape. The new Jane has no memory of being Jane, of course, so is winging it as a lawyer and learning that without her looks to skate by she really is smart and can learn and do many things she never thought she could before her second chance.
I think that the show is very telling in that only when her physical "perfection" is taken away, that Deb is able to see the beauty and intelligence she has always had. It reminds me of the beauty and the beast tale where once the outside wasn't the main attraction the inner light could be seen. Mainstream media doesn't often promote this ideal and this show was a huge hit, I think because many people LIKED the idea of the skinny chick being forced to be the one she had always made fun of or at least had an uber fear of becoming.
No comments:
Post a Comment