The TV Addict 

Talk about your simple concept: Beautiful people do ugly things.

That’s pretty much the entire premise behind MyNetwork TV’s telenovela FASHION HOUSE, in which models boff artists, secretaries bed bosses and a day without a bitchslap is like a day without sunshine. This is the kind of sudsy saga which gives soaps a good name, and could, in all honesty, teach its daytime counterparts a thing or two about how to hook - and keep - an audience. Because one thing the folks behind this show know is that to keep people coming back five nights a week - which is perhaps the biggest challenge faced by the upstart network - you gotta keep ‘em wanting more. And when done right, that’s what soaps are all about.

Fortunately, FH knows better than to take itself too seriously. As in the Spanish telenovelas on which MyNetwork’s offerings are based, FH proves there is no room for mellow in melodrama. Every back has a knife sticking out of it, each (bra) cup is overflowing and if a character is holding a champagne glass when the scene begins, chances are it’ll be flung at someone before it ends. This ain’t your grandma’s soap opera.

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