"Project Runway" (2005-present)

I am not very interested in fashion, but this reality show is surprising engaging. Several designers who want to move up in the fashion world are picked to compete against one another. Each week, they are given a challenge to create clothing. They could be asked to make something for a fashion icon. An episode found them designing pieces for actress Sarah Jessica Parker's clothing line. They could be asked to work with a certain type of fabric, like denim. Whatever the task is, they are exhorted by Tim Gunn, who was the Chair of the Department of Fashion Design at Parsons The School For New Design, to "make it work". Gunn has since become the Chief Creative Director of Liz Claireborne, Inc., but he is still on the show. Gunn is like a dad of sorts, checking up on the designers as they make their clothes and admonishing them when he feels it is necessary.

Gunn's partner in crime is supermodel Heidi Klum, who also serves as one of the judges of the contestant's designs. She warns the designers every week that after a challenge, "you will be in or you will be out". Klum sounds awfully cold when she tells them this, but is otherwise warm towards the designers.

The judges -- usually Michael Kors (a top fashion designer) and Nina Garcia (fashion editor of Elle magazine) are always on this panel, plus guest designers -- can be very cutting. When they like something they see at the runway show that happens at the end of every episode, they praise it to the heavens. But God forbid they see something they don't like. The claws come out.

The contestants are a mixed bag of people who come from all over. Per the usual in reality shows, there are ongoing conflicts between two or more persons before the season ends. All of them struggle to not get eliminated so they can show their stuff during a fashion show that is staged at Bryant Park. Apparently, Bryant Park is a big deal in the fashion world. After that showing, the winner of the competition is announced. The winner gets money, a car, and an opportuntity to push their fashion careers forward.

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Andi (Anne Hathaway) is a graduate of Northwestern University's journalism program. She takes a job as the assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the editor-in-chief of Runway, a glamourous, glossy fashion magazine. Andi doesn't care about fashion, but if she keeps the job for a year, she can get the writing jobs she really wants. Many women would crawl over glass to be Miranda's assistant. The job will boost her resume.

Miranda is a bitch, unfortunately. She keeps everyone in the office in terror, cowering from her dry insults and withering stares. She has gone through several assistants, dismissing them as "disappointments", when in reality, Miranda's prickly personality and impossible demands have ran them off. Andi finds herself at Miranda's beck-and-call 24 hours a day, severely endangering her relationship with her friends and her boyfriend. She finds an ally of sorts in Nigel (Stanley Tucci), a cynical art director, and tries to fit in. The more Andi tries to please Miranda, the more she loses sight of her real goals.

Ms. Streep is great as the boss from hell. The audience doesn't learn a lot about her personal life until near the end, which is too bad. I would have liked to learn more about why her character came to be so difficult. The rest of the movie was the naive-girl-learns-how-the-world-really-works that I've seen too many times before. Ms. Hathaway was appealing, but her character's storyline wasn't that interesting.

I first remember watching Meryl Streep in a TV miniseries called "Holocaust", which was set in Europe during WWII. She is a fine award-winning actress who has appeared in many projects, and is known as a master of dialects; Sophie's Choice (1982) and The Bridges of Madison County (1998) are examples of her mastering accents for a role.