It additionally placed emphasis on her workplace rival Olivia Palermo, Port's boyfriend Jay Lyon, his roommate Adam Senn, and her friend Erin Lucas.

Like its predecessor, the series was often criticized for tending towards a narrative format more commonly seen in scripted genres including soap operas, and appearing to fabricate much of its storyline.

[1] The program was created by Liz Gateley and documented the lives of several students attending Laguna Beach High School as they completed secondary education.

[4] Television producer Adam DiVello developed the spin-off program The Hills to follow one of its predecessor's original cast members Lauren Conrad as she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the fashion industry.

[14] Kelly Cutrone was featured the owner of the PR firm People's Revolution and the employer of Port and Olin,[15] while Joe Zee was credited as Palermo's boss at Elle.

She reunited with her friend Erin Lucas and love interest Jay Lyon, and befriended co-worker Olivia Palermo against her companions' advice.

[12] Port also left her position at Diane von Fürstenberg and resumed working at her previous employer Kelly Cutrone's PR firm People's Revolution.

Palermo had left Diane von Fürstenberg for a position with Elle, where she clashed with co-worker and new main cast member Erin Kaplan.

[26] By the season finale, Port had presented the "Whitney Eve" lookbook to Bergdorf Goodman, and decided to further publicize her collection through a fashion show at Bryant Park.

[32] The season finale sees Palermo promoted as the new face of Elle.com after a successful business trip to Japan, while Port contemplates leaving People's Revolution after she and Cutrone clash over the development of her fashion line.

Melissa Camacho of Common Sense Media criticized the program for featuring a near-identical plotline to its predecessor The Hills, where Lauren Conrad was similarly shown to pursue a career in the fashion industry while addressing difficulties among her friends.

[35] An editor from The Village Voice questioned if Port was interesting enough to lead her own spin-off series, describing her personality as featuring "unavoidable, inexorable ordinariness".

[37] Freddie Fackelmayer, Port's former love interest, commented that the network "never asked the cast to say or do anything", though the editing that followed portrayed him as a "womanizing jerk".

[38] An additional source of suspicion arose in the second half of the first season, where Palermo allegedly purchased counterfeit accessories on Canal Street for a work assignment; the non-discreet nature of the transaction led to speculation that the scene was staged for the segment.