college eric mabius

“Ugly Betty” has always been a major-network variation on the Spanish-language telenovela, equal parts soap opera and saucy satire. Yet when it returns today from the hiatus brought on by the writers’ strike at the head of a new ABC Thursday on WLS Channel 7, it finds itself out of whack: too much soap, and not enough satire.
Then again, “Ugly Betty” was already staggering a bit before the strike. When it debuted last season, it came across as a whimsical, stylish fashion lampoon, with America Ferrera as the enchanting title character, a well-meaning nerd trying to make it in a land of scheming fashionistas. As it got more sexy in an attempt to expand its audience, and the sex got more kinky — complete with Rebecca Romijn joining the cast as a transsexual — it alienated much of its family audience in the 7 o’clock hour.
This season it has remained stylish and sharp to look at, but it can’t seem to figure out how risque it wants to be, not with the sexcapades of Eric Mabius’ Daniel Meade and Vanessa Williams’ Wilhelmina Slater pulling the show in one direction, and the underdog Betty pulling it in another. Tonight finds the series refocusing on Betty and her love life, befitting its leadoff slot in the so-called family hour, but the only thing the writers can come up with to complicate the drama is to bring back the pregnant girlfriend of Betty’s would-be beau Henry, played by the equally nerdy Christopher Gorham. Yet they already leapt that obstacle last season.
The writers return from a 100-day hiatus, and the only thing they can come up with is a boilerplate reheating of last year’s story line? I call that disappointing.
In any case, in tonight’s episode, “Twenty-Four Candles,” Betty has literal dreams of a carriage-driven, fireworks-filled birthday with Henry, but when he has to cancel out it opens the door for Freddy Rodriguez’s Gio. Choosing between the two should occupy Betty for the remainder of the season, while Daniel and Wilhelmina tangle over his budding relationship with her sister, Renee, played by Gabrielle Union.

dailyherald.com


Tags: , ,