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Primetime Show Reviews

"Ugly Betty" Review by Suzanne 10/11/06

I have been looking forward to seeing this show since I read about it in "Soap Opera Digest". There are several new "telenovela-style" shows out right now, but this is the only one I have watched, mainly because I just missed the beginnings of those others.  This one sounded like the best, anyway.

The show is based on a Spanish-language telenovela.  A telenovela is basically a soap opera that airs every night and goes on for a short period (say five weeks).  It is a total story, not an open-ended soap.  Ugly Betty, however, airs weekly and may run longer than that. 

Ugly Betty is not your average soap.  What is the best primetime soap ever? Dynasty? Dallas? Melrose Place? Pick your favorite.  Now making the writing much better and put in a lot of humor.  There you have Ugly Betty.

Betty is a young Latina woman in Queens, New York, who wants to write for magazines, but she cannot get any jobs because they consider her "ugly".  Well, she's what I like to call TV-ugly.  In other words, she has a round face and is not anorexic, so they dress her up in bulky, unfashionable clothes and put a bad wig and teeth on her.  Betty gets a job at a fashion magazine because the president of the company doesn't want his son to keep having sex with his office assistant.  He knows that his son would never sleep with "Ugly Betty", and he can tell that Betty will be a capable assistant, too.  His son has just taken over the magazine after a scandal, so he has a lot to prove to everyone.

Like any soap, there are many characters, including the other people that work at the magazine; Betty's family, the owner of the magazine, and some other people that would like to see the son fail at running the magazine.  Some of the stereotypes, but they are made funny so it works okay.  Betty is a great character because she's a real person by contrast to the "fake" people at the magazine.  She does what she can to survive, even though they keep making things difficult for her.

The actors do a great job, especially the actress who plays Betty, America Ferrera.  It is a fun and interesting show.  Everyone should watch this feel-good comedy!

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