Bloodless Coup

Ugly Betty - Season 2

So last week I finished watching season 2 of Ugly Betty, just in time for the season 3 premiere. And I've got to say that while I still like the show, season 2 was, in most ways, inferior to season 1. Some of the series' moves just didn't work. The Amanda storyline went nowhere, and played into the writers' unfortunate tendency to change the character into someone who's dumber than a box of hair. The Christina storyline was woefully underdeveloped. And if you blinked you might've missed Alexis entirely. They seemed to have no idea what to do with her. Similarly, while I love the concept of introducing Illeana Douglas into the show, she was terribly underutilized. Replacing the rotating Fashion TV correspondents with Alec Mapa was a misfire (he just isn't very funny), and I'm afraid I missed the point of some of taking some of the leitmotifs to such extremes. I mean was there anyone vaguely connected to the series who wasn't engaged in some sort of baby or parental relationship issue? Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Betty became a whining bore. Oh poor Betty with her great job and loving family and two attractive men who are madly in love with her. If I knew her in real life I'd have avoided her every day - or perhaps gone after her with a foam bat. At this point in the show I can barely stand her as she continually makes her life 20 times harder than it needs to be.

So if that's the case, why do I still watch? Well, I am a sucker for art design, music and the overall environment of a show - and Betty's still one of the best things on tv on those fronts (look no farther than last week's premiere which opened with the B-52s and closed with dancing to "American Girl"). Of course the fashion is fun. In season 2 they did a particularly great job outfitting Marc, and of course Wilhelmina and Alexis are always worth seeing on that front. Marc and Wilhelmina are wonderful comic villains (the latter especially, she's excellent). And of course I'm a sucker for witticisms and Ugly Betty still features some of the funniest lines on tv. The best of last season? Almost certainly Amanda's lines in "Baby Bump" - her string of observations and questions at a party she didn't realize was a baby shower were laugh-out-loud funny.

So on the whole I think it's fallen from its season 1 glory. But it's still got plenty of pluses, and as long as Wilhelmina, Marc and Amanda (now seemingly finally back to her former form) are on television I'll be interested in watching them.