“Ugly Betty” — Punch Out
Yikes. Crazy eyes!
What I’ve grown to love about Ugly Betty is that even a weaker episode (like last night’s) can still be jam packed with secret rooms, hidden diaries, foot fetishes, nosy reporters, lonely/crazy immigration case workers, secret deals, sexy blackmail, Marc, Amanda and Justin all inside the New York technicolor publishing industry. Oh, and there’s lots of cleavage.
Not every episode of Ugly Betty is a home run (or even a sac fly), but they’re certainly packed with plot. The show stays true to its telenovela roots by giving us two twists for every turn, an yet never feels like appointment television — which in this case almost seems refreshing.
I like knowing that it’s possible to make a show you can just jump into without having to fall back on the trapping of the “network procedural.” As long as you can understand the motivations of the characters (which any six year old could easily do), Ugly Betty is an easy show to pick up. Good drama doesn’t have to be as dense as Lost or as flat as Law & Order.
As for “Punch Out,” it was solidly OK. I’m partial to having more Marc and Amanda than less — especially when they’re plotting. Still it was good to have the show back after its EPIC hiatus.
