Ugly Betty
Jun. 20th, 2008 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gogmagogIn the past few days, I've discovered Ugly Betty...it's one of those shows I've always been meaning to watch, if for nothing other than it has a lot of Latino/Latina actors working on it, and I finally downloaded and got around to starting season 1 a few days ago. And it's kind of AWESOME.
For those of you who are unaware of its history, Ugly Betty actually began as a Colombian telenovela (Yo soy Betty, la Fea, or "I am Betty, the Ugly"), and rapidly got adapted to other countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Mexico, China, and of course the U.S. They all follow the basic story - an unattractive girl named Betty gets hired as an executive assistant to the new philandering head of a fashion magazine.
In the US version, Betty is a Mexican-American girl from Queens, a dreamer and go-getter who is determined to get a job at Meade Publications. And she does, but not the job she expects; she gets hired as executive assistant to the editor of Mode magazine, philandering periodical heir Daniel Meade. She quickly discovers that she was only hired by Daniel's father because she wouldn't tempt Daniel to sleep with her, but by that time she's made herself indispensable due to her practicality and just genuine niceness.
Other major characters include the gloriously bitchy and glamorous head of the creative side of the paper, Wilhelmina Slater, who's scheming for Daniel's job (which generally involves undermining him and Betty); herstooge assistant Marc, who is less glamorous but even bitchier, and his BFF Amanda, the bitchy receptionist who starts one of Daniel's bed-hopping conquests but eventually develops feelings for him; the head of the clothes closet at Mode, Christina, who is one of the few people who's actually friendly to Betty (played by the woman from Extras); and Betty's father, sister, and nephew, who keep her grounded and work their way in and out of the main narrative (her nephew, especially, is obsessed with fashion and Martha Stewart). Other characters eventually weave their way in, especially Salma Hayek as one of Daniel's fellow editors who becomes a sort of mentor to Betty.
Anyway, the show is by turns witty, hilarious, bitchy, and touching; in addition to all the stuff mentioned above, there's a murder plot, lots of secrets, manipulation, backstabbing, etc. It's sort of like Dynasty meets The Devil Wears Prada meets a Mexican version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding (only without the wedding, at least so far). And it's one of the few shows I've seen where I find myself liking even the mostly unsympathetic characters (Wilhelmina, Marc and Amanda are all REALLY bitchy and catty but nevertheless are hilarious enough because of it, and show enough flashes of humanity, that you end up kind of loving them anyway).
So, in other words, I'd recommend it to any of y'all who would enjoy that sort of show. Even if you're not exactly a fashionista (or, um, fashionisto?), you might like it; I know next to nothing about fashion but I still find it kind of awesome. Here's hoping it continues this good into season 2, which I figure I'll reach sometime next week.
And in other news, I hate reading jargon-filled papers, argh. :(
Edit: Also, my headphones finally gave up the ghost. And I followed![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sergiekins' lead in buying replacements. (Yes, I'm aware of how geeky it is...this level of geektastitude should come as a shock to no one who knows me, though.)
For those of you who are unaware of its history, Ugly Betty actually began as a Colombian telenovela (Yo soy Betty, la Fea, or "I am Betty, the Ugly"), and rapidly got adapted to other countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Mexico, China, and of course the U.S. They all follow the basic story - an unattractive girl named Betty gets hired as an executive assistant to the new philandering head of a fashion magazine.
In the US version, Betty is a Mexican-American girl from Queens, a dreamer and go-getter who is determined to get a job at Meade Publications. And she does, but not the job she expects; she gets hired as executive assistant to the editor of Mode magazine, philandering periodical heir Daniel Meade. She quickly discovers that she was only hired by Daniel's father because she wouldn't tempt Daniel to sleep with her, but by that time she's made herself indispensable due to her practicality and just genuine niceness.
Other major characters include the gloriously bitchy and glamorous head of the creative side of the paper, Wilhelmina Slater, who's scheming for Daniel's job (which generally involves undermining him and Betty); her
Anyway, the show is by turns witty, hilarious, bitchy, and touching; in addition to all the stuff mentioned above, there's a murder plot, lots of secrets, manipulation, backstabbing, etc. It's sort of like Dynasty meets The Devil Wears Prada meets a Mexican version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding (only without the wedding, at least so far). And it's one of the few shows I've seen where I find myself liking even the mostly unsympathetic characters (Wilhelmina, Marc and Amanda are all REALLY bitchy and catty but nevertheless are hilarious enough because of it, and show enough flashes of humanity, that you end up kind of loving them anyway).
So, in other words, I'd recommend it to any of y'all who would enjoy that sort of show. Even if you're not exactly a fashionista (or, um, fashionisto?), you might like it; I know next to nothing about fashion but I still find it kind of awesome. Here's hoping it continues this good into season 2, which I figure I'll reach sometime next week.
And in other news, I hate reading jargon-filled papers, argh. :(
Edit: Also, my headphones finally gave up the ghost. And I followed
sergiekins' lead in buying replacements. (Yes, I'm aware of how geeky it is...this level of geektastitude should come as a shock to no one who knows me, though.)
