Unattractive Elizabeth A Stunner!

I'm not the first to say it, and I certainly won't be the last, but America Ferrera, the actress who plays Betty Suarez in Ugly Betty is anything but ugly.

It’s been two weeks since the show premiered on Australian TV, and I must say I was highly impressed with the pilot episode. Usually it’s necessary to give a show the benefit of the doubt after watching its first episode (because pilots aren’t often known for their strength, having been written and filmed up to six month before the rest of the first season, and sometimes before some of the writing team have come on board and established characters / plot developments have been fleshed out and determined for the remainder of the show’s run), but in this instance I thought the premiere episode of Ugly Betty was excellent.




It didn’t hurt that “Australia’s own” (read: New Zealand-born actor) Alan Dale, from Neighbours, NCIS, 24, The OC and Lost, is the third-billed lead. It didn’t hurt that the plot involved a heavy dollop of emotion, levelled at the poor little ugly girl being overlooked for a job due to her unattractive appearance, and eventually being given a job for her unattractive appearance. It didn’t hurt that the girl in question was the most adorable, most likeable character we’ve seen on TV for quite a while (therefore making the treatment she receives at the hands of those around her all the more unjust). And it didn’t hurt that it was a comedy – and she was able to prove herself to her slightly dim-witted, extremely self-serving, and eventually Betty-respecting boss, Daniel Meade.


Alan Dale plays big boss Bradford Meade

These things came together to form an essentially basic plot, but one that appealed on so many levels to so many people – and let’s not forget was professionally and credibly put together – that you couldn’t help but love it.

I heard certain ‘celebrities’ on the radio the following morning saying that they thought the show “wasn’t all that”, but I tend to think that the opinions of those in an industry that requires those in it to be hottt-hottt-hottties, as they dissect the merits and appeal of a show aimed at precisely the opposite kind of person to themselves, and which slams an industry very similar to their own (that of fashion magazines), tends to sway in the direction of BIASED and should be taken with a barrel of salt.




The above cast shot reveals how many regular characters the show actually has (not shown – and possibly not regulars – are the two other friends of Betty’s English wardrobe mistress friend, Betty’s ex-boyfriend and Betty’s bitchy neighbour). Either way, it’s a pretty large cast (although shows with ensemble casts rather than a single lead character are all the rage at the moment: Desperate Housewives, Lost, 24, Heroes, etc), and I hope the show has enough legs to keep that many characters busy as they potentially re-tread the same ground, preaching basically the same theme week-in, week-out (that beauty is only skin deep).

I hope the show has more in it than just that. I have quite enjoyed it so far, and hope to continue enjoying it, rather than find it repeating itself and tune out, bored.

But for now, it’s a hit. And so it should be. Even though not ‘ugly’, Ferrera is … um … “realistically proportioned”. And that can only be a good thing on a prime time TV show. You’ve gotta love her, though. How can you speak ill of someone with a smile as bright as this one?





.