Ugly Betty Introduces Us to a Truly Beautiful Heroine

Summer is winding down. As compensation for this potentially depressing reality, the major television networks stand at the ready to distract viewers with a colorful array of new shows. The last few years have been good to me. Four years ago: Joan of Arcadia. Three: LOST. Two: Ghost Whisperer. And last year... Ugly Betty. All the summer buzz for this show based on a popular telenovela especially intrigued my mom, so we made a point of watching the first episode when it aired. We were hooked.

Ugly Betty is a bright, splashy, silly but life-affirming show revolving around one of the most engaging heroines ever to grace the small screen. America Ferrera, who wowed me a couple years back in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, dazzles as the luminescent but gawky Betty Suarez, a plucky young Latina from Queens whose trademark look includes clunky red-framed glasses, a mouth full of metal and one fashion disaster after another. Her ensemble should pose a glaring problem, since she's just landed a position as the assistant to the editor-in-chief of Mode, a major fashion magazine. But Betty has a smart head on her shoulders and a soul brimming with goodness, so her common sense, cleverness and morality allow her to get further in this cut-throat business than anyone would expect.

It helps that her boss, Daniel Meade (Eric Mabius), is stepping into unexplored territory himself, having just been appointed by his father, magazine tycoon Bradford Meade (Alan Dale), to run the show. Mabius plays his role with a charming mixture of befuddlement and style. He's obviously used to the finer things in life, but as a rich playboy he's never had to go after them himself. Bradford - who in many ways is identical to Charles Widmore (the wealthy, dream-squashing father of Desmond's dream girl, Penny), the character he portrays on LOST - thinks having a frumpy assistant will help Daniel keep his mind on his job, but he never counted on the dramatic impact she would have on his work ethic and his overall development as a person. Daniel isn't a bad guy. In most respects, he's very decent, but he does have some unfortunate tendencies, and Betty soon takes it upon herself to go above and beyond her daily duties and act as his own personal Jiminy Cricket.

If Daniel soon begins to appreciate her, most of her other new associates come around much more slowly. She does find a fast friend in Christina McKinney (Ashley Jensen), an off-beat Scottish seamstress desperately trying to get her foot in the door as a fashion designer, but even after surviving her first nightmarish day on the job, she finds animosity around every corner. The most egregious offenders are Amanda Tanen (Becki Newton), a receptionist who's had her eye on Betty's job (and her boss) for ages, and Marc St. James (Michael Urie), effervescent assistant to icy fashionista Wilhelmina Slater (Vanessa Williams), who is determined to seize Daniel's power for herself.

Williams' presence is commanding, and she struts around the office like a slightly classier version of Cruella De Vil. Wilhelmina may not be ordering hits on spotted puppies, but she certainly isn't short on underhanded schemes, and Marc is incomparably capable of helping her carry them out. His favorite side hobby is teaming up with his best buddy Amanda and heaping the snark on Betty, who generally shrugs off their insults, which are usually veiled as compliments whose sarcasm she often misses. When I watched the pilot episode, I was powerfully reminded of 13 Going on 30, and Amanda particularly brought to mind the catty, back-stabbing Lucy, fellow employee at the fashion magazine where naive protagonist Jenna works. It's hard to say which of the office divas is more unlikable, but both manage to garner our sympathy before too long, rude remarks and conniving aside. Wilhelmina becomes downright cuddly during a mid-season arc involving laid-back millionaire Ted LeBeau (Brett Cullen, who I first knew as apparent goody-two-shoes Goodwin on LOST), while Amanda shows her vulnerable side as she pines after Daniel.

But among this troublesome trio, it's Urie who really steals the show, flouncing around the office with an impeccable wardrobe and sparkling smile, feigning friendliness to Betty even as he snaps unflattering photos of her and competes with Amanda to come up with the most scathing appraisals of their newest co-worker. Marc is cruel in a Simon Cowell-meets-Jack McFarland sort of way, but he's so darn adorable it's hard to get too perturbed about it, and no one can deny he's both a dedicated lackey to Wilhelmina and a faithful friend to Amanda. In a show marked by camp, he's probably the most over-the-top character of all, but underneath all that showmanship is a sensitive and sometimes even compassionate soul, which we see particularly strongly when Marc's mother makes a guest appearance late in the season.

Betty has more problems to deal with on the home front. She lives with her father Ignacio (Tony Plana), a tender, fun-loving widower who immigrated to America from Mexico 30 years ago. As health problems prevent him from working, Betty finds herself the main bread-winner of the family, though her saucy older sister Hilda (Ana Ortiz) brings in some cash selling herbal remedies. Ignacio is a refreshingly devoted father, but he has a few skeletons in his closet that cause a host of headaches when they come out to tap-dance across the kitchen floor. Speaking of dancing, Betty's pre-teen nephew Justin (Mark Indelicato) is like a miniature Marc with a little less 'tude. Ecstatic that his aunt has managed to land a position at the magazine of his dreams, the musical-obsessed, flawlessly garbed Justin takes every opportunity to sneak a peek at the inner workings of Mode, much to the chagrin of Santos (Kevin Alejandro), the macho absentee father who comes back into his life early in the season.

And then there's Walter (Kevin Sussman), Betty's high school sweetheart, who in the first episode cheats on her with the neighborhood floozy who's only using him for his discount at the electronics store. I recognized Sussman immediately as the mobster-threatened ninny from the Verizon Wireless commercial, and he's similarly the epitome of awkward here. He strives to win Betty back, and at first I rooted for their relationship; after all, four years together can't just be thrown out the window. But there is the matter of the infidelity, and the fact that Betty and Walter have zero chemistry with each other. Each of their scenes seems like an ungainly waltz, with Betty trying not to get her toes stubbed by the croaky young man who tries his best to be sweet but more often comes across as clingy, whiny and clueless.

Not so Henry Grubstick (Christopher Gorham), who, with his Clark Kent looks and C-3PO mannerisms, is every bit as geeky as his name suggests but is a Nerd in Shining Armor if ever I saw one. Time seems to stand still every time the glasses-clad accountant waddles over to Betty for some heart-fluttering small talk. Before long, her officemates notice right along with the audience that these two are perfectly poised to be the cutest couple in Manhattan, but Walter is only one of the roadblocks standing in the way of this storybook romance.

And storybook is a good way to describe this show, which veers ever so slightly away from reality. It's like a Kodachrome snapshot of New York City, packed with over-dramatic performances and unreasonably coincidental twists and turns, to say nothing of all the steamy secrets bubbling underneath the revered name of Meade. With its vibrant sets, snappy dialogue and winking scene transitions, it's candy for the eyes and ears. Ugly Betty doesn't try to take itself too seriously, as evidenced by the self-parody in the form of the Spanish soap opera Ignacio often watches, which usually features a gorgeous man and woman engaging in some sort of violent argument that turns into a passionate kiss. It is on this show that executive producer Salma Hayek makes her first appearance; she later returns for a mid-season arc as the editor of a new women's magazine with whom Daniel becomes smitten.

The show is steamy, with all sorts of torrid little affairs happening at once. Double entendres fly fast and furious and along with showing the sometimes seedy ins and outs of the fashion industry, it broaches such ticklish topics as transsexualism, teenage pregnancy and illegal immigration. While it aims for comedy and succeeds brilliantly, it also manages to be very touching, particularly in its treatment of family. While there is a clear contrast between the Meades' dysfunctional opulence and the Suarezes' wholesome near-poverty, the members of Daniel's family do find ways of caring for each other, and Betty becomes like a sister to him, providing both a stern guiding hand and a shoulder to cry on.

In the end, it all comes down to Betty, whose steps may be clumsy, whose clothes may clash, whose confidence may waver, but who never loses her kindness, her unswerving ethics, her absolute decency. Through the skill of America Ferrera, we see the American Dream in action, a regular girl without much cash or many connections making her mark on the world through a combination of ambition and integrity. I don't know if this year's fall season will yield a new show for me to get hooked on. But I know that season two of Ugly Betty is right around the corner, and that is a beautiful thing indeed.

I'm In Love With Uptown Girls

I usually can't stand the raspy-voiced Brittany Murphy, but I'm a sucker for Dakota Fanning, so when my mom suggested renting Uptown Girls, I hoped my enjoyment of the latter would outweigh my irritation with the former. Happily, not only was Fanning winning as always, Murphy was perfectly tolerable, and the story that developed around them was both funny and touching.

The titular girls in this Boaz Yakin film are Molly Gunn (Murphy), a 22-year-old free spirit who inherited the fortune of her musician parents after they died in a plane crash when she was eight, and Ray Schleine (Fanning), an uptight eight-year-old who runs through nannies faster than Jane and Michael Banks. Molly's world comes crashing around her for the second time when she discovers that the man in charge of all her money has skipped town and left her practically penniless. Suddenly, the girl who's never worked a day in her life, who's too scatterbrained to keep any of her appointments, whose cluttered abode is littered with candy wrappers and take-out boxes has to figure out how to fend for herself.

Molly scores the nanny gig after a first job attempt goes hopelessly awry. Her cheerful pal Huey (Donald Faison) pulls some strings, and she finds herself in the employ of the acid-tongued eight-year-old. While Molly is clueless about how to be a responsible adult, she's also pretty guileless, and her attempts to connect with her charge are genuine. But Ray, hardened after years of inattentive parenting, is a hard child to reach, and both girls have a lot of learning to do before they will be able to reach a happy medium.

Thrown into the mix are subplots about Molly's friends - the rather shrill and controlling Ingrid (Marley Shelton), whose friendship with Molly is tested when she offers to share her apartment (with strings attached), and Huey, whose affable manner makes him a solid source of comfort - and a romantic interest, an up-and-coming musician by the name of Neal (Jesse Spencer). Having become familiar with Spencer on House, I enjoyed seeing him in the role of a sensitive singer-songwriter, and I must say that I've never seen him quite so cute.

Among the smaller parts in the film are two appearances by Short Circuit alums, and as huge fans of that 80s comedy about a robot who develops a personality, my parents and I thought it likely that the director had been involved in that film in some way. I can't find any evidence to support that, however, so if the inclusion of Austin Pendleton and Fisher Stevens was an homage to Short Circuit, it must have been just because Yakin liked the movie. More likely, it was a coincidence. Also coincidence? The fact that Molly has a pet pig she gives to Ray after Ingrid refuses to house him, making this one of two movies thus far in which Fanning has shared considerable screen time with a porker.

After watching the deleted scenes, my mom observed that had they been included, this film would have been much raunchier. (Unfortunately, an inoffensive scene featuring the adorable Michael Urie as a dog walker was also cut, removing the Ugly Betty co-star from the movie.) As it was, it rarely earned the PG-13 rating; she was inspired to rent it after the recommendation of my uncle, who watched it with his 9- and 11-year-old daughters, and it was perfectly appropriate for them, especially since the bulk of the movie focuses on Molly's relationship with Ray. As a romance, it builds to a sweet conclusion, but the real focus is the way these two girls, in the words of the film's tagline, "teach each other how to act their age," uplifting audiences in the process.