Some television series sabotage themselves by completely missing the boat on what they need to be to stay relevant. Ugly Betty ensnared a niche of interested viewers from its outset for being a campy show with a plucky wit about a girl out of her element and slowly making it her own. It was an odd mix between the Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Devil Wears Prada, but possessed none of the clever spirit of either and going overboard in melodrama that ultimately robbed it of any real comedic value. For fans who stayed true to the fourth and final season, it essentially gave them closure to a lot of the plotpoints they saw coming in the seasons that preceded it, and let them down easy for its early departure.
Betty (America Ferrera) has spent the last few seasons warding off the petty attacks from the glamorous duo of secretary Amanda (Becki Newton) and Marc (Michael Urie), romancing Matt Harley (Daniel Eric Gold) while lusting after longtime friend and colleague Daniel (Eric Mabius), while balancing her work life with her commitment to her family. Her father Ignacio (Tony Plana) encourages her unquestioningly, her sister Hilda (Ana Ortiz) is never afraid to add her two cents and keeps a watchful eye over her son (and Betty’s nephew) Justin (Mark Indelicato). As if to give fans a feeling of comfort, the writers reverted the series to the status quo (through one device or another) with old boyfriends coming back out of the blue and old enemies who seemed primed to leave getting a reprieve and sticking around. The former instance refers to Matt, whom Betty dumped at the end of the prior season, and now returns as her boss since his rich dad bought the magazine, Mode. This plot could have been more than a contrivance if Matt’s behavior was more than blatantly immature and unprofessional, but as it played out you see the writers traded out any real development in favor of petty, unfunny, one-liners that push the show into painfully stupid areas of television.
Adding to the ridiculous noise the show emits, Wilhelmina (Vanessa Williams), whom the show had all but written out, wrenches her way back from obscurity with an absurd and out of place murder mystery that consumes her time as she waits for a bounty hunter to track down the man who stole the magazine’s money. Through it all, Betty’s relationships with her workers wax and wane on the whims of overly exaggerated mood swings just because it’s the only thing that gives the series any movement in one direction or another. Without it, the characters are stuck reliving their romantic and professional nightmares of seasons past. The one exception to all of this may be Daniel’s storyline, whose grief over his wife’s death has him taking on grief counseling which leads to an unlikely relationship with a free-spirited woman, Natalie (Jamie-Lynn Sigler).
You have to wonder who the series was really attracting with its tendencies to substitute meaningful relationships with tiresome hand-wringing. Is the catty behavior of every character endearing to anyone? It’s hard to get behind even Betty who seems content to spin her wheels in a setting where she’s unappreciated and has to endure career sabotage in every episode.
What only makes this season more irritating is that it’s another one that gave in to Disney’s odd demand that every ABC series try to find an excuse to shoot on location in the Bahamas. Like with Scrubs, it’s an even that feels forced, and nothing the writers could have done would have placed the scenario in any better light. The fourth season of this series does little besides giving the people who sat patiently through the first three seasons some semblance of a happy ending. Unfortunately it comes at the cost of our patience.
DVD Bonus Features
There’s a featurette that details the on-location shoot in the Bahamas, which wouldn’t be so bad if the personalities in the show weren’t so grating and self-congratulating. “Mode After Hours” is the only other extra, a series of webisodes, besides the disc standards of bloopers, audio commentaries, and deleted scenes.
"Ugly Betty: The Complete Fourth and Final Season" is on sale August 17, 2010 and is not rated. Comedy, Drama. Directed by James Hayman, Michael Spiller, Victor Nelli Jr. Written by Silvio Horta, Sheila R. Lawrence, Henry Alonso Meyers. Starring America Ferrera, Ana Ortiz, Eric Mabius, Michael Urie, Tony Plana, Vanessa Williams.
