Todo surge a raíz de que en Estados Unidos este capítulo emitido
ayer por Cuatro, “El extra”, fue emitido como capítulo 11 de
la temporada 1. Este capítulo concreto presenta un flashback y causó
tantos problemas de continuidad que para el mercado internacional lo rehicieron
como episodio 4, quitándole toda la parte en la que se ve que es un flashback.
Por tanto Cuatro ha emitido lo que ha comprado, la versión internacional.
"Swag", título original del capítulo, al principio
iba a ser emitido como el cuarto episodio de Betty en EEUU y esta es la raíz
del problema. ABC decidió emitirlo en la posición número
once y le hicieron unos “arreglitos” para que así fuese..
(S01E11... or, is it 04?) Why? Why do networks do this? "Swag"
was originally supposed to air as the fourth episode of Ugly Betty. Instead,
ABC pushed it into the number eleven position. Brilliant strategy. Take a
show that's part telenovela and air it out of sequence. The result was a poorly
edited version of an otherwise entertaining episode. The tags that were filmed
later with Betty, Christina and the janitor, along with the occasional "remember
when such and such was happening" voice-overs, were clumsy and unnecessary.
Worse yet, the emotional logic came off as loopy. These characters have
come a long way since the first episode, and seeing them in their older, more
one-dimensional incarnations was disappointing. Having said that, I'm happy
to turn my attention to the parts of the show that didn't appear to be part
of the sloppy cut and paste job. And, as is always the way with Betty, they
were both amusing and moving all at the same gosh-darn time.
This show has more feel good messages than a row of Hallmark cards and
an issue of O combined, but it delivers them in such a sincere, pop, lefty
manner that they're more likely to bring a tear to my eye than send them rolling.
This week's big message - "Never give up." Or, the alternative message,
"It's not how much you have. It's how you spend it." Had this episode
aired in its originally intended slot, it would have been Exhibit A in Salon.com's
article about Ugly Betty as class commentary. The crux of that piece is that
Ugly Betty makes for truly subversive television not because its main character
is an unattractive woman in a den of superficiality. Ugly Betty is fabulously
subversive television because it's about class.
It's the economic differences between Betty's home in Queens and the Manhattan
highrises where she spends her 9 to 5 that makes the show so damn relatable.
Betty exchanging her company swag - a $4,200 Gucci purse - in order to pay
for her father's heart medication when his HMO refused to cover the cost wasn't
needlessly melodramatic. It was real. That kind of decision - what needs to
be sacrificed - is very much part of my own life and the lives of those around
me, and I certainly don't see it depicted on TV very often. I even appreciate
that we get to see Betty, knowing she made the right decision, cry over losing
the purse because it "made her feel pretty." Betty's not above wanting
to feel attractive, which is another reason I love the character. She's a
human being not a saint.
Now, on to what makes the show tolerable to those without a love of the
drama - the comedy. This week we got the bastard child of Karl Lagerfeld and
Issey Miyake. Pretty funny stuff even if the minimalism jokes wore thin after
awhile, but nothing's funnier than having Amanda offer Betty a Menudo box
set and a coupon for 100 taquitos for her Gucci.
One more aside, did anyone else notice how many Weight Watchers and Slim
Fast commercials aired during Ugly Betty? Did they decide that Ugly Betty's
demographic was self-loathing chubby girls? That's sorta the antithesis of
the show's message. Seriously, to quote Christina, "We all can't live
on laxatives."
Wilhelmina Quip of the Week: Good luck returning my ass.
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