What I’m Watching: Ugly Betty

Ugly Betty: Season 4, Episode 14 “Smokin’ Hot” (B+)

It’s always sad to see when Betty doesn’t get the credit she deserves and gets walked on by other people. This episode made it work well, however, presenting a number of funny moments and an ultimately satisfying conclusion in the form of a small victory for Betty. Betty’s bellowing out of “I’m going to make you a star” and her subsequent takeback was amusing, and it was lovely to see Aubrey Dollar from “Women’s Murder Club” as the up-and-coming fashion designer. Marc’s use of a cardboard cutout of Wilhelmina to show Betty how she needs to talk to her and his demonstration with the pointer where she has to look in order to prevent Wilhelmina from picking up her phone and starting to text was priceless. Marc’s closing comment that he learned from the best when Wilhelmina steals the credit from both of her underlings was bittersweet, and Wilhelmina’s complimenting of Betty’s shoes was a really nice precious moment. Daniel certainly didn’t have any such success in this episode, using a hard-to-manage state-of-the-art earpiece and having someone think that he was hurt while he was trying to practice his runway walk. That someone, by the way, was Katrina Bowden, who plays Cerie on “30 Rock” and demonstrated considerably more range in this impressive and enjoyable guest spot, even if her function was mostly to make Daniel jealous of his half-brother. Hopefully Claire will find a way to break the news to Daniel since the South Dakota native seems to be the nicest person ever, and actually reminds me quite a bit of the robot from “30 Rock.” Back in Queens, I was thinking how awful it was that Bobby catered to Hilda’s doubts about him by predictably torching her salon in order to collect an insurance payment, and was shocked to learn that it was really Justin who sent the place up in flames. Now it’s even worse since Bobby truly is innocent of the crime and Justin’s going to have to eventually own up to his misdeed.

I neglected to mention last week that “Ugly Betty” has been cancelled and will end after this season. I’m not happy about it, but I did read a great article from the TV Addict that gives me some comfort. What do you think?