THE uglier it gets, the more charming it somehow becomes.
I mean “Ugly Betty,” the show in which the ugly girl doesn’t throw off her glasses to reveal the gorgeous girl underneath to get the guys.
While Betty did get the guys (OK, a guy), she kept the glasses. Heck, after all this time she hasn’t even had a whole-body plastic surgery re-do or even a permanent makeover.
Tomorrow night marks the season-so-far finale (or it could be decade finale, depending on how long the writers decide to stay on strike!), of the show that doesn’t seem to have lost a minute of its charm – although this episode likely wraps up its third season.
Yes, Vanessa Williams is a caricature of the bitchy fashionista – but her Wilhelmina has always been a caricature from Day One, so nothing has changed (except for the baby mommy).
But the show is played for laughs while telling the truth about the horrible business of women’s magazines. I know, women’s mags are my own alma mater in publishing.
Too bad we won’t see another episode for a while, though.
So, without giving too much away, I can tell you that when Betty finds out from Daniel that “Phil Roth, the author” is coming in for an interview, she begs to interview him and do the follow-up story.
Thinking she’s going to interview the novelist Phillip Roth, she is dismayed to find that Phil Roth is the how-to author of “Tap That: How to Score With Hot Bitches,” a manual for pick-up artists.
Appalled at Phil Roth’s attitude toward women and his pick-up techniques – with such acronyms as “ASS” (approach/subdue/score), and “EK” (esteem killer) – the feminist in Betty refuses to write the story, at first.
The whole “Phil Roth” scenario can’t help but leave us wondering whether this is a smack at the real Phillip Roth, whose real-life ex-wife, Claire Bloom, painted him in her memoir, “Leaving a Doll’s House,” as a self-centered misogynist.
Oh, gee – could it be a literary illusion/ allusion?
Betty and Gio, the sandwich boy (Freddy Rodriguez, the best addition to the show ever), exchange a bit of delightful literate banter about Phillip Roth titles in one scene. So, you tell me.
All this, and Amanda “discovering” biological dad and a guest-shot by Gene Simmons, who is actually on a show that isn’t a reality show, makes for a very good episode that might have you laughing out loud.
But since it might be a while before you’ll see a new episode, it’s too bad that they didn’t slip in a cliff-hanger of an ending.
Chances are good that this one won’t leave you desperate to find out what happens next.