Ugly Betty: The Complete Fourth and Final Season – DVD Review
The Show:
Ugly Betty is a comedic drama show about a homely girl who, ironically, works as a fashion magazine writer for the magazine MODE. While working there, she has run-ins with two evil subordinates, a depressed boss, a disgruntled ex-boyfriend, and a editor-in-chief who has a unquenchable desire to take over the magazine.
Meanwhile, she also balances her life at home with her father, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, who watch over her fashion endeavors and help her with friendly advice and support.
Now, I’m not going to sit here and describe the inner workings of every episode; that would take far too long; but let me just give you a basic rundown of what I see to be the basic lot of every episode. Betty spends time at home with family, Betty goes to work, Betty screws up, People hate Betty, Betty gets advice from someone at work or at home, Betty helps somebody, and then Betty comes up with a solution that makes everyone like her somewhat more.
This show is really not good, plain and simple. While the plots aren’t as stale as the rough description I provided above, they aren’t particularly interesting at all. There is no outstanding comic relief from characters that are meant to provide it, and I didn’t really feel any emotion when dramatic scenes happened. Sure, the show has some moments that are interesting, even some that capture your attention and make you wonder what’s next, but the show ends up losing your attention just as quickly.
The acting varies from okay to mediocre. The characters are very exaggerated versions of modern stereotypes (Kid with issues at school that no one understands, girl who is ugly on the outside but beautiful on the inside, old lady with a heart of gold, etc;), and their acting is just as exaggerated. If people actually acted like this in the real world, I have no doubt they would either be branded weird or insane, and would be treated as less than a person.
The show just falls flat on nearly all fronts. There is very little content in the episodes that would make people enjoy it. It’s pretty obvious that this show would only really appeal to a certain group of people, and to be honest, I’m definitely not one of those people.
The DVD:
The DVD has an abundance of features, most being good and a few being useless.
Among the ‘good’ are entertaining outtakes and a few deleted scenes. There is also an audio commentary for the show Among the useless is a ‘ABC Starting Guide’, which plays when you click ‘play all’ on the first disc. It takes about 15 minutes to tell you about the characters and the relationships between them. Frankly, unless you’ve never watched this show before, this feature will serve you no good, and frankly, the buyers of this DVD will most likely be people who already know all of the characters and the info about them. Thankfully, the guide can be skipped.
Also on the DVD is a few episodes, and a short, comedic video of a few cast members searching for missing cast members while at a location shoot.
The picture on the DVD is nice and clear, as was expected, and the sound is fine, also expected.
Overall, this DVD will really only appeal to fans of the show, and not to others. If you’re a fan, by all means buy it, and if not, steer clear.
The Show: Rating: 
The DVD: Rating:
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I watched the show from the beginning and thought it was fun. Unfortunately with the abrupt cancellation I think it put the writers in a panic and had to end somehow. I’m glad they actually had an ending instead of just stopping in the middle of the season. I liked it thought all the way through, but yes I do think it was meant for a certain group of people.