Watch Ugly Betty

At first glance, "Ugly Betty" looks like a one-note exercise in meanness, from the title of the visit to the various atrocities committed on the heroine by her counterpart at Vogue Magazine.

Even without the harpy chorus, she did not get a break. Betty Suarez is round and made with curly hair, thick glasses, braces and a sense of style from Librarian's Monthly. In our image-obsessed world, Betty is not in all respects.

But there's a reason there are so many aphorisms about the folly of the assessment of phenomena.

America Ferrera, the charismatic actor in the metal mouth and Coca-Cola bottle data makes Betty a beacon of intelligence, depth and kindness in a sea of fashion connoisseurs, whose merits are barely skin deep.

Betty is also for people. When their self-esteem is attacked in each episode, she's just an expression of inner conflict so many of us experience every time we face the television or go a journal.

That begins to explain just why "Ugly Betty" could the decline of the best new series, and at the same time, the riskiest network television entry of the season.

Let's not - it's an excuse outsiders. It was decided long before ABC, pumped up by positive critical buzz, to move it, which is more cutthroat Friday 8 clock Thursday time slot.

"Ugly Betty" is an Americanized version of the telenovela "Betty la fea," which originated in Colombia, a country famous for churning out beauty queens.

NBC and executive producer Salma Hayek at first with the idea of stripping it in several rounds played per week, but once a week format won out. Some elements of the classic telenovela flavor stayed, primarily the cartoonish villains, over-the-top vamps and comic moments teetering between tongue-in-cheek and flat-out stock. In essence, this is a new kind of tragi-comedy, one that an acclimatization period the typical viewer might not be ready, might require.

(Hayek, by the way, seems horrendously acted in a telenovela within the show that is constantly on in the house Betty's. Perhaps we take his regular presence as a reminder of the origins of "Ugly Betty" and as evidence that ABC version would have done with a remarkably reduced complexity.)

"Ugly Betty" was always meant much more than the title, and far more than a TV version of "The Devil Wears Prada." The television series is similar to the movie in the sense that they are both fairy tales placing modern professional women as Cinderellas, with an office in New York instead of the grand ballroom at the castle of the king.

"Ugly Betty" goes a step further by addressing the class issues. Betty Suarez comes from a close-knit working-class family from her father, Ignacio (Tony Plana), conducted a widower. Their tough, true), sister Hilda (Ana Ortiz, sold food aid, and her little nephew Justin (Mark Indelicato Scene-Stealer), unlike Betty, is obsessed with high fashion.

Dear Family steels them against what she on her job at fashion magazine, lost his Anna Wintour's face as LEADER Fey Sommers in a car accident.

Instead of handing over the publication of the heirs of summer ", it is clear, Wilhelmina Slater (Vanessa Williams), publishing mogul Bradford Meade (Alan Dale) shocks the world of fashion by naming his playboy son Daniel (Eric Mabius), editor in chief.

Nobody has much faith in Daniel, and it is easy to see why. Shortly after his hire, give Walks in Bradford on his son "dictates" to his beautiful assistant. Who's under his desk.

She is sent home, and plump Betty is hired as new assistant of Daniel shock, the well-dressed witches kill, would, in her Aerosoles by itself be in a tacky poncho.

So take a hazing Betty, would most people put in an institution, including one of the most unpleasant, nauseating scenes of humiliation that you'll ever see on television. All this after her boyfriend dumps her for the neighborhood prostitute.

Despite the series' Colombian origin, and the fact that the format has been successful in Germany, Greece, Russia, Spain and Mexico have been imitated, "Ugly Betty" includes much of the can-do, up-by-the-bootstraps Spirit Many would argue as uniquely American. It could also prove to be the main source of attraction.

Yes, it is cruel, and Betty is usually the other cheek, that is, if they are aware that it happens. Betty's naivete, you can shrug, but it is also unbreakable, handling every indignity with grace. It also happens, smarter and more thoughtful than the small minds, the dethroned against them, and more to the point, Daniel.

Wilhelmina is not happy about the snub Bradford. She had planned to use the promotion to a coup opened the door to a sinister subplot boiling beneath the small battles Betty has to carry every day.

Wilhelmina answers to another boss, you see. And Bradford Meade has some sinister plan of his own in the works.

Although the company all these secrets, referring to an obscure phrase, the primary appeal of "Ugly Betty" is in the budding chemistry between Ferrera and Mabius. Betty is not just Daniel's secret weapon, she is there to force him to grow a sympathetic soul behind the pretty face. Mabius began cautiously on this path in subtle increments.

They are also surrounded by an excellent cast. Williams, the company plays back-stabber with chilly, reluctant to help, and Betty's friend and fairy godmother, Christina (Ashley Jensen, "Extras"), the in-house seamstress who arms Betty with the dirt on the main climber of the company granted a necessary warm contrast to all the vile behavior.

Getting past the title may still prove to be an obstacle, but also that the success of "Ugly Betty" is to convince a wider audience that it's a drama about universal struggles - namely, to be true, his sense of individuality and still succeed against all odds - and not just a soap bubble through fashion magazines.

By the end of the premiere, beautiful and ugly Betty Daniel have something in common: Each has it as people trying to be something that the rest of the world, they are clearly not. Ideally, the audience will not behave in the same way about this series. Like the lovely Betty, is not to underestimate his brilliance.