Ugly Betty: The Complete Fourth and Final Season Reviews

ABC really pulled the rug out from under its journeyman dramedy Ugly Betty for its fourth season. It moved the popular program from its comfortable Thursday night timeslot and shifted it to Fridays, one hour later. Its audience virtually halved overnight, and at midseason after an ABC series on Wednesday night quickly flopped, Betty was shifted into its time slot: 10 p.m., another boneheaded decision that sealed the show’s fate. It was canceled but allowed to finish out its season, albeit two episodes short of a full season order. Thus, the producers did have time to wind up their stories, but the pacing of those final episodes did feel rushed. Still, the final season of the telenovella adaptation proved more than satisfactory. Ugly Betty may not have gone out with a sizable audience, but it wrapped its stories up nicely and provided its fans a world full of possibilities for their favorite ugly duckling now blossoming into a lovely swan.

As the season began, however, all was not well on either Betty’s home or office fronts. Betty (America Ferrera) had received her promotion to junior features editor which left her Mode magazine rival Marc (Michael Urie) stuck as the personal assistant to style editor Wilhelmina Slater (Vanessa Williams), a decision he was very dissatisfied with. Wilhelmina was still treading on thin ice at Mode with managing editor Claire Meade (Judith Light) and owner Calvin Hartley (David Rasche) ever-vigilant about her work. Editor-in-chief Daniel Meade (Eric Mabius) was an emotional wreck after the death of his wife Molly (Sarah Lafleur) from cancer, and Betty, wishing to be a good friend, found herself splitting her time between her former boss and her new boss and former boy friend Matt (Daniel Eric Gold) leading to all kinds of personal and professional confusion.

At home, sister Hilda (Ana Ortiz) began seriously dating an old boy friend of hers from high school Bobby Talercio (Adam Rodriguez) after breaking up with city councilman Archie Rodriguez (Ralph Macchio). Her artistically-inclined son Justin (Mark Indelicato) had started high school and is enduring taunts from his classmates and struggling with his sexual feelings, something which he seeks guidance about from Betty’s nemesis Marc. The scenes with Justin and Marc, and later in the season Justin and his struggles and acceptance of his sexual orientation are among the most mature and compassionately written of the entire season. Where Betty’s bitter breakup with Matt led to continually tiresome sequences with their squabbling and juvenile behavior, the Justin scenes constantly ring true and make the latter half of the season especially memorable.

Of course, the soap opera aspects of the series have not been ignored. The high points (or low points if it’s not your thing) are lengthy story arcs with Wilhelmina’s concerted efforts to retrieve money stolen from her by ex-lover Connor Owens (Grant Bowler) and a nefarious extortion attempt by Willie’s daughter Nico (Yaya DaCosta) who concocts a murder scenario to swindle her mother rather unmercifully. Also on tap are story arcs concerning a long lost son, a dull cult storyline, Willie's constant schemes to take over control of the magazine, and Amanda’s (Becki Newton) eternal search for love and fulfillment. Former Betty boy friends who resurface during this final season include both Henry Grubstick (Christopher Gorham) and Gio Rossi (Freddy Rodríguez). Entertaining excursions to the Bahamas and to London also highlight the adventures of Betty and her friends during this final season.

Here are the twenty episodes contained on four DVDs which represent the final season of the program:

1 – The Butterfly Effect (Part 1)

2 – The Butterfly Effect (Part 2)

3 – Blue on Blue

4 – The Wiener, The Bun, and the Boob

5 – Plus None

6 – Backseat Betty

7 – Level (7) with Me

8 – The Bahamas Triangle

9 – Be-Shure

10 – The Passion of the Betty

11 – Back in Her Place

12 – Blackout!

13 – Chica and the Man

14 – Smokin’ Hot

15 – Fire and Nice

16 – All the World’s a Stage

17 – Million Dollar Smile

18 – London Calling

19 – The Past Presents the Future

20 – Hello Goodbye

Video Quality

The program is presented on ABC at 720p with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, and these 480p downconverted transfers retain the madly colorful world of Ugly Betty with highly saturated hues. In fact, saturation levels are so deep that the disc often has trouble handling the intensity resulting in some very noticeable color noise sometimes. There are occasional glimpses of aliasing with tight line structures, and sharpness varies depending on who’s being photographed and how close the camera is. Each episode has been divided into 7 chapters.

Audio Quality

The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track features occasional ambient New York City noises sent to the rears with a sporadic panning effect here and there, but the series could do a lot more with its soundfield. The most consistent use of the entire soundstage is reserved for the music tracks which receive a nice placement in the fronts and rears. Dialogue, which is vital to the show’s effectiveness, has been well recorded and resides firmly in the center channel.

Special Features

Ugly Betty Starter Set is a 4 ½-minute summary of the major plot events which happened in the first three seasons of the show. For those who may have skipped some or all of the previous seasons, it would be a helpful montage of the major characters and their plotlines up to the beginning of season four. It’s presented in 4:3.

Spread across the four discs in the set are 10 deleted scenes, all presented in anamorphic widescreen. The total running time of them all is 9 minutes.

“Mode After Hours” is four webisodes featuring Marc and Amanda goofing around at the office after work. They may be watched separately or in one 15 ¾-minute bunch.

The episode “All the World’s a Stage” features audio commentary by Michael Urie and Mark Indelicato. The two co-stars do more watching than talking in a spontaneous watch and talk commentary. Not much information is imparted, but fans of the show may enjoy it once.

“Betty Goes Bahamas” finds the principal cast enjoying many pleasures of the islands in an 8 ½-minute gag-filled featurette presented in anamorphic widescreen.

The season four blooper reel runs 6 ½ minutes in anamorphic widescreen.

There are trailers for various ABC Studio dramas, Scrubs, Cougar Town, and The Last Song.

In Conclusion

While there was great potential in storylines to go for another couple of years, at least the final season of Ugly Betty did the show proud with both comedy and drama plots resolving into a very satisfying conclusion. The fourth and final season gets a firm recommendation from me.

Matt Hough

Charlotte, NC