Actually, if you look at the story lines this season compared to the previous two seasons, you’ll find that the stand alone character is fading and the writting is much more serialized (but with less overall coherence). In that way, it’s becoming more like a soap opera and I think that’s one of the reasons this season wasn’t that good

The Daniel/Betty issue confuses me somewhat. In this interview, Silvio talks like he put the kibosh on a Detty coupling only after seeing that they had no romantic chemistry onscreen. (I beg to differ, at least throughout Season 1, but anyway). But what wouldn’t he have seen that during screen tests and whatnot, long before the pilot ever aired? Which makes me think that, like Schmeagola says, they were scripted as brother/sister from the outset…and, might I add, rather proud of themselves for that fact. Silvio probably fancied he was being groundbreaking by, and I paraphrase the quote, “not having Betty fall for JFK Jr.”

So, yeah, I don’t really buy Silvio’s whole “I watched them and they had no chemistry” schtick. I think the “sibling” dynamic was planned long before the pilot.

Schmeagola, that’s a very interesting point you make. An equivalent to that would be the question, “What kind of character would Daniel be if he fell for Betty only after she got a makeover?” However, I always saw it that Daniel and Betty both accepted each other for who they were, “warts and all,” by the end of the pilot episode even. So even if they weren’t swooning over each other, there was and is love and mutual respect, even though they saw the worst of each other pretty much right off the bat.

If you look back at the original Columbian TV series, you see a story about an intelligent, capable but emotionally naieve young woman who falls in love with her handsome boss and loves him unconditionally. She doesn’t love him more because he finally changes into a better person – she loves him for all that he is – faults, warts and all.

Now look at Betty. She was scripted not to fall unconditionally in love with Daniel at the outset. And now that Horta has moved so far from the original storyline, it is now impossible for it to recover the lost ground of the original. Because for Betty to fall in love with Daniel now would mean that she loves him BECAUSE he has changed, and that is a complete anathema to the original premise. What sort of character does that make Betty?

As far as I can tell, Horta’s on going love affair with Christopher Gorham has been the major reason why this series has gone so seriously off track. What we’re left with now is a rather saccharine mess of half-baked ideas and unfulfilled potentials. And whatever happened to “no more romantic diversions – we’re concentrating on Betty’s career”. What a load of tosh. We’re back in the same dreary mess of series two. And what’s more – we’re getting a Groundhog Day series finale. Oh whoopee bleedin’ doo….

As for UB next year, if they’re planning on mucho Matt, I fear the show is headed for a downward spiral. Matt/Betty haven’t inspired much of any new fan fiction on the internet or much in the way of fan videos either, nor do you find much of any thrilled and enthusiastic fan postings about them on the various boards (even ABC’s UB board is pretty muted on the couple). Yet you see all these things for Gio, who hasn’t even been on for a year except for a single episode months ago. Matt’s eclipsing of Gio has pretty much left a black hole in the viewership where excitement used to be.

I’m gonna have to disagree with you on that. I thin that when silvio chooses to not have a Detty endgame, then that’s because the chemistry between Betty and Daniel in the American version has always been platonic, even brother/sister-ish.

I truely think any choice for Betty would be better than Daniel, not because he’s a bad person. It simply wouldn’t work out between those two.

As much as I hate Horta at the moment for ruining what was my favourtie show, I still think he made a wise choice on this one. Still, he didn’t have to say it out loud.

There’s also a silent auction to win the chance to be in the set of Ugly Betty.

So fine – he doesn’t want Detty – then I won’t watch. He hasn’t come up with anything better than YSBLF – and he’s a fool for thinking he could. He took a winning formula and made it into a lame duck. Sometimes, things don’t get made better in America – they just get pasteurised and sanitised and homogenised until they all look and feel the same – bland, bland, bland.