eric mabius

(S02E07) This week's Ugly Betty was all about the lavish, star-studded Brad-elmina wedding. Fashion guru Vera Wang was on hand for Wilhelmina's final dress fitting, and Posh herself nearly stole the spotlight from poor Wili. Back in Queens, Ignacio was preparing for a ceremony of his own. The Suarez sisters' inability to keep secrets nearly ruined both events.

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(S02E06) Ugly Betty made it to Broadway this week! Half the cast went to a performance of Wicked, Betty and Henry ended up onstage, and Justin broke out his collection of Playbills. That boy snapped out of his delinquent phase just in time. Wili and Marc busied themselves with wedding arrangements, and Hilda got a surprising new job. The biggest surprise? Gio made another appearance and managed to be less abrasive.

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(S02E05) Love was in the air, courtesy of Ugly Betty's newest phony website, bachelosity.com. Betty found a date, Amanda found a new way to tease Betty, and someone from Christina's past found her. Even Marc found romance! While some characters made significant progress, others (thankfully) went back to basics. Alexis remembered what being a Meade is all about, and Justin's dreaded rebellious phase is officially over! I just hope he didn't throw out his old clothes.

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(S02E04) I felt like I was watching a bizarro version of Ugly Betty this week. Betty was a cheater, Justin belched, and the guy from Dawson's Creek was an insensitive jerk! What's next--Hilda dressing conservatively? There were several unpleasant surprises in this episode, but Gio's absence probably made some of the viewers happy. It's always difficult to watch the episodes where obstacles are set up for each character, but how else can there be a happy ending later on? Still, it took a while to get over the shock of seeing Justin wearing his Dad's leather jacket and hearing him say things like "Whatevs."

(S02E03) I've been waiting all season for it (OK, just three episodes), and it finally happened. Gio, the rumored new love interest for Betty, made his way into the Mode offices and Betty's heart. While it wasn't love at first sight, Gio made a strong impression on our green girl. Lunch will never be the same! Let's save the juiciest development for last, though. On to the rest of the Mode-Suarez saga!

(S02E02) The photo says it all, doesn't it? The humor, campiness, and wickedness were back in full effect. There were some sad moments left over from Santos' death, and I'm worried about Justin's newfound interest in basketball, but apart from that the episode was perfect. I'm suddenly hungry for a Naomi Campbell Tuna Meltdown.

(S02E01) Betty's back! The season premiere was an excellent bookend to last season's finale. While the finale ended on a sad note, tonight's premiere let the characters confront their problems and look ahead to the future. This episode was all about letting go of the past and starting fresh, something that many of the characters desperately needed to do.

The first season finale of ABC's Ugly Betty left us wondering if Bradford would really marry Wilhelmina, if Henry is the father of Charlie's baby, if almost half the cast was dead or not, and so much more. This very good finale had a lot of TV fans speculating all summer. Speculate no more as we have gathered for you a series of spoilers that will reveal the fate of most characters and what is in store for them.

Spoilers ahead!

Salma Hayek, who produces ABC's Ugly Betty, says that fans shouldn't expect her to reprise her roles of Sofia and the nurse in the telenovela the Suarez family watch.

Hayek appeared in six episodes of the show's first season as Sofia Reyes and in one episode as the nurse, an uncredited role. Sofia was a newcomer to the Mode scene and was in charge of a new magazine. The character ended up being romantically tied to Daniel Meade but things didn't end happily for him after he learned some of Sofia's secrets.

(S01E18) I would have written this review sooner, but I couldn't stop crying like a big baby. Not every storyline was a home run this week, but the most important one was. It could have gotten all "Lifetime Original," but it didn't. This show is many things - funny, moving, campy - but it is never saccharine.

It's Friday. Let's talk about hot guys.

Nine out of 15 male actors on People magazine's list of Sexiest Men are on television. The one I'm most excited about seeing on the list is John Krasinski, of The Office. He has that sweet guy thing going on, whereas some of the finalists are just smoldering sexpots (see: Jake Gyllenhaal).

Also in the Top 15 Sexiest: Taye Diggs (Day Break), Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy), Omar Epps (House), Josh Duhamel (Las Vegas), Enrique Murciano (Without a Trace), Rodrigo Santoro (Lost), Eric Mabius (Ugly Betty) and John Cho (The Singles Table- NBC midseason).

Who's missing from this list?

(S01E07) The construction of this week's Ugly Betty episode was just plain masterful. We had four parallel stories - each dealing with romantic relationships at profoundly different points in their evolution. The writers have, in particular, been juxtaposing Wilhelmina and Betty's travails to great effect. We got dual make-overs in "Queens for a Day."

This week, we got two classic fish out of water stories. Wilhelmina at a barely disguised Hogs & Heifers, and Betty at an upscale Soho hotel eatery. What's nice about this show is that both worlds - the corporate version of lowbrow and the needlessly pretentious highbrow - were presented as equally artificial and brainless. Somewhere in the middle is where we might find a really good burger and Babbo. While the Mode staff's struggles don't stack up to having an illegal immigrant dad who can't get his heart medication, the writers and actors have done a superb job of giving the Manhattanites' emotional lives some weight. And, best of all, no tiresome Fey storyline this week.

Now since the writer's took the time to construct the A, B, C and D stories so intricately, we might as well tackle them that way.

(S01E06) One of the reasons I like Ugly Betty is that the characters aren't "TV stupid." You know what I mean: instances where the main character or one of the side characters blithely accepts someone's help without even considering why that person is offering help or what their motives might be. Or characters that continue to be played for suckers even though everyone around them, including the audience, start screaming for the person to wake the eff up.

But Betty is different. Betty knows that Wilhelmina's offer to pay for her dad's legal services was done to help drive a wedge between her and Daniel. Whilhelmina knows that her daughter Nikko is acting out when she gets thrown out of boarding schools and shoplifts. And Amanda is smart enough to know that Daniel is never going to settle down with her... he's looking for bigger fish to boink.

(S01E04) A couple of questions came to mind right off the bat in this episode, as I watched the "previously on" teaser. I don't remember two scenes they showed: one where Hilda tells Betty that their HMO won't cover their dad, and one where Wilhelmina (or is it Fey?) steals the music box Bradford salvaged from Fey's belongings. Am I crazy to not remember these scenes? Or did they not make the final cuts of the episodes they were in and were inserted into the teaser just to set up this episode? Let me know in the comments... I appreciate it!

Ok, on to last night's episode, where Betty learns the value of telling the truth...

(S01E02) Betty Suarez continues to charm the heck out of me. I just can't get over how America Ferrera brings such confidence and resilient spirit to the role, and her charm is what makes Ugly Betty so watchable (Heck, America even makes the act of nuking empanadas look charming). It doesn't hurt that the "Betty and Daniel against the world" plots are also very engaging.

I'm just starting to wonder whether the campy dramatic aspects of the show, including the machinations of Fey and Whilhelmina, the bitchiness of Amanda and Marc, and the secretiveness of Daniel's father Bradford Meade, are going to eventually drive me away. Every time those soapy scenes came up, I could only think of one thing: "I want to see more Betty."