Ugly Betty: It ain't so superior

[irlandesak]

Oops, this is in response to someone else's post.  It was too long to leave as a comment so I'm posting it here.   I'm so not used to actually posting my own journals that I forget others can read it and would appreciate not having a 14000 character post so I'll put it under the cut and you can move along if you wish.

Comments

Re: Sorry, I rambled a lot in this comment...

[firthgal]

Oh! By the way, just wanted to tell you that I've officially fallen in love with the Russian version. The differences between Andrey/Katya and Armando/Betty are starting to really stand out. I love that Andrey is more delighted by Katya than annoyed by her, which you can really see during the whole trip to the banks with Katya's father. Armando was completely eye-rolly and sighy and pretty much just saw Betty and her father and the broken down car as a burden and just another part of his crappy day, but Andrey was completely amused and quite sweet and by the end of it he has his arm around Katya and they already look so much like a married couple that I just melted. Of course, I will not lie, I'm pretty sure that Armando was delighted by the whole experience too, he just wouldn't admit it (because his personality didn't really allow for it. Everything was an annoyance to him. Andrey is slightly more laid back).

Another difference is that Andrey doesn't yell at Katya very often, and when he does, she usually yells right back, so they're much more equal than Betty and Armando were. It's just interesting to see the little character differences in what is almost exactly the same story.

These two clips in particular get me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzxpAzWyifo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wW7eyDSdwg

As does this one (because really, can you imagine Armando giving Betty CPR without a moment's thought?):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk2DkTLNStw

Re: Sorry, I rambled a lot in this comment...

[irlandesak]

I really just don't know how you follow along but now I want someone to subtitle this sucker because I know it's good.

Everything was an annoyance to him. Andrey is slightly more laid back

Armando was awful. And it's why I'm always surprised by myself at the end.

Thanks for the clips, I absolutely will watch them.

There is so much wrong with the writing of Ugly Betty, and most of my issues are not D/B related.

Exactly. They're no more D/B related than they are with any other character.

Er... anyway, the Colombian version succeeds in so many areas where the American version fails, namely in the area of making the audience relate to Betty through her entire journey.

Exactly. I have a friend who somewhat shipped D/B in the beginning but basically grew to hate Betty so now that it's happening, she can't really experience the high. And I get that because Betty did annoy me a lot as the series wore on. It annoyed me that almost every single one of her relationships involved a triangle. It annoyed me that she landed the number of guys she did--to the point that some were obsessed with her. It annoyed me that she was supposed to be good at her job but we saw her often being terrible at it or putting other priorities in front of it. That she did that and still had a job didn't bother me but it did make it highly unbelievable that she'd advance to where she is for the finale.