This evening, I caught myself up with the closing episodes of Ugly Betty. The final episode is starting as I type this…
Over the show’s run, I have had a varied response. The most consistent opinion I have held is that I am very, very happy that the show exists. At the worst of it, I didn’t care for how flat and petty the show kept the characters; every bit of growth that anyone achieved was erased either by the end of the episode or by the start of the following one.
Now that the show has been cancelled, It seems that the writers have finally allowed the characters to grow into themselves and into their futures.
And let me tell about that queer little boy, Justin. By the final season, he has already grown into a stunning, beautiful young man; heart-wrenchingly pretty. And the balls of that character… Mark has been the gay foil from the beginning, and Justin started off as that harmless, silly effeminate teen. Now, he gets to grow into a brilliant young gay man. When the scene came from Hilda’a wedding, I actually cried when he took his boyfriend’s hand and led him to the dance. Of all the silly, un-empowered and unoriginal gay moments the show has had, the power of that boy stepping into his families love as his true self made up for them all.
It seems that I will be sad to see the show go, but it needed to be killed before it found the balls I wanted it to have all along.
And it was nice that they let Betty remain Betty and still come into her own beautiful style…
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