TVSquad

(S01E16) To quote Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill and as The Chin on Ugly Betty, "You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?" Tonight's theme - "it's complicated." I ended my review last week by saying this, but I think it bears repeating. Watching good TV can be an emotionally masochistic endeavor. One of the first lessons you learn in "how to be a TV writer" class is to put the screws to your characters. This lesson is often phrased as, "Give the audience what they want, and then take it away." This week's episode was all about giving us what we wanted and taking it away. Betty opens up to Henry about her feelings for him. Done. Christina catches a break. Done. Alexis gets to feel a little human connection post-op. Done. Justin gets to see Hairspray. Done. Hope you enjoyed it because now those cruel, cruel writers are going to make us regret that we ever wanted those things to happen in the first place.

(S01E10) I don't have a whole lot of fancy observations to make here, folks. That was just some freaking good television. Those last couple of scenes were heartbreakers, and on a purely formal level, the writing was flawless.

Let's look at the penultimate scene at the Christmas party. I haven't seen a voice-over used that well since the Buffy "Passion" episode when evil Angel provided the soundtrack to Willow collapsing in grief at the news of Jenny Calendar's death. Entirely different circumstances here obviously, but could there have been a more perfect, tie-it-up-with-a-bow backdrop to Betty and Henry's wordless exchange than Daniel's phone call to Sofia? Then, boom, we see poor Betty's heart squashed right under that lingerie model's stiletto.

Give credit to the producers of Boston Legal and Ugly Betty: they don't like to see an actor out of work. Even though both shows have ensemble casts just bursting at the seams they seem to believe there is enough room for one or two more people.

Over at Boston Legal Nia Long (Third Watch) has been signed on to do three episodes that will air later this season (or next, no date has been set). On the show she'll play Vanessa Walker, a meticulous associate from the New York office of Crane, Poole & Schmidt who requests the assistance of our dear Alan Shore. Didn't Jeffrey Coho and Claire Simms come from the New York office? I wonder if there will be any history between Walker, Coho and Simms (hey, that sounds like great law firm name).

Meanwhile, Christopher Gorham (Out of Practice) has now been promoted to recurring character on Ugly Betty. Gorham plays Henry, an accountant for Meade Publications who takes a liking to the lovely Betty Suarez. His next appearance will be in this evening's broadcast. Joel actually mentioned this in a previous post but I thought that I'd remind everyone.

Finally, the entire population of the state of Delaware has been added to the cast of Lost as another group of people living on the tropical island. Of course, being a proud citizen of the First State, I expect at least scale for my performance.

Being an entertainment journalist (or writer, or blogger, or crayon scratcher... whatever you want to call it) sometimes yields some unexpected e-mails. After I interviewed actor Christopher Gorham six months ago, I somehow landed on his e-mail distribution list; I guess after his CBS sitcom, Out of Practice, got cancelled, he wanted to make sure people knew where to find him on the TV dial. God bless the Internet; you can be your own PR rep with just an e-mail account and a huge text based list of addresses. I do it all the time.

Anyway, he shot out a note to let people know that he will pop up tonight as a guest star on Ugly Betty. It's the first of a series of appearances as Henry, a nerdy accountant who has a little crush on Betty. To be honest, when I saw the teaser for this episode, I didn't even come close to recognizing him. Looking forward to seeing him; I liked him on OOP, and I think he's a pretty good actor, despite what others have said.