Sunday, August 3, 2008

Entry for January 03, 2008

"Tomodachi ni naritai."

I want to be friends.

The first season of "Ugly Betty" has been running on NHK (public broadcasting station, kind of like BBC), and the Pumpkin Daddy has been so kind as to set it to be TiVoed every week. I had a backlog of about five eps by the New Year holiday, and I've spent the past few nights catching up. The Pumpkin Daddy watches with me sometimes, even though I insist upon watching in English and he can't understand it.

I enjoy the show very much. The dialogue is witty and the magazine where Betty works is a hyperbole for the superficiality of our appearence-oriented society. Or something. However, if I could make a few nitpicks:

Betty is a smart girl. She should figure out that you dress for your job, and that if you work in a fashion magazine, you should dress fashionably. But she doesn't.

Betty is a smart girl whose sister has hairdressing skills. Why does Hida let her sister leave the house with such heavy eyebrows and bangs?

I tried pondering a gender reversal thing, that is, if Betty's character was male, and Daniel's character was female. Then I realized that it just wouldn't work. A highly intelligent but not physically attractive male would be found attractive (at least to a select audience) as long as he was financially successful and a reasonably interesting person. An incompetent but somewhat charming rich woman would simply be married off to a competent rich man and live happily ever after.

So anyway, the Pumpkin Daddy was watching with me, and he said "you know, out of all the characters, the one I want to be friends with is her..." (pointing to Betty)

Then he looked at me, with my plump figure and thick glasses, and said, "Oh."

No comment.

No comments: