Rooting for the Underdogs Ugly Betty Veronica Mars and Friday Night Lights
Every season there are shows that I worry are too good for TV: too offbeat, perhaps too real, maybe too smart. I'm hoping my heart won't be broken if these shows don't catch on, but for now, they're making my heart soar.
I'm in love with Ugly Betty (Thursdays, 8 pm/ET on ABC), a show and a heroine larger than life, twice as colorful and infinitely more adorable. This giddy story of a grotesquely unfashionable but genuinely sweet and wise young woman hired by a high-fashion magazine is a fairy tale as comic book, with each exaggerated emotion painted in garish bold strokes.
It veers wildly and freely from slapstick to sentimentality, as hissable villains (including Vanessa Williams in elegantly campy Cruella mode) shower poor Betty with contempt. As Betty, the wondrous America Ferrera brings gumption and gusto to this bumbling but resilient Cinderella. At home she's a loyal daughter. At work she's a self-sacrificing assistant (to the in-over-his-head new editor). At all times, she's a delight. You can't stop rooting for her.
Where Betty is fanciful, NBC's intensely stirring Friday Night Lights (Tuesdays, 8 pm/ET) scores its emotional points with raw authenticity. Based on the book and movie, this slice of small-town Texas life channels its passions through the fortunes of a high-school football team. Everything in Dillon closes on game night. Praying for the Panthers is serious business and treated without condescension.
Expectations run high, as do adolescent hormones and racial and class tensions among the teammates. The new head coach (a perfectly cast Kyle Chandler) finds himself dealing not only with pressure from obsessed town leaders but with sudden tragedy. The entire cast is fine, but pay special attention to Scott Porter as the star quarterback and Zach Gilford as his insecure backup. The show's appeal can be summed up in the team's rallying cry: "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose."
Meanwhile, eternal underdog Veronica Mars has graduated to a new night and network (Tuesdays, 9 pm/ET, the CW), and to college, where the third season of this underrated mystery/drama is off to a strong start. The hip banter by Veronica (Kristen Bell) and her pals is fresher than ever, and the new whodunit — a serial rapist on campus who shaves his victims' heads — propels the amateur sleuth into misadventures as intriguing as they are entertaining. Now's a great time to make Veronica's acquaintance.
