Posted by Dustin on 09.25.2008 at 9:39 pm

“Ugly Betty” returned tonight with the third season premier. A quick recap and my initial thoughts on the start of the season follows.

The show opened with Betty choosing neither Gio nor Henry and going on the trip for a month all by herself. Within 30 seconds, Gio and Henry were just gone! I thought that was a tad cold honestly. I mean this was such a huge storyline last season and this season it was just over in under a minute.

Betty returned from her trip with a renewed purpose, she wanted to move out of her dad’s house and get out on her own. This of course ended up with her being taken by a real estate agent and ending up with a nasty rundown apartment.

Hilda is still dating Coach Diaz, but doesn’t seem to want to address the fact that he has a wife. The coach swears it’s over between them, but the wife kept calling. Clearly she’s not about to let the coach walk out on her. Hilda’s in for a shock I’m sure. This might be one fight Hilda might not be able to win.

Betty returned to work, only to find Daniel was out and Willamina had taken over. Daniel was now running “Player” magazine while taking care of his French demon spawn who was a little terror. Daniel kept trying to be the cool dad and not like his own dad, and in the end the kid was running wild with no control. Honestly he annoyed me so much I would not miss him if he went back to France at this point. Daniel eventually got mad and laid down the law and the kid finally apologized for being a brat.

At work, Willamina was upset when Alexis cut her extravagant budget, so she set out to get some money back by destroying “Hot Flash.” She staged an interview on “Regis and Kelly” in which Kelly and Regis ripped on Alexis and “Hot Flash.” As a result Alexis downgraded it to basically an insert in other Meade magazines. What what what! I love Claire, they better not be getting rid of her air time along with “Hot Flash.” When Claire found out, she warned Alexis whether she realized it or not, she was having her strings pulled by Willamina and sooner or later, Willamina would oust her too. How Alexis can’t see Willy’s been playing her all this time, since the beginning of the whole show, is beyond me.

Ignacio got a job working at a fast food restaurant, where Betty’s nemesis Kimmy from High School works as the manager. When she found out who Ignacio’s daughter was, she started cutting his shift hours. Betty and Hilda went to confront “the boss” and that’s when Betty realized it was her old nemesis, which lead to a major food fight. This was the funniest part of the show, mainly thanks to Hilda’s comments. She was ready to bust some ass and even wore her big ring, too funny! She’s fast becoming my favorite on this show.

As a result of the fight, Kimmy fired Betty’s dad. This caused Betty to suck it up and apologize. Kimmy finally admitted to Betty that she wasn’t still being a bully, she was jealous. Betty had a great job, an apartment; while everything had gone to hell for Kimmy. Kimmy re-hired Ignacio after Betty gave her a pep talk. Why am I seeing Betty getting Kimmy a job at Daniel’s new magazine “Player?” I don’t know why, it just seems like the place she’d fit in. Maybe I’m projecting though . . .

Speaking of Daniel’s new magazine and Betty’s new job . . . hate it! Absolutely hate it. Daniel claims he’s happy and more at place there, but I think he hates it too. Betty put it best, it’s a magazine aimed at 18 to 39 year old immature men. Next week’s previews have Betty going to work for Willy, which should be hilarious.

Betty found out that her family decided to fix up her rat trap apartment, which in the end turned out to be pretty nice. Betty had made a list of her new priorities. One was to get an apartment . . . check. Two was to get more responsibility at work . . . check. Three was to avoid any more romantic entanglements . . . Oops! This is when Betty met her new neighbor Jessie, who was practicing his guitar a little too loudly for a gig. Yup, she’s already crushing!

Interestingly, number four on her list was to start a blog. It was never brought up, but I hope it happens. Something tells me though it will be part of an online website to tie-in to the show.

All in all, aside from the fact that I HATE Betty and Daniel’s new job, good show!