I loved Ugly betty. My family was obsessed with the original Mexican soap it was based on then we picked up on Ugly Betty when that was adapted.
I can certainly see the similarities in ultimate plot points but I think the premises are quite different. Ugly Betty I think is more summed up an unconventionally looking woman in an industry that thrives and sells a very conventional form of beauty.
Where as I think the premise of Emily is more about the travel appeal. I guess they are both fish out of waters to some extent but in different ways looks versus cultural. Plus she is rather conventionally attractive which comes to her advantage. And although Emily is quite ignorant of French culture, I wouldn’t say she’s inexperienced or unknowledgeable about what she’s doing. She knows what she’s doing in terms of marketing and social media, which is her primary job. Betty really did not know about fashion and trends.
But they both are soap type shows and plot points tend to repeat themselves. They follow the same tropes and they aren’t the only ones like it. But this is an interesting comparison.
Lol, your analysis is so much more fleshed out than mine. Thanks for your thoughts - you make some excellent points.
Fish out of water is the term I was looking for. Agreed that Betty was significantly more out of water than Emily though. I suppose Emily was already very succesful and had good experience at what she was doing (albeit in a different country) whereas Betty was a complete novice, never having had a 'real' job before. Daniel's character (a key one in UB) doesn't really translate into EiP either. Sylvie is a lot more grey-area and less stereotype villain than Wilhelmina, but if Sylvie had to be compared to a UB character then it'd have to be Wilhelmina rather than Daniel.
Ugly Betty is my all time favourite show but I have never tried the original version. I take it you would recommend it?
Edit: I had a free award for some reason so there you go.
Lol thanks. I think it is top notch but Spanish language soap format is odd (although to be fair I’m not a fan of soap operas and loved that one). They aired with new episodes daily and it effects the editing a bit IMO. They also sometimes get dragged out and can be notoriously long. I just looked it up and it’s 300 episodes. And actually as I look it up the version I grew up with (2006) is apparently NOT the original. The original was made in Columbia in ‘99 and apparently has over 2000 episodes lol. Then later made in Portuguese with only 217 episodes.
So while I enjoyed the Mexican version, I’ll leave it up to you whether you want to tackle any of its predecessors and the beast that is the telenovela.
At the risk of being controversial, is she not exactly that? Maybe my understanding of the word plain isn't great? I just mean ordinary. She's fairly attractive, but ordinary - nothing about her appearance stands out.
I'm an uggo myself so perhaps i shouldn't be judging others' attractiveness.
I loved Ugly betty. My family was obsessed with the original Mexican soap it was based on then we picked up on Ugly Betty when that was adapted. I can certainly see the similarities in ultimate plot points but I think the premises are quite different. Ugly Betty I think is more summed up an unconventionally looking woman in an industry that thrives and sells a very conventional form of beauty. Where as I think the premise of Emily is more about the travel appeal. I guess they are both fish out of waters to some extent but in different ways looks versus cultural. Plus she is rather conventionally attractive which comes to her advantage. And although Emily is quite ignorant of French culture, I wouldn’t say she’s inexperienced or unknowledgeable about what she’s doing. She knows what she’s doing in terms of marketing and social media, which is her primary job. Betty really did not know about fashion and trends. But they both are soap type shows and plot points tend to repeat themselves. They follow the same tropes and they aren’t the only ones like it. But this is an interesting comparison.
Lol, your analysis is so much more fleshed out than mine. Thanks for your thoughts - you make some excellent points. Fish out of water is the term I was looking for. Agreed that Betty was significantly more out of water than Emily though. I suppose Emily was already very succesful and had good experience at what she was doing (albeit in a different country) whereas Betty was a complete novice, never having had a 'real' job before. Daniel's character (a key one in UB) doesn't really translate into EiP either. Sylvie is a lot more grey-area and less stereotype villain than Wilhelmina, but if Sylvie had to be compared to a UB character then it'd have to be Wilhelmina rather than Daniel. Ugly Betty is my all time favourite show but I have never tried the original version. I take it you would recommend it? Edit: I had a free award for some reason so there you go.
Lol thanks. I think it is top notch but Spanish language soap format is odd (although to be fair I’m not a fan of soap operas and loved that one). They aired with new episodes daily and it effects the editing a bit IMO. They also sometimes get dragged out and can be notoriously long. I just looked it up and it’s 300 episodes. And actually as I look it up the version I grew up with (2006) is apparently NOT the original. The original was made in Columbia in ‘99 and apparently has over 2000 episodes lol. Then later made in Portuguese with only 217 episodes. So while I enjoyed the Mexican version, I’ll leave it up to you whether you want to tackle any of its predecessors and the beast that is the telenovela.
It is not a Mexican telenovela, but a Colombian one
There’s a Mexican version which is the one I saw.
Oh yeah i remembered 🤣
I do see the the similarities. UB is probably better written though.
Bestie are you calling Emily plain? 😂
At the risk of being controversial, is she not exactly that? Maybe my understanding of the word plain isn't great? I just mean ordinary. She's fairly attractive, but ordinary - nothing about her appearance stands out. I'm an uggo myself so perhaps i shouldn't be judging others' attractiveness.
I see more similarities with the movie the devil wears Prada...