One of my main complaints about Ugly Betty is its tendency to become mawkish rather than revel in its fun, soapy atmosphere. Amanda and Christina getting trapped inside Fay's love dungeon? Classic. Marc getting traded to rival designer Fabia so that Wilhelmina could score her chosen wedding day at Saint Patrick's Cathedral? Hilarious. Santos getting gunned down in a store robbery and Hilda having a mental breakdown outside the auditorium where Justin performs (and dies onstage) in West Side Story? Not so much.

Remember, please, that this is the series that won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy series, beating out NBC's The Office. Yes, that's best COMEDY series. What we've been seeing lately with storylines involving Ignacio's immigration problem, Daniel's sex addiction, and--yes--Santos' wrong place, wrong time murder just doesn't jive with a show that can, at times (usually involving Marc, Amanda, Wilhelmina, or Justin) be laugh-out loud hilarious. It's the OTT soapiness that turn me off (and according to rival CBS, I'm not the only one, as the series has tumbled 41 percent in the ratings since it launched last fall).

So what did I find to be the most interesting thing about this week's Ugly Betty finale? The scandalous reveal that Amanda is actually the daughter of murdered Fay Sommers. Having gotten her lifetime receptionist job at Mode because her parents were friends with Fay, she's discovered that she was a hell of a lot closer to Fay than she suspected. It's a fun, soapy twist (the evidence was discovered in a red safe whose code was Fay's real measurements, in a secret room at the Mode offices) that begs the question: just who is Amanda's father? Is she a Meade? And, if so, wouldn't that mean that she was sleeping with her brother Daniel all those months?

To me, it's the rare pretty twist in Ugly Betty's rather dull and outlandish (yes, at the same time!) season finale. America Ferrara might be the titular character, but the stars that seem to shine best here are Becki Newton, Ashley Jensen, Michael Urie, Mark Indelicato, and Vanessa Williams. Here's to hoping that Season Two will downplay some of the cloying sentimentality and way-too-serious plotlines for some good, old-fashioned comedy.

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Jace is an LA-based television development and acquisitions junior exec who watches way too much television for his own good and would love a TiVo for every room in the house. (He’s halfway there.) His blog, Televisionary, can be found at televisionaryblog.com.

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