I would have liked to see Ignacio get a job at Gino’s deli. It would have made sense, plus, it would have kept Gino in the sphere. So as Betty moves on, we can see that Gino is still there, waiting for her. Plus, I think it would be nice to see Ignacio/Gino develop a father/son sort of relationship.

I didn’t mind Daniel getting a son — frankly, a guy who slept around as much as him, it makes sense! — but I don’t need another obnoxious kid running around on my tv screen! As for the new magazine… that was a mixed bag for me. I liked the IDEA of it more than the execution. Rather than having Daniel surround himself with a bunch of annoying characters and creating a completely ridiculous work environment, I would have liked to have seen a little personal growth on his part: As if he had taken everything he learned at Mode and applied it to a magazine he actually cared about. Instead, we got more caricatures sitting around doing silly stuff instead of a storyline that is at all relateable. And relateability was, on some level, what I loved about Ugly Betty in the beginning. Betty’s presence grounded people, made them better — even, in small ways, Wilhelmina, Mark and Amanda.

As for the new neighbor… yeah, she’ll be mooning over him in two weeks, guaranteed. (Heck, it didn’t take me that long!) And I’ll be annoyed, because I spent SO long getting invested in Betty and Henry (and later, the triangle with Gino) that to have it dismised in a two-minute throwaway scene felt wildly disrespectful.

The verdict is still out on Ugly Betty. UB is trying hard to keep fans interested, but this episode felt like there was so much going on and none of it very interesting.

The episode could not have started better, with Betty recounting her choice between Henry or Gio…or *something else*. I love the fact that she’s focusing more on her career and moving forward by moving out.

I’ve also thought for a while now that Daniel was not a good fit at Mode at all, and that the best thing he could do was start a men’s magazine. Wish granted last night. And, while Daniel having a son came out of nowhere in last season’s finale, it does put another necessary new spin on his character. It was also good to see he, his son, Alex, and Claire sitting down for family supper.

Even Ignacio moved forward by getting a job, though I think he could do better than a burger joint. Even a deli or pizzaria would be a step up.

I also agree with the negatives such as the extreme predictability that Betty’s apartment would be a disaster and that her family would be the ones to fix it up. Wilhemina’s greedy ambitions are getting old, and I could not agree more that the Regis & Kelly we saw were pod-people from bizarro world. They might as well have given Regis an evil-Spock goatee.

My biggest fear is that Betty’s neighbor will quickly become her new love interest effectively counteracting what I liked so much about the first few minutes of the premiere. Until that happens, I’m back onboard. I’ll continue giving it a chance for a little while longer.

As for Survivor’s premiere, not much to say except that some contestants seem nice enough so far, but the casting dept. apparently insists on casting a handful of unpleasant people just for the sake of conflict as well as at least one person who doesn’t deserve to be there in the first place. Luckily, the most unpleasant and undeserving one was sent home first. The guy with the cut on his head is next in line in unpleasantness, so I’d love to see him go soon. I wish I had a flat panel TV already so I could better appreciate the show’s first season filmed in HD. On an SDTV, they don’t even letterbox it.

I really like seeing Kevin McKidd on tv again (I so miss Journeyman). Any idea how many episodes he’ll be in? TVa -you should try to line up an interview w/ him. I’d still like to know if working w/ Patrick Dempsey on Made of Honor had anything to do w/ him getting the role on GA.

I’m really lovin’ the new season of Smallville, as well! Sam Witwer is a fantastic cast addition.

The Office, of course, is great to have back! It’s harder to pin down the best one-liners from an hourlong episode, but you had to love Kelly eating a “tapeworm,” then Creed revealing “It wasn’t a tapeworm.”