Some people simply deal with that sort of trauma by pretending it doesn't exist. It's almost like you have to look at it one way with Vexed as part of the continuity and another way without it.
I think this is what they are trying for, but as is the norm with the show they are kind of piss poorly presenting it.
If the fluffy-ness is a front that Bo is putting forward, we should still see some glimpses of turmoil beneath the surface every once and a while. For example, the character of Damon from "Vampire Diaries" puts on an unaffected, nothing can faze me front, but we get moments where we see his depth and his pain, before he paints a smirk on his face again.
Even if Bo is wise-cracking, and smiling most of the time, every once in a while we should see something deeper from her, something that shows that inside of her she feels the weight of her past, even if she can't let it show most of the time.
The way the show portrays Bo (both writing and acting) just doesn't show that Bo acts this way because she has to in order to go on. She just comes across as genuinely being capricious instead of pretending/making herself act capricious.
The whole issue of Bo herself seems incredibly glossed over in the re-tooled episodes we've seen. We don't see her relationships' consistent development, we don't see her gaining control over her powers, and we don't see her dealing with her past.
Your right, the writing for Bo has been incredibly lazy. She is the star of the show, the protagonist. She should be the character that is the most defined, and yet she's so thinly drawn. I was just thinking about the other day in terms of fic writing, and how hard it is to write fic for this show because Bo makes no sense. It's impossible to get a sense of her internal self, because she is so contradictory on the show. It's like the writers just want to make her every single badass female they've ever seen on TV at once.
- Fights Fae like Buffy fought vampires. - Has a dark, murderous past and a spunky side-kick who keeps her focused like Xena. - Dresses up and goes undercover, often with her partner/handler like Sydney Bristow. - She is tortured by her knowledge of the future (in Bo's case a prophecy) like Sarah Connor. - Likes to dress in dark, tight clothes, has been forced to live on her own for years, and has uncontrollable sexual urges due to her biology like Max from Dark Angel.
And so on ...
The difference is that those characters were strongly, and carefully developed, and as a viewer you understood them and why they did the things they did. Yes, even Max from Dark freaking Angel was better written. It's like the show doesn't realize that Bo can't be both Buffy AND Faith.
I wish everything could just kind of start over again with a focus on Bo instead of the meandering, freak-of-the-week episodes, but instead I'm just hoping that maybe there will be a more plot-centric drive to the second season
Hopefully there will be some fine-tuning for the second season. I realize they can't undo her past now, but hopefully in season 2 they'll a least start to address some of the things they've been ignoring.
I don't even really mind the case-of-the-week format. It can be used effectively (i.e. The Good Wife. It has a new legal case to be solved every week, but in-between the lawyering it focuses on character and character relationships and slowly and carefully develops it's characters). Lost Girl just has the characters do whatever is needed to further the plot, which often makes the characters inconsistent.
I think that's one of the reasons Lauren is my favorite, because she's the most consistently scripted character on the show.
Speaking of coherent, sorry if that was incredibly long and convoluted.
As this long-ass response indicates, I don't have a problem with length replies! It actually makes me happy to know others are thinking about this show as much as I am :D
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Date: 2010-11-26 02:20 am (UTC)I think this is what they are trying for, but as is the norm with the show they are kind of piss poorly presenting it.
If the fluffy-ness is a front that Bo is putting forward, we should still see some glimpses of turmoil beneath the surface every once and a while. For example, the character of Damon from "Vampire Diaries" puts on an unaffected, nothing can faze me front, but we get moments where we see his depth and his pain, before he paints a smirk on his face again.
Even if Bo is wise-cracking, and smiling most of the time, every once in a while we should see something deeper from her, something that shows that inside of her she feels the weight of her past, even if she can't let it show most of the time.
The way the show portrays Bo (both writing and acting) just doesn't show that Bo acts this way because she has to in order to go on. She just comes across as genuinely being capricious instead of pretending/making herself act capricious.
The whole issue of Bo herself seems incredibly glossed over in the re-tooled episodes we've seen. We don't see her relationships' consistent development, we don't see her gaining control over her powers, and we don't see her dealing with her past.
Your right, the writing for Bo has been incredibly lazy. She is the star of the show, the protagonist. She should be the character that is the most defined, and yet she's so thinly drawn. I was just thinking about the other day in terms of fic writing, and how hard it is to write fic for this show because Bo makes no sense. It's impossible to get a sense of her internal self, because she is so contradictory on the show. It's like the writers just want to make her every single badass female they've ever seen on TV at once.
- Fights Fae like Buffy fought vampires.
- Has a dark, murderous past and a spunky side-kick who keeps her focused like Xena.
- Dresses up and goes undercover, often with her partner/handler like Sydney Bristow.
- She is tortured by her knowledge of the future (in Bo's case a prophecy) like Sarah Connor.
- Likes to dress in dark, tight clothes, has been forced to live on her own for years, and has uncontrollable sexual urges due to her biology like Max from Dark Angel.
And so on ...
The difference is that those characters were strongly, and carefully developed, and as a viewer you understood them and why they did the things they did. Yes, even Max from Dark freaking Angel was better written. It's like the show doesn't realize that Bo can't be both Buffy AND Faith.
I wish everything could just kind of start over again with a focus on Bo instead of the meandering, freak-of-the-week episodes, but instead I'm just hoping that maybe there will be a more plot-centric drive to the second season
Hopefully there will be some fine-tuning for the second season. I realize they can't undo her past now, but hopefully in season 2 they'll a least start to address some of the things they've been ignoring.
I don't even really mind the case-of-the-week format. It can be used effectively (i.e. The Good Wife. It has a new legal case to be solved every week, but in-between the lawyering it focuses on character and character relationships and slowly and carefully develops it's characters). Lost Girl just has the characters do whatever is needed to further the plot, which often makes the characters inconsistent.
I think that's one of the reasons Lauren is my favorite, because she's the most consistently scripted character on the show.
Speaking of coherent, sorry if that was incredibly long and convoluted.
As this long-ass response indicates, I don't have a problem with length replies! It actually makes me happy to know others are thinking about this show as much as I am :D