“I don’t perceive the character as being dumbed down, I think we evolved her into one of the most sophisticated characters in TV comedy. Britta’s pop cultural ignorance (“rowboat cop”) and the fact that she dropped out of high school and ain’t so well-read are human qualities to which I found a lot of women relating and/or joyfully not relating, but in any case BELIEVING. I always felt that the triumph of Britta as a character was that she was the only “real” person, stuck on Gilligan’s island, and ironically being punished for it. Sometimes we would cross the line. I did find myself telling the writer’s room here and there, “let’s not make her a dumb blonde, she’s a high school dropout and she’s computer illiterate and she’s a late bloomer because she’s lived a fuller life, but there’s a difference between that and an airhead.” If we made her an airhead, it was an accident, or an isolated instance of us being too tempted by a funny joke. Troy was an airhead. Britta was a work of art. She was a post post feminist masterpiece and a televised work of art. If I do say so myself.”—
Well… I am sorry to disagree. I try not to be “that person” who goes into writing an essay about why something someone says is wrong (specially Dan Harmon because HIGH RISK OF BEING PUNISHED BY 99% OF THE FANDOM!) but this is just… wrong. I could relate to Britta in so many ways up until one point. I cannot exactly point out when, probably until the episode with Lukka last season (which was terrible) where she was right and no one believed her, but this season it was just… it was just bad regarding Britta. She wasn’t just clueless because of her ignorance about pop culture, she was just plain dumb. Britta had life experience. She saw people coming from a mile ago. She detected Jeff’s bullshit before anyone else and she stood up for herself and took jokes even if they hurt, WHILE ACKNOWLEDGING SHE WAS BEING MADE FUN OF. Now she either doesn’t get when they insult her or she just lets everyone treat her like shit.
And what about her being the heart of the group? Back when Jeff said that I didn’t quite agree with it, but Britta HAS been able to connect to people in the group just to help them and now if she does help them it’s only by accident or by saying she’s “a psych major” rather than her being just an empathic person, which is what she was before she turned, indeed, into an airhead, Dan Harmon.
Not to mention she barely acknowledged her attraction for Troy other than when he LIED to her to get her interested in him and suddenly just because he said something nice to her ONCE she is suddenly so into him that she turns into a lovestruck teenager (behavior that I also disliked from Annie in Anthropology 101, because character regression? NOT GOOD!) AND GIVES HIM LOCKS OF HER HAIR and we have to assume this is somehow appropiate behavior for a girl who has a long history of relationships.
So yeah, do not say it was “an accident, or an isolated instance of us being too tempted by a funny joke”, it hasn’t been isolated, it’s been a running theme all season and if it was an accident then damn, why hasn’t anyone called the paramedics yet because there’s blood all over this shit!
(Source: illbeoutback)
