How do you feel about Lindsay?

[Faylinn]

Hmm, very true. For some people, Lindsay was easily the worst part of season 2 (and potentially 3). I didn't mean for it to sound like she's a small problem, just that sometimes it seems that Lindsay and season 2 are attached at the hip (it mainly seems to happen when people 'love season 2 more because of Lindsay and because season 1 was too dark,' though). At the same time, while she might have caused more problems than she corrected, for me it seems like she was initially more of a symptom than an issue herself--why did season 2 suddenly have to be about the rich and glamorous part of NY? The things that you say are "irrelevant" really should be--and yet they sure did stand out when season 2 started. Remember their commercials that said something like 'a new look!' or whatever it was? And adding a new person from the other side of the country just fit right in to the changes they were going for--I guess the unglamorous NY, full of New Yorkers, was just too unappealing.

And so on, I'm just rambling now.

Anyway, once they introduced the character, they could have done a lot with her, but from the very beginning her development has seemed...haphazard. She's the cliche country girl, shoving people and stabbing cow carcasses, woo-hoo! No, she's fun and peppy and upbeat, yayness! No, wait, she's got a deep, dark sekrit, and she's going to have to deal with her inner turmoil!!1! Ooh, just for a second, let's make her look kind of crazy! No, never mind, let's go back to the inner turmoil!...

At some point the writers will surely know who Lindsay Monroe is, won't they? I wonder if we'll be that lucky?

 

[Twinkletoes]

Faylinn said:
I guess the unglamorous NY, full of New Yorkers, was just too unappealing.

I loved that about Series 1 - the gritty, dark quality of the city. I thought the transition from Miami to New York in NYC Nonstop (or whatever it was called) where the colour faded from orange to almost monochrome was genius, absolute genius...

 

[audrina]

Well, personally, the dark/light change didn't affect me that much, and I did like season 1. But I also like Lindsay, although I think the handling of her character has been clumsy at times by the writers.

I have no problem with Anna Belknap - I actually like her. I do, however, wish the writers would just make her part of the working team and not feel like she has to be singled out so much. I would also like to see more development of her character apart from Danny.

While I still like the character, I miss the light-hearted, somewhat competitive, scientific-minded Lindsay we saw in the beginning. I wish they didn't feel the need to bind her down with dark secrets. I believe some of the tone of her character in season 3 may have to do with accomodating her pregnancy, but I hope when she comes back she heads back to some of the lighter material of season 2.

My two cents!!

 

[sanrio76]

Actually, my UN-interest for season 1 had nothing to do with any light/dark (atmosphere or humor) issue. I was a CSI-LV fan through many seasons in their up and downs. It was all about the characters and lack of shipping prospects. When I first tuned into season 1, the only character/actor that I liked at all was Mac. I hated Stella, thought Aidan was too stiff and Danny just didn't register on my radar. I am a tv-aholic and to prevent becoming a couch potato I limit my viewing to only "must see-tv" shows. Mac by himself wasn't "must see" and so around that time I only religiously watched CSI-LV and House. But since then, I caught a re-run of "Fare Game" and loved the character/acting of Lindsay. Shipping is also very important to me if I am to come back week after week. Without it, the show becomes something I'll just catch when it goes to syndication like CSI-Miami became to me. And Lindsay's shipping prospects (D/L especially) interested me greatly. NOW, I enjoy the whole show and all the characters/actors (including Stella) with or without D/L (preferably with) and it is "must-see".

 

[Top41]

I think I've only seen one or two posters say they like Lindsay independent of shipping her with Danny, which suggests to me that for many, she's more a proxy for seeing Danny in a relationship than she is a character in her own right. I wouldn't care so much about the ship if it hadn't all but ruined the character of Danny and done away with all development for him outside the relationship.

But my dislike of Lindsay is all about her as a character. It's so hard to separate her from the pairing with Danny since that's been 75-80% of her development (outside of the shoddily put together and executed "dark secret"), but aside from a few cute episodes mid-season two, it's done her no favors either.

I think the problem with Lindsay is that she drags down every scene she's in, she sparks with none of the actors save for Gary, and seems to radically change personalities at the drop of a hat. She's been intolerable this season save for a single episode ("Not What It Looks Like") and has only been vaguely likable for a few episodes mid-second season. She's a detriment to the show.

I miss season one, but season three has had some pretty darn good episodes. Lindsay is usually a low point in an otherwise good episode, whether it be her unconvincing cry of pain when she was bit by a snake or her laughable attempt at crying over the deaths of her friends...10 years ago. Anna just isn't up to the caliber of the cast of this show.

 

[Silencer]

Top... that first paragraph makes me cry. It makes kittens cry. It should make all CSI fans cry, because if it's true, it's a damning statement about the state of character writing in NY. If we like a character because they prop up another rather than being a whole character on their own, why the hell should anyone bother writing proper characters? We'll just make props, wooden characters that look nice and have pretty hair and do absolutely nothing.

I could name a few TV shows at this point, but I won't.

I also think that that entire first paragraph could be turned on its head to explain why a lot of people don't like Lindsay. I don't like the fact she's attached to Danny for most of Season 2. In Season 3, we're seeing him interact with different people, and it's wonderful, but it feels like the beast has been tamed. The mad, wild Danny so many people fell in love with has been beaten into submission by this ham-fisted attempt to put a round lovestory into a square show. Er.

In contrast, now we see Lindsay interact with other characters other than Danny they've decided to make her a stroppy, petulant child. The friend/boss scene with Stella was ridiculous - it was like Stella was having to deal with a four year old child. She shouldn't have to explain to a thirty-something CSI how to do her job properly.

Lindsay's backstory makes no sense at all, so I'm not surprised Anna can't do a lot with it. The "dark sekret!111" is totally laughable. They've hinted she has problems with mothers, then girls from the country, but now she was part of a teenage massacre which hasn't bothered her in any sort of serious way at any point until now.

 

[Top41]

Silencer said:
Top... that first paragraph makes me cry. It makes kittens cry. It should make all CSI fans cry, because if it's true, it's a damning statement about the state of character writing in NY. If we like a character because they prop up another rather than being a whole character on their own, why the hell should anyone bother writing proper characters? We'll just make props, wooden characters that look nice and have pretty hair and do absolutely nothing.

It certainly makes me sad. Danny's a great character, and his development was one of the best things about CSI: NY, before he got saddled with the wholly unlikeable Mary Sue Monroe.

I also think that that entire first paragraph could be turned on its head to explain why a lot of people don't like Lindsay. I don't like the fact she's attached to Danny for most of Season 2. In Season 3, we're seeing him interact with different people, and it's wonderful, but it feels like the beast has been tamed. The mad, wild Danny so many people fell in love with has been beaten into submission by this ham-fisted attempt to put a round lovestory into a square show. Er.

He's so much less interesting than he used to be. I don't tune into TV shows to see perfect characters. I like the flaws, the dark stories--they're what make characters in shows so interesting. Danny has had a few moments this season, but compared to what he was first season, he's a pale shadow of his former self.

In contrast, now we see Lindsay interact with other characters other than Danny they've decided to make her a stroppy, petulant child. The friend/boss scene with Stella was ridiculous - it was like Stella was having to deal with a four year old child. She shouldn't have to explain to a thirty-something CSI how to do her job properly.

That was ridiculous!!! Who, after the age of 16, screams at someone trying to help them to "leave me alone!" Lindsay is a moron.

Lindsay's backstory makes no sense at all, so I'm not surprised Anna can't do a lot with it. The "dark sekret!111" is totally laughable. They've hinted she has problems with mothers, then girls from the country, but now she was part of a teenage massacre which hasn't bothered her in any sort of serious way at any point until now.

It is a pretty absurd story, but I think a more talented actress could have at least made Lindsay's emotions believable, even if the story was a stretch. Anna couldn't even do that.

 

[JDonne]

^Lindsay was amazing in “Some Buried Bones!” I have never seen such an extraordinary talent. It was almost as if she weren’t even there so seamlessly did she blend in with the rest of the cast. I could gush about her performance all day, I . . . What’s that you say? She wasn’t in the episode. Well, that explains it then.

The storyline is utterly ridiculous and hardly a dark secret, because as I’ve pointed out in another thread I’m sure that word of a “massacre” would have made it outside of Bozeman and into the national news. I suggest the writers familiarize themselves with what secret means, couldn’t have been much of a secret since Mac knew, but I guess they are suggesting it was a secret from the viewers. A secret from us because until the big reveal some of us thought she was an obnoxious waste of space and now we know she is an obnoxious waste of space that managed to cheat death. Cue the oohhs, cue the aahhs, cue the oh mys, and finally cue the far reaching eye rolls.

I agree, a better actress could have made the scene with Mac and Stella poignant and touching, a better actress would have touched the viewer with the character’s pain. Anna couldn’t do it. But you know what? That really doesn’t come as a surprise because 35 episodes later she hasn’t ever done it she hasn’t ever sold it. I think her character is best served by playing to her strengths, which is having her walk through the foreground of each show uttering the one line that is best served by a monotone delivery and flat lifeless eyes – may I take your order, to which we should all respond no, no you may not.

 

[Silencer]

JDonne, you need a "may cause you to spray your monitor with tea" warning.

You're quite correct about a massacre being national news - CourtTV would be all over it, if nothing else. I suppose the secret is the fact Lindsay drifted into anonymity afterwards, and decided to go into forensics. What really bothers me about this is the fact that it's so obviously a last-minute idea to deal with Anna's pregnancy.

I've written it elsewhere - but there's a million ways they could have dealt with it that didn't involve wangsting, fakey crying and Lindsay suddenly being "traumatised" by an event that has suddenly been plucked out of thin air. Her previous strop about not being able to work the Miami/NY teenage massacre crime scene being case in point here.

It's shoddy writing, made worse by the fact Anna can't act any kind of trauma convincingly. Her sobs in the morgue were so awful I had to fast forward the entire scene.

 

[JDonne]

Silencer said:
JDonne, you need a "may cause you to spray your monitor with tea" warning.

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. It was just too easy. I apologize.

You're quite correct about a massacre being national news - CourtTV would be all over it, if nothing else. I suppose the secret is the fact Lindsay drifted into anonymity afterwards, and decided to go into forensics. What really bothers me about this is the fact that it's so obviously a last-minute idea to deal with Anna's pregnancy.

I think the writers want us to believe that this was a well-planned well-executed storyline that they've had in the works since Anna first joined the cast. One of the more offensive aspects has always been the ludicrous statement that Lindsay can give bad news to fathers all day. I'm assuming that either all the massacred friends were the product of single mothers artificially inseminated by anonymous donors, the product of mother only homes due to divorce and death, or none of the friends fathers cared that their children were now dead and instead threw a large party in someone's sunflower field. That was a stroke of genius and by stroke of genius I mean someone pulled it out of their ass and thought it sounded poignant and angst ridden because as well all know only mothers cry.

I've written it elsewhere - but there's a million ways they could have dealt with it that didn't involve wangsting, fakey crying and Lindsay suddenly being "traumatised" by an event that has suddenly been plucked out of thin air.

Wangsting :lol: May I offer Ebola and Hanta as suggestions, now before anyone gets bent out of shape about me wishing death on Lindsay in my defense both diseases are not entirely fatal. If that doesn't work what about severe dehydration from all the "fakey" crying.

It's shoddy writing, made worse by the fact Anna can't act any kind of trauma convincingly. Her sobs in the morgue were so awful I had to fast forward the entire scene.

Perhaps the problem isn't Anna, perhaps the issue is sobriety, ie - drinking makes the horrible acting more convincing. Just some food for thought.

 

[Silencer]

The ludicrous statement that Lindsay can give bad news to fathers all day.

You know, when you read that line out of context, it sounds terrible. Like... "line up the fathers and I'll ruin their lives" terrible. I really, really don't get the mother thing. Were her friends massacred by her mother? Someone's mother? Anyone's mother?

Diseases were one idea, but I think I listed car crashes, seminars, funerals, anything that could have got Lindsay out of NY for a bit. It doesn't take a huge amount of imagination to come up with events that mean people have to drop everything and go do something else. Hell, I can do it, there's no reason why people who get PAID to write this stuff can't do it. Maybe they need to employ me.

Are you implying we need to get Anna hooked up to some kind of drip, filled with a heady mix of vodka, absinthe, gin...?

 

[seeker]

At first, her appearance on the show had me reserve my opinions--like give the girl a break, let's see what she can do...

I know how it feels to be the "newbie" in an established group--hell been there and done that in my job...and in fairness, she was dishing it out as well as she could give it--but I guess the increase in estrogen and the hormones going wack during pregnancy dimmed the writers creativity in expanding her character.

JDonne said...

I think the writers want us to believe that this was a well-planned well-executed storyline that they've had in the works since Anna first joined the cast.

I agree--they may not have the finer details of her story ironed out but they knew where they were headed...Makes me wonder if Anna got married during her run on the show or right before she joined the cast coz maybe the writers had it on the backburner and said "She's gonna get pregnant some day--we'll just pull this out when she does..." something like an escape card to explain for her absence.

When she comes back from her maternity leave and her reprisal of Lindsay is STILL as dry as what's she's been panning out for us since the start of the third season, then the show can go on without her character and I believe that the "horizontally challenged" lady had finally sung for Lindsay.

Now if the writers decide to make Lindsay ONLY the girlfriend to Danny and not add more depth aside from the fact that she has a "dark traumatic" past, (hello??? EVERYONE has some skeletons in the closet) then I don't see any business for her remaining part of the team.

 

[Silencer]

Thing is though... there's "depth" and then there's "depth".

Lindsay has, in all fairness, had a hell of a lot of screentime, mainly in season 2. What, exactly, did we get out of it? Her past is a big dark shadow filled with trauma and pain (and wangst) and she became a CSI because uh... uh... yes. Oh, but she likes Danny. And stalked Mac for a bit.
What do we actually know about Lindsay? What did they do with that massive amount of airtime she got? Answer = they shoved her with Danny. A lot.

As a character - regardless of Anna's acting ability - we know not-much. I don't know why she became a CSI (although I suspect I'm going to find out during the dark!sekrit111!thon we're about to get served). I don't know what her speciality is, what motivates her. I find myself not caring a lot of the time, when they write her stropping about the lab or reacting to things in a totally bizarre way.

Hammerback, Adam, Hawkes... none of them have had the huge push Lindsay has and yet I feel like I "know" them better, and "connect". Even Peyton, who's only been there a number of episodes, strikes home more than Lindsay does for me. I know that's not the case for everyone, but there it is.

I'm not a huge fan of female characters. I tend to find them to be a horrific stereotype, or flat as pancakes, personality-wise. But of all the CSI women, Lindsay is the only one I've taken a really huge dislike to, who I can't believe at all, and who I want gone. Hell, I even like Natalia Boa Vista more, and she was introduced with even less point than Lindsay. Maybe it's because I was never made to feel like I should like Natalia.

 

[seeker]

Silencer said...

Hell, I even like Natalia Boa Vista more, and she was introduced with even less point than Lindsay. Maybe it's because I was never made to feel like I should like Natalia.

Good one!LMAO!

You're right--they wanted the country girl to bear the brunt of the cutesy patootsie houlabahoo...they "packaged" Lindsay that way from the very start...I get about having the writers wanting us to like her--being force fed a character is never a good move, characters grow on you...Couldn't agree with you more.

I'm not a huge fan of female characters. I tend to find them to be a horrific stereotype, or flat as pancakes, personality-wise.

Aw, c'mon--ya just gotta love Willows and Bonasera...

 

[Showtime]

The ex-stripper, single mother of a rebellious daughter who has the time to look good and do good and the assaulted, yet strong, orphan who also manages to juggle her personal and professional life while looking like a million bucks? No, no ... not stereotyped at all.