How Is Lindsay Adjusting to NY?

You know, several months after I moved, one of the guys at work commented that I had changed a lot since I got there. The thing is, I don't know that it was really so much that I changed, but that I felt more comfortable where I was. I wasn't overacheiving at work, I talked (and laughed) more, I had a life outside of work. It wasn't that my character had changed...actually I was a lot more like who I was before I moved. I think the Lindsay we are seeing now is more like who Lindsay really is. She's not trying so hard to prove herself, the lab isn't her whole life, and people are accepting her rather than constantly questioning her and giving her a hard time. The lab (and the city) don't seem as hostile to her, so she isn't as defensive and hostile in response.



It didn't take me that long to figure out how to pronounce things (and pick up quite an accent), but I did enjoy the city more than the locals (I would go for walks, go to the tourist places, etc.). There weren't a whole lot of things I complained about, particularly to my co-workers.

It would be nice to have her make a comment every once in a while, but I don't want to constantly be reminded that she misses home or that this or that is bad (or good) about New York.

Everyone's experience is different, but the portrayal of Lindsay doesn't seem to be out of line given my personal experience.
 
Adams Girl, you mean to say that we British Columbians AREN'T all "tree hugging hippy potheads"? :lol:

It didn't take me that long to figure out how to pronounce things (and pick up quite an accent), but I did enjoy the city more than the locals (I would go for walks, go to the tourist places, etc.). There weren't a whole lot of things I complained about, particularly to my co-workers.
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That is so true. When I moved up to Terrace I visitied the first nations sites, the lava beds, the lakes, rode in the back of a pick-up to Alaska. Same thing for Moose Jaw SK. I toured the Tunnels and all. I had never visited the sites near where I was born until this past summer. You never really take advantage of that when you are a local. But then I felt oddly weird, almost like a tourist doing some of this too.
 
LiquidCrystal said:
Adams Girl, you mean to say that we British Columbians AREN'T all "tree hugging hippy potheads"? :lol:
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:lol:


you don't know how many idiots have asked me for BC Pot. lol People are like "yo BC has the best Pot. can you score me some." i'm like "i don't smoke pot and how the hell am i supposed to get pot from bc." and they're like "that's mad tight..."

friggin idiots.... lol

hmm back on topic... I think they should show more of her home sick side. I mean has she made friends outside of the lab yet? Did she go back home for Christmas?? etc...
 
Hey, dude, I LOVE those free florecent lights BC Hydro gives out...Damn loggers too! SAVE the salmon. JK. Please I am SO kidding.

Yeah I was kinda wondering about that too. Or even mention Uncle Fred again.
 
LiquidCrystal said:
Hey, dude, I LOVE those free florecent lights BC Hydro gives out...Damn loggers too! SAVE the salmon. JK. Please I am SO kidding.
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thank god i was getting worried....
:lol:

Yeah I was kinda wondering about that too. Or even mention Uncle Fred again.
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i think Uncle Fred was just a filler to explain where she's living. But having her talk about her family would be great....
 
Hey guys, i dont watch NY every week, but from what eps i have seen, i absolutely love lindsay, i think that she is fitting in so well! i love watching her with the other characters because they, as actors even, just work so well together
 
Since "City of the Dolls" was on last night, I thought I'd pull a good example from there:

When Danny and Lindsay arrive at the teacher's apartment, Lindsay takes off her boots. Danny's reaction is basically, "What are you doing?" Lindsay responds with some comment about being polite to people.

*Warning: Sweeping generalizations which may not apply to all people from these areas*

Now, part of this is just the way they were raised, but part of it is also where they were raised. People from places like Montana are going to tend to be more polite and generally friendlier. They smile at people (or even talk to them) when they pass them on the street. People from NY are going to tend to be more combative and have more "attitude."

I think the scene with Lindsay taking off her boots is a little way the writers demonstrated that she was not from the same area.

The comment about the hardwood floors and the "Bronx Marble," which was part of the scene, also highlighted that she wasn't from around there. Where I grew up, and I'm guessing Montana is similar in this, having hardwood floors wasn't really about money; a lot of houses were just built that way. You could have hardwood floors and still need to shop at Goodwill (edit: Goodwill is a thrift store that is common in the US).


While it made sense for Lindsay to be more combative when she first arrived, it wouldn't make as much sense for that to be part of her character. That kind of attitude just isn't as common in Montana as it is in New York. Having her be more polite and less confrontational fits her background.

When she first got there, she did have to prove herself. A couple of the scenes between her and Mac showed that he was testing her out. She also would have felt the need to prove that she could make it in the big, bad city. She would have known that people were going to look down on her for being the new girl and for being from Montana. The fact that Danny was such an ass to her shows that she was right. She was combative and "Lindsay vs the crime lab" because she was trying to prove herself and because the environment was more than a little hostile. She doesn't have to be that way anymore because she has proven herself and the people at the lab (i.e. the example we have from Danny) have started treating her better.

I actually like how they show her being nice without being stupid. Take the scene with the company boss in "Corporate Warriors." Throughout the interview, she remained polite, but at the end, revealed that she knew he was insulting her by facing the spout of the teapot at her. She wasn't confrontational about it and she didn't really let it affect how she treated him, but she did let him know that he wasn't pulling something over on her.


Wow, that was long...Sorry...
 
I think there is a difference in portraying someone as a country bumpkin and showing that they are a fish out of water. Lindsay is a small fish that had been thrown into a big big pond. I think the lack of any discernable adjustment period is because there was never any sense that she was from any place other than NY from the beginning. The character lacked any substantial development and seemed to enter the show fully formed without a sense of history or background, a writing problem more than an acting problem.

I grew up in NY but went to college in the UK and then lived in small Italian towns for a year. Each step along the way left me in a place smaller than the one I knew and you can bet that there were moments I was lost, customs I didn't understand, aspects of the culture that eluded me, even puzzled me. Did I adjust, of course I did, you have no choice it is either sink or swim. However, could people tell I wasn't a local despite speaking fluent Italian my entire life, hell yes, because I wasn't, I wouldn't ever be. So, you can adjust, you can find your comfort zone, you can even fit in, but there will always be that part of you playing a catch-up game with everyone who was born, raised, and lived there.

Did people tease me in Oxford about being an American, yes they did and what I didn’t do was go on the attack or feel the need to prove myself, take a combative stance like it was me against the world, I’m just not that insecure. Lindsay’s character perhaps is, at least that is the way she comes off to me as a viewer, sad because the writers really missed the opportunity to show NY through the eyes of the uninitiated. A way to look into the unique divesity that some middle parts of the country lack, the unique geography, the breakdown of wealth and poverty, the racial strata, the divisiveness and yet oneness of the city's residents, so many opportunities that could have shown Lindsay was new without rendering the character helpless or stupid.

The hardwood floors joke was just stupid. New York is one of the oldest cities in the US and was around when the rest of the country belonged to France, Russia, Spain, etc., and before the first wagon train even dropped people off in the great unknown, not to mention before the invention of linoleum. There are many apartments, homes, and brownstones still holding on to their original hardwood floors, the same goes for Boston, Washington DC, and even newer kids on the block like Chicago.

Like in Montana or anywhere else, hardwood floors are not necessarily a bastion or trapping of the wealthy.

Now the opera dress screamed I'm not from New York, because she would have gone to Madison Ave or any of the plentiful boutiques, and found a dress that was suitable for the opera and not her baby shower or a Brat Pack prom scene. However, I guess given that she makes 90K a year before state and federal taxes and insists upon living in Manhattan there probably isn't much to spare for clothes.

Being a native of NYC I am normally amused by the fact that people think we have cornered the market on attitude and general surliness and not just in this thread, but all over the NY board. I think it says more about everyone else than it does about New Yorkers. Lindsay had more attitude from her first day in the lab than any of the other characters, until the writers rendered her comatose and did a 360. There were times Lindsay out New Yorked the stereotypical New Yorkers.

New York is a fantastic and friendly place to live, anything you want you can find there. Hey, we even have rivers, lakes, trees, parks, and flowers right in the middle of the city. However, we do eat our young that is true.

Ali
 
i beleive there shouls be some probs between her and the others cause as happened to ryan from miami she's the new one in the team
 
Well to say that I have only seen her in One Episode so far, I can't really judge her on how she has settled in. I'm sure once we've seen more episoded, with her then I might get a bigger picture.

Although it must be a frightening not to mention daunting experiance to move from a small state where everyone knows everybody, to a large overcrowded city. From what I've seen of Lindsay, she seems to be doing alright so far. I like her, and I'd like to see how her character progresses throughout the season.
 
JDonne, I am sorry. I meant no offense and I did not mean to imply that all (or even most) people in New York (or on the East Coast) are rude. There are rude people and people with "attitude" everywhere. I was just making statements based on my observations moving East.

I've also lived in a number of places (including a couple of places in Europe). Lindsay's behavior fits with my experience moving from a small town in the plains states to a large city on the East Coast.

edited for a grammar error that was bugging me. I'm such a geek sometimes.
 
Lindsay did give a lot of attitude at first, something which threw me. I guess when I come into a new work environment, I like to be friendly and go out of my way to be courteous to my new colleagues. I'm sure the jokes about where she is from get old to Lindsay, but meeting them with sullen hostility doesn't endear her to anyone, not her colleagues or viewers. (The incident I am specifically thinking of is the one in "Dancing with the Fishes" when the officer asks her something about Kansas.) She's lost some of that defensiveness, which is good. She did have to prove herself, but so did Hawkes, and he didn't feel the need to be surly about it.

I think the hardwood/'Bronx marble' was meant to serve as a country girl vs. city boy illustration, but it really came off more as highlighting a class difference between the two characters, as did the fact that Lindsay was taking off her shoes to be polite and Danny was more like, screw that!

I don't want to see Lindsay acting like a country bumpkin or some silly stereotype like that, but I would have loved to see her react to NY's energy and the newness of that. Seeing her coming from the opera was cool--clearly she is sampling the culture and enjoying that. I just wish we were seeing more of that.

I would like to see her react to New Yorkers eating their young--that's got be a culture shock for her if nothing else. ;)
 
Top41 said:
I would like to see her react to New Yorkers eating their young--that's got be a culture shock for her if nothing else. ;)
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HaHa. Yeah, the whole eating-their-young thing threw me for a loop. Then I realized that its just "different strokes for different folks." ;)
 
Here in Chicago we feed our young to the farm animals, because the cows have to eat so we can eat them. It's the circle of life in action!

Lindsay would understand, I'm sure.
 
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