Why Lindsay Must Go (Part 3)

[Shytownmofo]

I don't necessarily think she needs to go, but I definitely think that TPTB need to tone her character down quite a bit. I actually liked her in Season 2. She was inventive, she was tough, she knew what she was doing. Not necessarily the most likable character, as the scene in "Manhattan Manhunt" showed, but still a worthy character.

Then, they tried to give her a weighty story arc in Season 3. She fell flat on her face, IMO. She came off as manipulative. Hot one moment, cold the next. The way she stood up Danny on the date, the way she couldn't talk to him and tell him she was leaving. It all culminated in "Snow Day", the way she took Danny to the medics at the end. She came across as way over possessive there. It's like she wanted no one else to touch him.

In season 4 she started okay, but that's because there was nothing heavy for her. She did OK in "You Only Die Once" and "Boo" IMO. She was fine there. Not the greatest, but not annoying.

However, when Danny started shutting her out, she got so nasty and posessive and emotional, and unfortunately, Anna doesn't do that well. I cringed when I heard the "Monologue of Doom" that she gave. It just came across as strange and out of place. I have no clue what type of theater work she did, but I can't imagine she was all that successful. I thought stage was bigger. She can't do natural, let alone bigger.

I say, give her lighter stuff, not so heavy. Maybe a little comic relief or if there's a discovery to be made, she can do that. Also, I think they need to end the romance between her and Danny. I ain't feelin' it.

 

[Top41]

I just posted this in the "dear writers" thread...can Mac trade Lindsay to NJ CSI in exchange for Quinn? Please?

And lest anyone think this is about Danny--Quinn can have Danny's ass on a platter. I don't care. Just ship out the shrew from Montana. :lol:

 

[Faylinn]

I just posted this in the "dear writers" thread...can Mac trade Lindsay to NJ CSI in exchange for Quinn? Please?

Seconded.

Quinn can have Danny's ass on a platter.

...That would be pretty hot, actually.

 

[Lorelai]

I just posted this in the "dear writers" thread...can Mac trade Lindsay to NJ CSI in exchange for Quinn? Please?

Yes! Pretty please "dear writers"! Maybe they can exchange experience between CSI NY and CSI NJ. And since Montanaaaa is so awesome they won't let her come back! Sugar coated pretty please?!

 

[snickerdoodle]

I just posted this in the "dear writers" thread...can Mac trade Lindsay to NJ CSI in exchange for Quinn? Please?

And lest anyone think this is about Danny--Quinn can have Danny's ass on a platter. I don't care. Just ship out the shrew from Montana. :lol:

I like the way you think, Top41! An older woman who knows herself and takes no crap is just what Danny needs. :devil: It would definitely be more intriuging than the D/L stuff.

 

[origin-nknwn]

I just posted this in the "dear writers" thread...can Mac trade Lindsay to NJ CSI in exchange for Quinn? Please?

And lest anyone think this is about Danny--Quinn can have Danny's ass on a platter. I don't care. Just ship out the shrew from Montana. :lol:

I'm not a huge fan of Quinn either, but at least the actress who plays her can act...so yeah, I can go for this.

 

[Top41]

I adore Quinn, and seeing her on screen made me think, this is what Lindsay was supposed to be: someone who shakes things up while still contributing, who slips in naturally while still maintaining her autonomy, who fits with the team and adds to the dynamic. All the things Lindsay was supposed to be...but clearly isn't. As evinced by this season, Lindsay is nothing without Danny to prop her up. She faded into the background without Danny's drama to give her something to do. The show doesn't need her.

 

[jolein]

The show doesn't need her.

I completly agree and that is a shame for a character had so much potentieel.

I think Quinn is a much more stronger character then Lindsay.
Plus the actress has a natural chemistry with the rest.

 

[Ticamo77]

Another season has come and gone and I still can’t fathom how the character of Lindsay Monroe still has a job with the NY:CSI. I hate to reverberate what has all ready been said over and over again, but it just holds so much merit. The character is a weak one. What began as good character that could have been a great foil for Danny, was instead wrapped up in his sheets on a pool table. :wtf: They didn’t need to sexualize the tension that each character had in Zoo York. So much more could have been done with Lindsay had they continued with her being hardnosed and tough.

I can’t help but to feel a little sorry for Anna Belknap because she is seriously way out of her league on the show. She is being so exposed and it shows. She just didn’t connect with Lindsay in the ways her co-stars did with their characters and if she can't, then how can I? I don’t know how else to explain it. I keep hearing/reading that Anna Belknap is a good stage actress, but it’s just not talent is not evident on the show. It's just a darn shame and a waste.

If they can't find a way to step up her game and prove herself an asset to the show, then she should really just go and audition for a play.

The show doesn't need her.

I completly agree and that is a shame for a character had so much potentieel.

I think Quinn is a much more stronger character then Lindsay.
Plus the actress has a natural chemistry with the rest.

I remember when we had divergent opinions about Lindsay, on two other boards, that got heated. I'm glad to know that we finally agree. Lindsay should go.

 

[privatename]

Another season has come and gone and I still can’t fathom how the character of Lindsay Monroe still has a job with the NY:CSI. I hate to reverberate what has all ready been said over and over again, but it just holds so much merit. The character is a weak one.

I agree that she is a very weak character and I don't understand why she still has a job either. The writers don't seem to know what they want to do with her (possibly because she can't handle anything but the lightest scenes and even those she doesn't do that well) and the actress doesn't really ever turn in a convincing performance. She consistently takes me out of the show when she appears on screen.

I can’t help but to feel a little sorry for Anna Belknap because she is seriously way out of her league on the show. She is being so exposed and it shows. She just didn’t connect with Lindsay in the ways her co-stars did with their characters and if she can't, then how can I? I don’t know how else to explain it. I keep hearing/reading that Anna Belknap is a good stage actress, but it’s just not talent is not evident on the show. It's just a darn shame and a waste.

I can't speak to her abilities as a stage actress, but I agree she is out of her league on this show. I don't know if it is lack of talent or lack of investment in her character or whatever other excuses there are. Perhaps she just can't connect with her character as you said, but since that is her main job - to embody her character and make us believe in and connect with the character - I can't really feel sorry for her. I am sure she is well-paid and many actors never get the chance to be on such a highly rated series. I do feel sorry for other actresses with more talent who haven't managed to land a prime time show. I also feel sorry for those of us who are being subjected to this character and this actress on a weekly basis.

It is a good show and one that I enjoy and it really stinks that I have to suffer through a character like this one. The rest of the cast is so good and I really think that in almost all of Lindsay/Anna's scenes someone else in the cast could do them and do them so much better.

The show doesn't need her.

As I said above, I think that any of the other characters could do her scenes and do them much better. I do like Quinn and, as has been mentioned above, feel like she would have been a much better addition to the cast than Lindsay.

 

[Kimmychu]

Well, season four is officially over ... and it looks like the WLMG thread, with over 2300 posts now, is still going as strong as ever. :lol: That is a really bad sign for Lindsay/Anna.

Three seasons is a very, very long time for a character on the main cast to attempt integrating with the other characters. Attempt, because even now, Lindsay still sticks out like a wobbly sore thumb in a group of well-established characters who have proven themselves to be worthy of their roles. As some of you have mentioned, it is indeed a shame that a character who had such potential in the beginning is now beyond salvation and is a plain drag who has possibly ruined what was once one of the most interesting characters in the CSI franchise, Danny, by turning him into a prop.

After all this time, I'm still bowled over by Anna Belknap's statement of admitting her audition sucked and that it was so nice of Hill Harper to put in a good word for her with the higher ups. (Most of that was in her own words, by the way.) I'm sure some people read her statement as her being humble about her 'skills'. To me, however, it read way more as, "Wow, I suck so bad that I needed someone on the main cast to convince TPTB I'm actually 'good' and guess what, TPTB was dumb enough to hire me anyway! Go me!" Yeah, it's possible she was being sincere but really, what kind of professional openly says she sucks and even goes as far as saying the only reason she got the job was because someone on the cast put in a good word for her? Boy, that is going to bite her in the ass for a long, long time to come.

Does anyone have a link to that article about an 'acting class' she held before she started work on CSI:NY? Her line that went something like, "Being a good actor is knowing how to convey emotions," has to be the most ironic statement of the decade now. And no, being on a primetime TV show does not automatically mean a person's acting skills must be good! :scream:

Ticamo77 said:
I keep hearing/reading that Anna Belknap is a good stage actress, but it’s just not talent is not evident on the show. It's just a darn shame and a waste.

That's what boggles my mind. If a stage actress has to express herself even more than a TV actress has to, then what we should be seeing on screen is at least an expressive person, not the total opposite! It's not logical even when ya try to spin it as her 'over-watering down' her expressiveness. Being subdued is one thing. Having zero emotion in the eyes and face is something else.

Now that I think about it, even the whole, "She's a stage actress so give her a break if she's not a good TV actress!" excuse doesn't cut it. William Petersen on CSI:LV has done both TV and stage acting, and I hear he's good at both. There's Laurence Fishburne, who's done movies and stage acting and he's damn good at both. So what does this mean, eh?

privatename said:
The writers don't seem to know what they want to do with her (possibly because she can't handle anything but the lightest scenes and even those she doesn't do that well) and the actress doesn't really ever turn in a convincing performance.

Here's something else that boggles my mind. Why is she still in a regular role after her audition sucked and Hill Harper had to put in a good word for her and even TPTB are aware of her limited acting to the point she got relegated to nothing more than a one-dimensional character who requires constant propping by Danny/Carmine? It's preposterous to even assume there aren't better actresses out there who can pull off Lindsay's role far better. And look at the previous posts before this one! Even a recurring character like Quinn who's appeared only in two episodes so far has left a deeper impression than Lindsay has in years. Quinn isn't the only female recurring character who's left a deep impression on viewers either; there's Rikki, who appeared in only four episodes and in two of the episodes she was on screen on mere minutes.

I can't speak to her abilities as a stage actress, but I agree she is out of her league on this show. I don't know if it is lack of talent or lack of investment in her character or whatever other excuses there are.

I agree, she is way out of her league. The fact Carmine Giovinazzo acknowledged that Danny had to be Lindsay's prop says it all. It's very unfair on Carmine, I must say. If TPTB insists on continuing to make Danny such a prop, Carmine should ask for double pay. (And I'm serious.)

Perhaps she just can't connect with her character as you said, but since that is her main job - to embody her character and make us believe in and connect with the character - I can't really feel sorry for her. I am sure she is well-paid and many actors never get the chance to be on such a highly rated series.

Bingo. It's been said numerous times in the thread by various people but I'll say it again, most times, it really appears as if Belknap is just reading lines off a page and more interested in collecting her paycheck than actually acting. If that's actually the case, I dunno whether to hope that she really is just a lousy actress who has no clue whatsoever and that she'll get a hint someday or hope that she gets replaced by someone more deserving of primetime role and pay.

 

[WhosLaughingNow]

It's not logical even when ya try to spin it as her 'over-watering down' her expressiveness. Being subdued is one thing. Having zero emotion in the eyes and face is something else.

I think it's logical (But that probably because I said that ). Anyways, it's kind of like if you over water a plant. It dies. Kind of like her performance. It's dead, there's nothing there.

I REALLY want to know exactly what the producers see in Anna. I mean there has to be something there they like for them to be wasting their money on her and not getting rid of her(And I want a reason that doesn't involve Danny). Even if she was hired based on something someone said, if there was something wrong with her they would have either fixed the problem or, gotten rid of her by now.(Hope that last part makes sense)

 

[miss_blue]

^ I believe that the producers hang on to the Drama Llama. Where would that be without Lindsay? I think that TPTB actually believe that the ratings are going up up in the sky when DL is on the screen. Actually they changed everything the show was in the beginning for the sake of ratings, that just went down and they keep going down. But I digress.

I am not trying to offend the actress (someone will eventually point out that), but she has no skills whatsoever. That only one expression is getting annoying, and I don;t even bother to try to understand whether she feels that way or the other. I just don't. I am just patiently waiting for the moment when she will get back to Montana.

Regarding her audition for the part, she probably said she sucked because she may feel that something is off. And I also remember the interview when she stated that she was thinking about her child when she shot the Court Room scene from Sleight Out of Hand. It has been a great while since then, but I still cannot understand her "acting" methods.

 

[Kimmychu]

WhosLaughingNow said:
Anyways, it's kind of like if you over water a plant. It dies. Kind of like her performance. It's dead, there's nothing there.

:guffaw: I got nothin' on you girls, nothin'. I was trying to be nice, ya know! Yeah, it's logical when ya think of her deliberately doing it but what kind of professional actress would deliberately water down her acting to the point it's dead? :lol: That's why it's illogical to me, that bit.

I REALLY want to know exactly what the producers see in Anna. I mean there has to be something there they like for them to be wasting their money on her and not getting rid of her(And I want a reason that doesn't involve Danny).

... eheheheh, producers and what they think of Anna. And that's all I'm gonna say.

miss_blue said:
I think that TPTB actually believe that the ratings are going up up in the sky when DL is on the screen. Actually they changed everything the show was in the beginning for the sake of ratings, that just went down and they keep going down.

Faylinn recently made an interesting LJ post about the ratings for the latter half of season four. If TPTB thinks D/L gets ratings up, ohohoh, they might wanna take a good look at the situation right about now. Hell, they should have looked at the ratings from season three onwards. Not funny at all when the season four premiere had 3 million viewers less than season three's and this was before the strike! And did I mention season four's finale had over a million viewers less than last season's?

Regarding her audition for the part, she probably said she sucked because she may feel that something is off.

There is that, but dang, she could have at least phrased it as how you put it instead of, "My audition sucked but Hill put in a good word for me!" Just ... I dunno, something about that just sounded bad.

And I also remember the interview when she stated that she was thinking about her child when she shot the Court Room scene from Sleight Out of Hand. It has been a great while since then, but I still cannot understand her "acting" methods.

Yeah, she said she 'thought of her baby and how much she loved her' for a scene where Lindsay was supposed to cry due to remembering her friends' deaths by murder. How those two add up, I have no idea.

 

[Lola86]

Faylinn recently made an interesting LJ post about the ratings for the latter half of season four. If TPTB thinks D/L gets ratings up, ohohoh, they might wanna take a good look at the situation right about now. Hell, they should have looked at the ratings from season three onwards. Not funny at all when the season four premiere had 3 million viewers less than season three's and this was before the strike! And did I mention season four's finale had over a million viewers less than last season's?

I'm a little bit confused because didn't the season 3 finale have DL stuff but the season 4 finale not? I'm not disputing what your saying about DL causing a drop in ratings - for all I know you could be right - but it sounds a little contradictory.

Anyway, I was reading this topic a couple of weeks ago(but couldnt really post then due to exams) and I noticed that someone was talking about the age of Lindsay being suggested as being younger than she looks now. So I just wanted to ask if the age thing bothered you when she first arrived? The reason I ask is that I agree that nowadays Anna looks her age, but when she first joined the show pre-baby and pre-awful-season-4-haircut I thought she was much younger than she was which is why I never saw a problem with the producers making her younger. Sorry for posting this so much later than the comments but revision has kept me busy.

I also just wanted to comment on the fact the "the show doesn't need her". As far as that goes I would agree but I also think that the show doesn't need Hawkes or Danny or Flack. I still like them (in general) but the show could d perfectly well without their characters and I don't know that they always add something great to the show. I realise that poor Hawkes hasn't had the screen time this season but as much as I like him - I havn't really noticed until I actually sat and thought about it, that he wasn't there. Also, to me this season, Danny has slightly detracted from my enjoyment of the show by regressing back to his season 1 behaviour (from what I can judge I only saw 3 eps of season 1) and he was the reason I didn't like season 1 and stopped watching until mid season 2.

I hope that it's ok to post the last statement here. I know it wasn't about Lindsay but I felt it went with what I was saying.