How do you kill off someone who is already dead?

[donnaimmaculata]

Oh dear.

I've turned into a h8er.

So I watch Being Human, because Aidan Turner is hot and I'm shallow like that, but every. Single. Time. Annie appears on screen, I want to shove her face down the toilet.

Seriously. She's got to be the most annoying character since Molly Weasley.

I can't even bring myself to be coherent enough to analyse the character and my negative feelings towards her. All I can do is froth at the mouth.

This also prevents me from making a foray into the Being Human fandom, because everyone there seems to love and adore Annie in all her sweet glory (blerch), and so my all-consuming h8 for her would make me a social outcast.

Ah well. What is that character about? Let's see:

- Annie is introduced as a ghost who can only be seen by supernatural beings, which means that she needs the other characters (a werewolf and a vampire), because otherwise she would fade away.

- She is still totally hung up on her fiancé (who's alive and can't see her).

- She makes tea all the time and makes breakfast for the resident Creepy Guy, because Annie needs to be needed. Creepy Guy assaults her, Annie, despite being a ghost and hence not corporeal and unable to feel anything, freaks out and hides behind a Strong Male.

- Turns out her fiancé has killed her and she had suppressed that memory. Her journey as a character in series one is completed when, empowered through the realisation, she breaks free from her fiancé and gains superpowers (temporarily, it would seem).

- Instead of letting her complete her journey with dignity, the writers make her stick around for another season, in which she has nothing much to do but be "caring" and "ditzy".

- This time round, she does not contribute anything much during the climax but is dragged away kicking and screaming.

- And has to be rescued by a Strong Male.

From that point on, all she does is be vomit-inducingly sweet, bubbly and chipper, alternating with wide-eyed shock and incomprehension. Seriously, every scene with Annie makes me physically cringe. She doesn't contribute anything; all she does is care for Mitchell by making him tea and breakfast and try to be his "guardian angel" (actual Annie quote). Her attempts at "constructive advice" make me doubt her mental faculties. How old is the character supposed to be? In her early 20s? I could possibly buy her if she were a teenager. A retarded teenager.

Actually, strike that. Annie is seven years old. She has no idea whatsoever how adult interactions and conversations work, she tries to have sex with a man by making a list ("First item: heavy petting."), and she has tea with the resident Creepy Guy, because she is organically incapable of judging a person's character. Or, y'know, judging her best friend's and alleged boyfriend's reaction to that character (which is not positive).

Speaking of her boyfriend: hooking up with a 117-years-old mass murderer is not a good idea (teh sparkly has a lot to answer for). However, if you decide to give him a chance and if said mass murderer tells you he has "done bad things" that "you need to know", you might want to actually listen to him so that you know what he is capable of. Telling him it doesn't matter and he's "all that you've ever wanted" and "it's destiny" is not an immensely intelligent thing to do.

And then - and I think I did throw up at that point - after Mitchell and Annie finally admit to themselves that they cannot have sex, because it is physically impossible, he tells her that it's better that way, because for him sex has always been a weapon. And that with her, he has something much purer.

They actually invoked the Purity trope. I don't even... The Good Woman, who is Pure and Caring and can help the Troubled Man to overcome the Darkness Within.

I am tentatively hoping that what the writers are actually doing here is deconstruct the romantic notion of vampire boyfriends and that all will not end well. But I'm not holding my breath.

I can't even hope for the chacters to get killed off, because Annie is already dead and she almost-finally died at the end of every season.

I'll still watch all of season 3, but I watch it resentfully.

Comments

[rosina-alcona.livejournal.com]

I have never watched an episode of this so I am all at sea.

I'll still watch all of season 3, but I watch it resentfully.

ahahaha

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

I don't know why, but I hear that phrase in Graham Norton's voice. "I watch it... resentfully."

The first season was actually quite sweet. But then, all of them took stupid pills.

I only watch it because Aidan Turner is pretty. And supporting characters pop up every now and then that are really quite well done.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

I don't think she's unrealistic. I just think it's sad they decided to make someone like that the female lead in a TV show. Her character arc was pretty much completed after season one. Ever since then, she hasn't done or learned anything and serves no purpose apart from being there for the boy(s).

I just can't stand saccharine female characters. When I watch Annie, I can totally understand the abusive boyfriend. I would gladly push her down the stairs myself, and I'm not the bullying type.

See, show? You made me understand and empathise with the abusive boyfriend character!

[soawen.livejournal.com]

YES. This. It's the first time one character has actually put me off a show, so congratulations must be in order (in my defense I didn't quit until the purity trope came up).

And uh, speaking of sparkling things and the hell that follows with them... Twinklight. Just needed to share that with you.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

I'm so happy there is someone else who feels the way I do! Annie is unbearable.

I will suffer through season 3, but then I hope Aidan Turner will leave the show so that there won't be any reason left for me to keep watching it. Considering that he's doing The Hobbit now, it's not unlikely.

TWINKLIGHT is love! I think I've read about it once, but I never knew they had such a beautiful website. "Category: average dick" just made my day.

[soawen.livejournal.com]

She pisses me off ever so much because she summarizes much of what has been critizised about female characters for so long, so it's really just a big fuck you to "women are humans too".

Also, oooh, he is? Am mightily pleased with this.

And yes, their categories are awesome! It's not good porn, but it's entertainingly bad, unlike the original which just sucks.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

There's a Hobbit press conference video here. I didn't watch it in its entirety, as its half an hour long, but perhaps you're interested.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

It's not so much the weakness, but rather the over-the-top sweetness. I can get on board with a character who needs protection, is annoying, is immature... but if these qualities are presented in a cutesy manner, I want to claw the character's eyes out.

[soawen.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)