Agreed, I think love interest characters of either sex tend to be boxed in development-wise. I wrote a meta about that at one point.
Really? I considered writing one. Was thinking about it today, is there a tv show that hasn't boxed in the love-interest -underdeveloped them? Outside of Farscape - which provided Aeryn Sun (John Crichton's love interest) with an amazing arc. Of course Aeryn was not set up as solely his love interest.
This is an interesting thought, and I think it's true he did capture a lot of the writers' imaginations (just as many later liked writing Andrew, albeit for different reasons). I do think JM was a factor in that, due to his passion for acting in general and throwing himself into what he was given also gave the writers a certain freedom.
I didn't mean to imply otherwise, but apparently did - since more than one person felt the need to point this out (in lj - three people did). He was a definite factor. He brought a sexual component to the character - testing well with both men and women. Both Boreanze and Landau had electric chemistry with Marsters. And that is hard to pull off. But I think Marsters willingness to play with his character and his give and take with the writers - probably created a level of collaboration that was sorely lacking with the other actors. But to be fair - the other actors were never really given the opportunity in part because of their roles. We have no idea what Brendan could have done with Xander if presented the opportunity or for that matter what ASH could have done with Giles. My biggest regret is that Whedon did not explore Ripper more - show that edge. We get glimspes - but there could have been so much more. In some respects, ASH would have been a more interesting big bad than Hannigan. Hannigan played it too light.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-08-31 02:55 am (UTC)Really? I considered writing one. Was thinking about it today, is there a tv show that hasn't boxed in the love-interest -underdeveloped them? Outside of Farscape - which provided Aeryn Sun (John Crichton's love interest) with an amazing arc.
Of course Aeryn was not set up as solely his love interest.
This is an interesting thought, and I think it's true he did capture a lot of the writers' imaginations (just as many later liked writing Andrew, albeit for different reasons). I do think JM was a factor in that, due to his passion for acting in general and throwing himself into what he was given also gave the writers a certain freedom.
I didn't mean to imply otherwise, but apparently did - since more than one person felt the need to point this out (in lj - three people did). He was a definite factor. He brought a sexual component to the character - testing well with both men and women. Both Boreanze and Landau had electric chemistry with Marsters.
And that is hard to pull off. But I think Marsters willingness to play with his character and his give and take with the writers - probably created a level of collaboration that was sorely lacking with the other actors. But to be fair - the other actors were never really given the opportunity in part because of their roles. We have no idea what Brendan could have done with Xander if presented the opportunity or for that matter what ASH could have done with Giles. My biggest regret is that Whedon did not explore Ripper more - show that edge. We get glimspes - but there could have been so much more. In some respects, ASH would have been a more interesting big bad than Hannigan. Hannigan played it too light.