Venomrabbit
Stonecutter
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2012
- Messages
- 2,520
Well they always have those few they get really keen on using as much as they can... though Fat Tony's miles above the likes of Shauna or Crazy Cat Lady so I don't mind it with him. Same with the bullies minus Shauna, they get overused but they're still pretty fun.
I really don't think any "different" way of doing a Brandine ep is going to work though. Characters like her, Cletus, ect have no flexibility. There's characters that are stereotypical that you can get good material out of like Apu and Willie but the former are just too hard-coded the way they are. Even if they stapled on some scully-eque backstory she'll still just be a weak, unfunny character, just with a few paragraphs of fluff that doesn't mean anything. (It's probably why "Uncut Femmes" completely failed to grab me. Replace "rigid and weak" with "blank slate but redressed with a guest voice to strip any chance of it being meaningful") I just cannot see a Brandine episode being any good without making her a 100% different person.
Back in the early days Edna, Skinner, Flanders and so on were perfect for spotlight eps, having a template personality but a lot of wiggle room to grow and there can be good examples even from the Jean era. I know Nelson's more pitiable side is a bit controversial but I thought his development was actually really good and did have an impact on several relationships, mainly with Lisa. There's still some decent and unlikely surprise candidates left too. Though they'll likely get left in the dark for the rest of the show's run because the staff would rather do yet another ep about Cletus' kids that have no character outside of "funny names" or whatever.
I mean, it's okay to have some characters that are only one-note like Brandine, Luigi and so on. Just don't waste time giving them the spotlight when there's no room for anything interesting and more deserving candidates going to waste.
I really don't think any "different" way of doing a Brandine ep is going to work though. Characters like her, Cletus, ect have no flexibility. There's characters that are stereotypical that you can get good material out of like Apu and Willie but the former are just too hard-coded the way they are. Even if they stapled on some scully-eque backstory she'll still just be a weak, unfunny character, just with a few paragraphs of fluff that doesn't mean anything. (It's probably why "Uncut Femmes" completely failed to grab me. Replace "rigid and weak" with "blank slate but redressed with a guest voice to strip any chance of it being meaningful") I just cannot see a Brandine episode being any good without making her a 100% different person.
Back in the early days Edna, Skinner, Flanders and so on were perfect for spotlight eps, having a template personality but a lot of wiggle room to grow and there can be good examples even from the Jean era. I know Nelson's more pitiable side is a bit controversial but I thought his development was actually really good and did have an impact on several relationships, mainly with Lisa. There's still some decent and unlikely surprise candidates left too. Though they'll likely get left in the dark for the rest of the show's run because the staff would rather do yet another ep about Cletus' kids that have no character outside of "funny names" or whatever.
I mean, it's okay to have some characters that are only one-note like Brandine, Luigi and so on. Just don't waste time giving them the spotlight when there's no room for anything interesting and more deserving candidates going to waste.