Board Thread:False Info and Speculative Discussion/@comment-24732895-20140910035928/@comment-25425003-20140916162019

I realize that writers sometimes leave things to the imagination. I have no problem with that. But that's not what happened in Malia's case. She was just very badly written. Leaving things to be filled in via the imagination should not require farfetched explanations or changes in the way other characters have to be perceived in order to make it work, as is the case with Malia.

Yes, she may have asked to be checked into Eichen House. I doubt it, but let's say it's true for now. That still wouldn't account for her walking out on her own. She's a minor. She wouldn't be allowed to walk out of a mental facility without a parent or guardian.

Her father - the same father who was beside himself with grief all those years - becomes careless and doesn't notice if she's around or sneaking out every night? Okay, let's say they re-write the impressions they give us originally about him to make that true. It's sloppy writing to depend on viewers to fanwank a change in another character as a way of explaining Malia's story. This show is usually very good at parent-child relationships, but they didn't even try with her.

Malia attending school as a high school junior sharing a math class with genius Lydia can't even be fanwanked. It's stupid beyond reason. Even if she was the smartest kid in third grade before she disappeared, there's no way a couple of months of tutoring would bring her up to speed enough to be put in Lydia's class. And since Malia was looking at math problems on the chalkboard like she had no clue how to even begin solving them, all it did was call attention to the bad writing. What bugs me with this is that it was so unnecessary. Just don't have her attend school. Include a single line to indicate that her father is having her privately tutored instead, and have her scenes with the other kids take place outside school hours. But no, they put her in school. They sacrificed quality of characterization to do so.

They play her "adjusting to society" scenes as cheap jokes. By itself, one or two of those would be okay, but I'm supposed to believe that Stiles has helped her make "progress" enough to fit in at school after two months but she'll still say her favorite food is deer. (Which, really, just give her venison.  That joke wasn't even funny.)  She knows how to sexy-dance with Kira but doesn't know enough to say that she wouldn't leave Stiles' friends behind to die. It's the idiocy of the way they've written her to fit whatever the writers' need at the moment that bugs me.

My point is that the writing for Malia has been all over the place. Inconsistent, sloppy, and inexcusably badly written - moreso than any of the other characters. That's not a slam against the actress - I don't know her from anything else but I have nothing against her personally. But the way she was written from the beginning was dreadful. If it's indicative of the direction the show is going, it's not good. That's one reason fans started bailing on the show this season. It's not the only reason, but it's definitely a contributing factor.