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HO Am I the only one that never had much of a problem with Maddie and co?
I mean they weren't the best characters ever, but they weren't as god damn awful as people make out on here? 
They offered some good SL's [Esther's bullying counts as one!] and generally I don't think they were all terrible characters. As a group, they did get annoying at times, but they offered decent material at times I thought . TBH I much preferred them to the Uni lot, a load of bland characters shoved down our throats at once!
They offered some good SL's [Esther's bullying counts as one!] and generally I don't think they were all terrible characters. As a group, they did get annoying at times, but they offered decent material at times I thought . TBH I much preferred them to the Uni lot, a load of bland characters shoved down our throats at once! 0
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Neil - a nothingy waste of space.
Jono - a wet weekend, dopey idiot
George - at the start a horrible stereotype
Tilly - seemed very false and insincere as a character, no real personality at the start apart from being a lesbian and crying because she didn't do well in a presentation
Callum - the best of the bunch although boxed into this 'moody intellectual' at the start.
Maddie - horrifically self centred and unlikeable Queen Bee made out to be inspirational and heroic.
Not to mention they dressed them in ludicrous ways. If they were like 'normal' teenagers then they were the sort you wanted to avoid. The ones who thought they were 'legends' and the coolest in school.
worse than Noah and Liberty??:o
Ash - Rock chick
Annalise - OCD freak
Rob - Jack the lad
Barney - Posh boy
Scott - Irrelevant
Was there anyone else? Anyway, Barney and Ash did get better, but to start with ALL of them didn't have anything else to their personality other than their stereotypes. Not to mention they were all introduced at once and given a fair bit of screen time, so they were shoved down our throats. As for the teens, the 'babes', 'hashtag' stuff, that's how lots of teens talk. And I can say that as a 16 year old right now. They were all just more interesting characters and easier to engage in, they all got better over time
Neil - Boring but didn't add anything atrociously bad so it didn't matter
Jono - Started off as a bit of an idiot, but he was quite amusing at times and by the time he left he had developed in to a nice young lad!
George - I'll admit he was horrible at the start but he did get a lot better with the homeless plot
Tilly - She had her moments and was a good actress, but I'll admit she didn't really have any personality to her
Callum - Good character!
Maddie - She was a nasty bitch but that was the point, and she did show a vulnerable at times! And made out to be sweet and heroic? What??
And I liked Esther, Ruby, Sinead and Bart! You're right about the kids that people wanted to avoid, but that was the point in them and that' how they were portrayed. They were meant to be the 'popular' kids everyone else was intimidated by. Anyways, the teens were much more memorable than any of the Uni lot. I mean other than Ash, did any of them actually have a proper SL?
As for the others they all had brilliant potential but at the time their seemed to be one 'main star' who took up so much screentime there was only filler screentime left and the cast was huge at the time so everyone else was fighting for about 2/3 scenes a week which mean't none of them were particularly developed well or in any depth. The only two teens i could happily have done without were Tilly and Neil. My dislike of Tilly was because she was so sickly sweet and bland that she was incredibly boring but people raved about her being the best of the newbies. It is always easier to like 'nice' characters but for me she was too full of herself and always on her high horse that she was irritating. Neil just seemed too excessive. He was too similar to Jono, no one seemed particularly close to him and originally he came across quite onoxious. It always felt like Emma Smithwick was trying to create a tamer version of Skins (which i always found to be such an unrealistic portrayal of teenagers anyway) but the storylines were more juvenile and they acted more like 12/13 year olds rather than young adults.
Sorry about the rant but the teens were characters i actually really enjoyed but were totally butchered by TPTB at the time, and the way they were treated and developed (or didn't bother to as it turned out).
The only good thing about Maddie was her getting sent to oblivion by a van door.
Absence has not made the heart grow fonder. Time has not healed. I just used to mute them or put the kettle on.
But at least back then some of the other characters were good enough to keep me watching.
BIB: You're remembering wrong, whilst Maddie and Tilly and Jono were briefly introduced in the vacuous Abersoch trip, they were dumped on the show as a large preening pack pre-September to start 6th Form with no background as to why they'd all moved to the area to attend school.
For me the Freshers weren't try hards like the 6th Formers, they were well rounded individuals. The Rob, Annalise and Scott love triangle was well down and had no gimmicks but fairly grown up conversations. Annalise didn't have OCD, she was a perfectionist. I liked them as they were a believable group and unfortunately wasted by the show.
As I said, I think the teens got better but they were awful at the start. The dialogue, while teens may talk like that, felt unauthentic onscreen. Cringey. The writing seemed like it was trying too hard to be down with the kids. Maybe they worked for you when you were 14 but they made me wince.
When I referred to Maddie as being written as heroic I obviously wasn't referring to her bullying of Esther. I was referring to her time on the show where she acted like a privileged princess, the hero of the hour when it came to rescuing George, that all the teens seemed to suck up to her. She made everything about her.
She was excellent as a bitch, granted. The 'vulnerable' precious Maddie stuff didn't work. It felt insincere and false. And a huge group of intimidating popular kids are not a pleasant watch, particularly not at the start when the show treated them like this cool fun gang that you aspired to be part of.
I have hated all student newcomers for many a year to be honest. What is with all the very posh southerners turning up at a random northern community college? Maybe this happens in real life, I don't know, but it just seemed to me many of them don't fit in.
The character was played out well, when I say I hated her I am talking from someone who sympathised with Esther almost as though it were real
And what do you mean by they were try-hards? As in they all tried to act cool? Because I'm pretty sure that was the point in their characters. And it's a realistic thing among teenage groups. Their cliquey business did get annoying but at least they had depth and interesting SL's. What did the freshers actually offer? What more to their personalities was there other than their stereotypes? Does anyone actually remember them now? I mean Ash and Barney only became bearable IMO once their group dynamic died down, they were always very cringey and forced to me. I never bought their whole 'we are family' thing. You could argue the teenage group was forced too, but that was sort of the point. They were supposed to be more of a 'clique' than a friendship group.
And isn't HO meant to be aimed at teenagers? If teenagers found the dialogue believable then they were doing a good job. I mean it would make most adults 'wince', but that doesn't make it bad writing, it's about the age difference.
And that was the point. She was supposed to be the 'Queen bee' with her followers, it was a fairly realistic representation. Her followers might have sucked up to her, but I think the viewers were supposed to find her bitchy. I found her quite an interesting character. I mean if you remember her parents, it made sense that she was the way she was.
And I dunno, I quite liked her during her vulnerable moments. I mean during the bullying SL, it was her previous vulnerability that made it all the more effective for me.
But as I've said, I'm not sure "teenagers trying to act cool" is an enjoyable group of characters to watch for anyone. Cliques, unless they're self-aware ala Mean Girls, do not generally make good viewing, it's alienating. They're arrogant in their 'coolness' and therefore irritating. I didn't buy the 'friends = family' either but having done the whole uni student/halls thing I can buy it to an extent. BIB: You could argue the same about the teens but personality I felt there was more depth to the uni ones because the acting was superior. Ash was the only weak link for me.
Good dialogue should appeal to everyone. Young Adult books are aimed at teenagers but are enjoyed by adults too so I don't think you can say believable dialogue aimed at teenagers would make 'adults' (I was 24 when Maddie and co arrived, I'm hardly past it) wince. Saying that I would never wish to know anyone who used 'totes' 'babes' or 'hashtag' in conversation without irony
I remember the whole "woe is me my parents don't really pay me attention" guff. Didn't buy it. I think we were supposed to admire and feel sorry for at the start but I couldn't. She was a very unappealing person. Insincere as I've said.
Exactly! They were a horrible, loathsome, pretentious lot, and far worse, the show seemed to celebrate them as some sort of cool heros. It was disgusting. Thankfully, they spotted viewers' problems with the sixth formers (not a moment too soon) and started changing things.
Thank you for summarising what I was getting at!
The show was like a poor mans version of Skins.
The actress was awful, I remember when George went missing and she attempted to cry, it was beyond awful.