Originally posted by KarenML in the Dear J.J. thread at TWoP on Jan. 7, 2004:

Dear JJ:

First of all, I sympathize with the plight of not getting Ms.Olin to return. That sucks. Too bad you didn't have a Plan B given the fact that you started shooting the season without a signed contract. Too bad you didn't use the actress to tie up some of those loose ends while you had her under contract in S2 instead of spending all that time on molecular transponders. Lesson learned, I'm sure.

However, that said....

I've been thinking about what I dislike about this season (besides the contrived polyhedron that almost ate the show). Finally, I realized that I have a very high discomfort level with the storytelling qualities of the show, that started, IMO, to degrade after Phase One, when the entire remainder of the season revolved around having a Syd/Francie fight and Irina jumping off of a building. If I truly believed you had a writer's 'vision' and were going in the direction your muse was leading you, I'd say, 'Go for it.'

But over and over I believe you get these 'great ideas' for stunts rather than for stories. Ideas for eye candy, for cheap shocks, rather than character-driven tales. While I enjoy the sight of a good-looking man in a white tank top as much as the next woman, that's not why I'm watching. What people want -- why they read or watch tv/films (at least those which engender loyalty and affection, ones to which we want to return and revisit) is a good story. A good story may contain, but cannot consist of, a series of plot contrivances to shock the reader/viewer with, for example, a big girl fight or someone jumping off of a building (or an unlikely marriage). Those are stunts, not the hooks on which hangs the meat of a plot.

A good story depends upon the readers/viewers caring about the characters. Clearly, the majority of fans don't care about Lauren. Personally, even though I am not a big SV shipper, I wish she would just go away -- I really don't care what you do with her -- the obvious contrivance factor is so overwhelming, it's like an overripe pink elephant in the living room. Vaughn was in danger as well -- if they hadn't had Vaughn try to help Syd in those last few eps, they stood the chance of making us not care about him either (bec. the show is about Syd, not the triangle or Vaughn). Dixon has no personality this season, so we can't care about him. Those two characters especially were critical -- when characters like Vaughn and Dixon are treated as if they are molecular transponders or Rambaldi document pages, then that is a huge mistake. The story line about Carrie and Marshall was dropped, so we can't care about that. Sloane, well, we enjoy him, but we don't really care about him. Same for Sark. Weiss comes in and out, providing aid and comfort and Alice in Wonderland books, but then essentially steps aside and honestly, we know no more about him than we did in S1. Kendall's gone. Will's gone. SpyMommy's gone too. So, who's left? Sydney and Jack. Thanks to some semi-decent writing in a few episodes and Mr. Garber's amazing ability to do a lot with a little, we still have Jack, at this point the only reason I watch and pay attention.

The problem with Syd -- and this is critical because the show is about Syd -- is that the way the missing two years have been written, seems to me, that many of us don't care about that either, just want the answer and to move on. We may care about Syd now -- but if she engaged in unsympathetic behavior, ex: slutty behavior or worst of all, my great fear is that she was Syd during her two years and yet did not contact Jack. Causing that kind of grief to a parent -- there is nothing more horrible than losing one's child -- is inexcusable, we may stop caring about her too.

And there to me hangs the problem. It's hard to get excited about the show when you are beginning to not care about the characters because they have all become disposable plot contrivances.

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