I've been posting but never really expected to start a conversation. This is great. No one in my circle of friends (aside from my husband- my Jordan, by the way) remembers watching the show or if they did, definitely don't have the affection for it that I do.
I don't really see it that way. One, I think Angela was/is freinds with Brian and Sharon because of circumstances, Brian was her neighbor and Sharon is the daughter of her mother's best friend.
This could be definitely be the case, except that my mom has very close friends with daughters my age and we've never been friends. The neighbor boy that I lived next door to for like 18 years and went to school with, never became friends with me. Funny enough, when we were both in our late 20's he made it clear that he "had it for me," as Brian would say, since we were pre-teens. But beyond the basic pleasantries at the bus stop or the occasional run-in at school, we never really spoke. By that time, I was married and pregnant and he was living with someone. So, circumstance sets the stage, but doesn't guarantee that the relationship will grow or last. These three have been friends for 10 years. The fact that Brian is a boy and that Angela's parents are not particularly close to his parents makes the longevity of their relationship even more significant.
I also think that although Angela knew that she was ready for a change, which influenced her opening up to forming a friendship with Rayanne, but I don't believe she sought her out for that purpose. But this of course is open to interpretation sice we never heard or saw how the duo came about....I think that the choice of mentor through the metamorphosis was subconscious.
I guess my interpretation of this came from the pilot, where Angela talks about how she needed to be friends with Rayanne and that she thought she would die if she couldn't be friends with her. This made me think that Angela actively sought out the relationship. Next is the line where she talks about how Rayanne told her that her hair was holding her back. This made me think that Angela saw Rayanne (in a very conscious way) as a mentor for making this change.
I imagine them having a class together, Angela observing Rayanne and deciding she like how she lived outside of people's expectations, and then maybe there were some small conversations or class jokes, and Rayanne, who might otherwise have looked right past Angela, saw in her qualities that she liked,
I definitely agree with your assessment of how Angela viewed Rayanne and how they may have encountered each other, providing an opportunity for a friendship to develop, but I still think that Angela actively pursued this. Angela's awe of Rayanne's extroverted personality directly fed the attention beast and validates her, which is what she desperately seeks, oddly enough in the most normal of people (notice the interactions with Patty and Graham). Angela's apparent innocence is something we come to realize Rayanne craves and is herself in awe of, however, I don't know that it was the initial draw for Rayanne. I think the attention seeking and Angela's willingness to be her audience is what drew Rayanne to Angela.
I definitely don't think Angela sought Rayanne out because of her connection with Jordan.
My impression of the whole Rayanne-Jordan connection was that whether or not Angela was actively usinng Rayanne to get closer to Jordan, she definitely knew that Rayanne had that connection and I don't think that the value of that connection for future use was lost on her.
I'm not buying that she's a victim.
Yeah, I struggled with the best way to state this and I think maybe there was a better way. By calling her a victim, I mean a victim of her own undoing and her own poor choices. Not a victim in the sense of "society has failed her." Personal responsibility is definitely high on my list and I really hate excuses, but I guess, I see her as this really damaged person who can't seem to find her way out of her own mess.
Where do you see Rayanne seeing herself as a victim?
Okay, this came from a few places, 1) In betrayal, she seems to see herself as the loser. She can't seem to understand how much her betrayal meant to Angela or how Rickie might feel about such a deeply personal betrayal even if he was not the one betrayed. In "Dreams" she b****es and moans about how she has no friends and can't seem to understand why her friends are distant. It's all about her and her pain. A lot has been written in the fan fiction about how she never apologized to Angela for what she did. She not only didn't apologize, she basically told Angela to get over it and made it about her. To her credit, she made some valid observations about the situation. Neither Rayanne or Jordan were particularly considerate of Angela's feelings or well being throughout the show, so losing them, while painful, would not in the long term amount to a very great loss. But the fact remains that Rayanne was too busy whining about what this incident cost her and how it hurt her to have the commond decency to say that she was sorry for hurting Angela. Even if she felt like Jordan was no great loss, the trust that Angela had for Rayanne was. Rayanne is completely oblivious to this .
She is definitely narcissistic and has a tremendously difficult time trying to see outside of herself. Not uncommon traits for her personality type. While this could be a function of age, I would contend that it is more directly tied to a character flaw. Again, maybe victim was not the best descriptor to use.
Great posts! It's nice to see the Show fourm active!!![/quote]
Thanks. I sometimes think I just go on way too much, but there is some much to the show and the characters that you can't say it all in 4 sentences. This show would be great for an undergraduate psych or social work course. Any professors out there?