lizbee | (Reply)

From:

Except that Mandy was written and cast primarily by Sorkin himself, and later Amy is just Mandy mark 2 with a more charming actress. (In fact, Mandy is just one in a series of 'opinionated brunettes who have a past with Sorkin's Gary Stu and with whom Gary Stu has unresolved feelings'. See also Amy in West Wing and Mac on Newsroom.)

That said, I actually am not a Mandy hater because she does interest me, probably because I like the actress in other things. Skyler doesn't, and I have a drinking game where you drink when the actress makes an expression that isn't one of the following: 'mouth slightly downturned, eyes aglaze in the middle distance'. Or 'lower lip hanging impotently downward in futile protestation of something'. You don't drink very often.

Skyler-the-character has kind of a bum deal, though, in that she's ostensibly the lawful good character, but it would absolutely break the narrative adventures if she was ever allowed to act on it. So the writers come up with ever more inventive ways to have her uselessly object to the main drive of the story and very involved sideplots. Some of the sideplotting is more effective than others, and they have - by the start of the fifth season at least - found a character she bounces off well, but unfortunately she's basically a big third wheel for most of the series.