BlondieLeigh

Peyton always tended to fail at being her own stability, imo. Like with the reckless driving - she was voluntarily causing instability for herself, out of pain, of course, but it was still risking the thing she wanted to avoid. Same with her relationships with Brooke and Nathan, there was no stability there but she didn't try and protect herself from them. I also think that Peyton has an issue that most people have - she just wanted to be loved - and that led her to let the wrong people be a part of her life, the people she should have been shutting out. I do think she could have been her own stability given time, but she couldn't back then, and by the time she could she had Lucas and Haley and she didn't need to be, even though they wouldn't have got rid of the leaving doubts.

I agree it should have taken a lot longer for her to overcome all of this, and maybe if it had taken longer things would have been different and she would have been able to give herself the stability she needed, which I would have preferred because then season 5 wouldn't have been so messy re: her relying on Brooke financially and the idea of Lucas emotionally, as it was though, I never saw that, even in season 1 when she was trying. She just kept trying and failing.

They really were. Really they were just another highlight as to Peyton costing herself the stability she craved. There was nothing stable about Jake/Jenny, it just masqueraded as stable and if she wasn't too busy searching for it, she would have seen that. It's strange that the show acknowledged how unhealthy that was but then made out that her doubts over marrying Lucas when she was still essentially a child (as far as I'm concerned, you may as well be at 19) were ridiculous and wrong.

Slayerette89

Oh I agree. She was definitely self-destructive and everything you mentioned (reckless driving with suicidal intent, toxic relationships) was a manifestation of that. It’s just that shows way of “fixing” that was making her obsessed with a baby and rushing all her relationship developments.

Everything about JJ is . I would hate it a little less intensely if Payton wasn’t dragged into that mess, but it still would have been a mess. Jake’s story is such an idealized, one-dimensional take on teen single parenthood. Misogynistic too given they came up with the narrative where a slightly older, one-dimensionally “evil” (just like he’s one-dimensionally “good”) college girl abandons the boy and their baby and then tries to get them back in the most psychotic ways possible. Like that’s something that often happens in the real world.

Exactly. I guess their point was that it’s wrong to rush into marriage if it’s not with your Tru Wuv. If it is Tru Wuv, it’s totally ok (NH, LP). All characters on this show are extremely bizarre and ready to give up everything for the sake of relationship at a very young age. And the show glorifies that and portrays it as admirable.

BlondieLeigh

Yep, which is ridiculous. If they had actually given it the time it deserved they could have developed it into her being her own security, but they didn't really develop that part of her and she continued to fail at it.

It really is. I'm not surprised that Nicki was vilified, though, it's obvious they only went the way of her abandoning Jenny to boost up Jake's sainthood, and making her the bad guy fits their narrative perfectly. Funny that they never once even referenced the untold damage that reckless, inconsistent Jake was doing to Jenny. The kid would probably have been better off without either of them. At least Nicki realised she was a mess and left The whole thing was just so messy. Jake was harmless and boring outside of Jenny, but with her he was relatively destructive, for her and for Peyton, who he should never have involved in the first place.

Pretty much. It's not really about marriage in itself, for me, it's that the show seemed obsessed with these characters getting married while they were still children themselves. A 19yo not wanting to get married is not wrong, it's completely normal. It still annoys me that they would ever even suggest that she was wrong to say someday, let alone had her apologise for it. The whole giving up everything for a relationship trope is so unhealthy, and I'm glad Peyton at 19 both wasn't willing to herself and wasn't willing to let Lucas do it either.

One Thing Remains

I didn't know she was in the new Lethal Weapon.

stlavin95

Yeah agreed with everything you guys have said and it's something that annoyed me about the writing at times.

BlondieLeigh

Yep. I'm really enjoying the show.

stlavin95

Yeah, it's an great show.

One Thing Remains

I have been wanting to watch it but just haven't had a chance yet. Hopefully this summer I can check it out.

stlavin95

^ It's an great show, hopefully you enjoy it.

BlondieLeigh

I hope so too It definitely deserves more attention than it seems to get.

stlavin95

Yeah it definitely does

One Thing Remains

I know lots of people who like it.

stlavin95

That's good.

scott5ivegirlfr

just to let you know hilarie is now on twitter&also on instragram

stlavin95

Yeah thanks, but we already know that lol.