I do remember that.
I don't remember her suddenly getting a degree in education or management as a result.
I don't remember her getting any type of counseling to deal with her raging narcissism and selfishness.
And that's fine. That's the character. That's what the character is. That's how a lot of real life teachers feel about principals that come in without teaching experience.
In S1, she wasn't written to be a character that grows.
I'd argue she wasn't even really written to be a character with depth.
The writers throw in this exception of her older family member causing her to reneg on her promise - and even then, we see she's more than just a caricature - but she doesn't learn any lessons from that and apply to grow her character into something responsible. We get insight that Ava cares about things and isn't totally vapid, but it's clear that she doesn't truly care about the kids, the school, or the teachers, just herself and her world.
If the writers change the character, which is what they're doing with Ava, they should show why the change is happening.
That's why I was asking the writers in the discussion to comment. Maybe they're seeing some thing in the text, not attributing outside forces/their own imaginations to her change in character.
Take Janine for instance. She's still solving problems that don't need to be solved. This is despite episode after episode of that life strategy failing.
But...
That's the main device in the show.
- Some problem happens with the school.
- The veterans say, don't try to fix it.
- Janine tries to fix things, and things predictably get worse.
- At the end, Janine learns to just tow the line and not buck the system.
But then....there's meta commentary about that when the coffee machine breaks and the veteran teachers realize they actually need Janine to do things that need to be done. (again, in the reviews and commentary, not much is said about this, but I don't think people watch this show that closely - cause most people are not writers, they're just consumers and watchers)
If Janine gets any sort of character growth in terms of not trying to fix things, the writers will have to come up with a new plot.
But with Janine, we do see character growth in terms of her class room management. Throughout S1, she's had to deal with problem classes, problem kids, etc. At the end of S1, she gets them kids on the bus to be quiet. With this season, Janine doesn't have class room management issues.
All of that is in the show. We the audience see it. That's clear character growth that the audience can follow and understand why.
Ava is just randomly changing from scammer queen to responsible principal and back to Social Media Thot.
It's clear that she's the breakout character of the show - but that's a result of the writers giving her this bigger than life/wild persona to play off the "boring" characters. The writers are giving her the best lines for the most part. So she's JJ from Good Times, Darius from ATL, Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother.
The show doesn't have to perfectly mirror reality, but it does need to be consistent with the characters it creates.
its back already...?
