Penelope Garcia: Manic Pixie Baby Girl

[kenleigh]

honestly, i think her childish tendencies had something to do with the fact that when she was 18, her parents died. i think her cutesy personality is a way of coping with her parents dying when she was younger. she might of needed to detach from being an adult to try to reconnect with her child self to be able to move forward. i think she’s an amazing part of criminal minds. 

[Danielg342]

On 8/6/2021 at 1:09 AM, kenleigh said:

honestly, i think her childish tendencies had something to do with the fact that when she was 18, her parents died. i think her cutesy personality is a way of coping with her parents dying when she was younger. she might of needed to detach from being an adult to try to reconnect with her child self to be able to move forward. i think she’s an amazing part of criminal minds. 

That's an interesting observation. I hadn't considered that.

What I will say is that I don't have an issue with Penelope Garcia being "cutesy" or "child-like". Lots of adults are like that.

What I do have an issue with is, firstly, some of the clothes Garcia wears I would have a hard time believing she would be allowed far past the reception area of the FBI, let alone able to work in one of the most vital units of the FBI. Granted, I don't know the FBI's official dress code and maybe Garcia could get a bit of pass because she does not, typically, deal with the public (so her presentation does not matter as much as it would for Hotch or Prentiss), but her outfits do seem out of place.

Worse- and more importantly- is how childish she is. She's not just someone who might just be neurotic, emotional and sensitive, with a compulsive streak and a touch of neediness and selfishness.

No, she has the overall maturity of a five year old. She has to have an emotional meltdown and throw a hissy fit every time she sees those "horrible nasty images" on her computer screens, even though that's been her job every day for over 15 years.

If the job is that traumatic, why is she staying in it?

Furthermore, Garcia's emotional neediness is so grandiose that she makes just about everything about herself. She constantly wants attention, coddling, and reassurance, because she's so emotionally fragile that she needs others to do the heavy lifting to pick herself back up- and they need to do this constantly. This was especially grievous when she was often paired with Derek Morgan, because the show's writers really played up Morgan's role as Garcia's "protector".

Then we get to "Ex-Parte" (S13E20) where Garcia's need to assuage her guilt was so great that she could override the wishes of her own brother. In that episode, the parole board was called to consider the release of a convicted drunk driver who killed Garcia's parents, and Penelope's brother, Carlos, wanted Penelope to read his impact statement before the board because he was still so traumatized by the event that he couldn't bear to be in the same room as the convict. Carlos was against the convict's release for that reason.

Penelope agreed, but, after starting to read Carlos' impact statement, Penelope changed course out of guilt for the convict and told the board that "he deserves a second chance". Carlos was rightly enraged, which led to a rift between him and Penelope.

Don't get me wrong- if Penelope herself thought the convict deserved a second chance she's fully entitled to her opinion and even to state it. What she shouldn't have done was deny Carlos the chance to address the board, in effect imposing her wishes on her brother.

I criticized it then and I criticize it now, especially because the writers were trying to paint the actions of Penelope Garcia as those of a saint, when she really took the knife in her brother's back and twisted it further.

All this leads to the wider issue with Garcia- and CM as a whole: the writing. Garcia being so over the top in her insufferableness, neediness and neuroticism is all because the writers were very lazy with their characterization. Kirsten Vangsness probably didn't help the cause because she, too, was over the top in her portrayal, and may have had a hand in the writing of her character.

The other characters, too, were overtly simplistic, doing very little beyond a basic characterization (e.g. Reid being CM's Wikipedia, JJ the "SuperMom" and Rossi playing the team's grandpa), but Garcia's characterization, I think, stands out more because the over-the-top-portrayal is one that I (at least) find grating and very hard to watch. At least when it comes to the other CM characters they may be dull but they're still tolerable to watch.

Garcia just isn't.