Of all the actors available why Melinda Vidler?
She's wooden, rides one horse, has little to do with the story overall.
She's always fully clothed...in a beach town where there is an actual nude beach?
Her character has committed credit card theft - twice!- with no consequence and she's generally a bitch to everyone.
The pumps don't work 'cause the Vandals stole the handles
Bob Dylan
I haven't gotten to the second season yet but she is really my least favorite character. I hate when shows beat a trope to death, I haven't gotten to season two yet but I'm really hoping she starts to evolve into a better human. And yes, I get it: she is a teen who lost her mother and was uprooted. Still, doesn't excuse how she dogs everyone and manipulates her family.
shareBut do some humans do that stuff? Yes. And does it make for interesting viewing as a character? Yes?
shareTypical woman. Mean, bitchy, blames everyone but herself for her bonehead mistakes and choices. She wouldn't be missed
shareWell I feel that her character works well. The fact that Shea/Shay is a selfish bitch is common enough in drama to be believable. Teens of her stage in life are on the cusp of self dependency, leaving home & forging longer term relationships without the nurturing nuclear family within which she's been raised.
An essential aspect of this transition is a recurrently vacillating pattern of rejection & dependency upon parental (esp. that of the male role model/carer for female teens) care & authority. In this I'm finding her character both believable & true to type. The fact that as an actress she's not that especially attractive, and that her character likewise displays a commensurate degree of behavioural "ugliness" in that teen angsty sort of way displays both great acting talent & masterful casting decisions and direction.
Provided the series' writers resist the temptation to milk this parent/child intergenerational conflict to death I can see this could make for an entertaining, sustainable series lifetime.