Gina Linetti, is she the worst Brooklyn Nine-Nine character?

When the show first started I liked her character then even went on to love it so much it became my favorite. But gradually a dislike for her grew. So much that I felt kinda glad when she left the show.

Gina Linetti is a character from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a show set in the 99th precinct of Brooklyn. It is a sitcom on the lives of the detectives there and their journeys as police officers.Gina is not a detective, but a civilian administrator at the precinct. She is shown to have a great amount of self confidence and narcissism, but is also at times caring and helpful. 

While her narcissism was the base for her jokes and was meant to be taken light heartedly, soon enough those jokes became less fun and more mean. They started becoming jokes that would actually hurt someone. A common saying in the fandom and even by her fans is that while her character is fun to watch, they would hate her in real life. This is quite the opposite of the other characters, whose strength is that they seem like real people you would love to hangout with.

Another major issue is her sexual harassment of Terry throughout the show. Her remarks on wanting to touch his body and even schemingly managing to do so, is borderline creepy and even disturbing how the creators seem to make a joke out of it.

Now there have been many narcissistic characters throughout various tv shows, but the major difference is that they have been repeatedly called out by the other characters and we see that this bubble of superiority remains only in their mind. The same cannot be said about Gina, no one around her ever calls her out and her narcissism is never shown in a weak light. Instead her constant displays of self praise are seen as normal. This makes watching her irritating and definitely not funny.

An amazing example of a narcissistic yet fun character is Tom Haverford in Parks and Recreation. While he also has the same air of superiority, he is fun to watch. Surprisingly, both the characters have been written by the same person. Yet the difference is astonishing.

She was certainly fun in the beginning but in the later seasons I don't know what happened. The time period between when she comes back from maternity leave and then leaves the show was one of her worse, and so her leaving was not sad at all. Somehow her character never fit with the others. 

She did have her good moments too. Many times we see how caring she can be, and the lengths she goes to for the others, but those moments are all so little compared to her negative ones. Still Gina is definitely an iconic character.

"Hi, Gina Linetti, the human form of the 100 Emoji."

                                               - Gina Linetti

   

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, is it overated?

Don't get me wrong, I love the film, I've watched it many times, and laugh just as hard each time. But while it may be a fun film to watch I don't necessarily feel that its quality matches with the hype it gets.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara is a 2011 film directed by Zoya Akhtar starring Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Farhan Akhtar, Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin. It features the story of 3 childhood friends who go on a bachelor's trip to Spain they planned many years ago. On the trip they will do three activities each of them has planned in order to face their fears.
It was a critical and commercial success on its release since becoming a cult hit.

Let me start off by explaining one of my main annoyances of the movie. Arjun Saluja. Seriously, he was one of the most arrogant and rude main characters I have ever seen. His entire obsession with money and clapping himself on the back for earning a few more pounds than your average person was not fun to watch at all. Also every time he made fun of Imran for not being rich, yeah total mood killer. And yes we are later shown his reason for making money his priority in life, but that just seemed like an easy way to make his character "deep" for me. It felt like the typical oh no he's like this because this happened with him now pity him. His entire character development also felt forced and fake, something we're supposed to believe just because that's what's shown.

Same can be said about Imran and his father. We are again shown an extreme character, this time as a jokester. And to make this jokester venerable and deep, we get another sob backstory. While the problem is not with the characters and them having sad backstories, it's with their past and present not feeling related. The two phases of both the characters life don't seem to match up with each other and so seem like two different parts forced to connect to make them three dimensional characters.

Another thing I'd like to address is how Imran and Arjun's phobias were dealt with. Phobias are a serious problem, and cannot be overcome in just a few days of training. Both with Arjun's aquaphobia and Imran's acrophobia, we are made to believe that they got over their fears in a few days, when that is not possible. You're telling me a guy who never learnt to swim due to fear can suddenly scubadive in a week.

The entire film somehow did not feel realistic or even relatable. It always seemed a bit glamorous and gave a vibe of eliteness. This was very contradictory to what the storyline was supposed to be, childhood friends going on a trip.

Like I said earlier, i love the film. It's still hilarious and yet through provoking. It is definitely a film I would watch a hundred times and not get bored. It's understandable why it is such a popular film and has millions of fans. The characters of Imran, Kabir and Laila are one of my favorites. I love Laila's take on living life fully and spontaneously. The film has some seriously well written moments and Zoya Akhtar's direction was fantastic. Also can't forget those beautiful poems written by Javed Akhtar.

" Seize the day my friend. Pehle is din ko poori tarah jiyo, phir chaalis ke bare mein sochna."

- Laila