Spontaneous Musings

Would agree. Had the same reaction to VM. The show works better when she's miserable. Buffy oddly worked regardless. But again, I think it has a lot to do with the framework of noir and the whole noir genre - Angel was problematic in a similar way - it worked better when Angel was miserable and fighting uphill. Noir just can't be happy and work - you lose the whole existenialist vibe of wanting to put your head in the oven and just give up, but can't because hey, curiousity keeps you in the game and hope, whether it is realistic or not.