[Morgan.]

Zoey

I won't lie, I've warmed to Zoey recently, but she certainly doesn't deserve to go any further than this, in my opinion.
I'll start with why I like Zoey. Her interactions with everyone bar M*chael were cute. I'm not too fond of the Cameron friendship, but Gwen and Zoey were a cute friendship, and we got to see Zoey be a good friend, calming Gwen out of a panic attack. I also liked her chats with Duncan, it wasn't much and it centred mostly around M*chael but I think there was something there they could've utilised with how good and 'sweet' Zoey is and how Duncan is struggling with the fact he's perceived as nice. Just an idea.

But besides that? There's not much to like about her, in my opinion. And I won't lie, a lot of her problems stem from M*chael.

Before I detail M*chael, I'll start with a detail I noticed - Zoey says she "loves" 'oddballs' when Michael tells Zoey about his disorder. What's wrong with that? The fact she calls Dawn, who is a bit out of the ordinary yes, 'creepy', and also turns away Dakota's friendship because it's 'hazardous' to her health (and while I can understand what she meant with how hard Dakota hugged her, it's a tad ridiculous she couldn't have just spoke to Dakota and said "be careful when hugging me" instead of getting rid of one of the only friends she had in her life).

I don't want to detail much about her interactions with M*chael so I'll try and keep this light:
She felt entitled to him and for what reason? Yeah Mike showed some level of interest but no commitment, and got offended when Vito and Anne Maria made out. Is she allowed to be hurt? Absolutely, but the fact she told Anne Maria to 'lay off' him is a bit weird because Zoey and Mike weren't even dating.

Her character became heavily based around him. In fact, she became 'commando Zoey' in response to his 'necklace' breaking. How did she gain such athletic ability out of anger? I have no idea, but it's bull****. She suddenly had all this strength and skill and it carried through to All-Stars. It made no sense to me and felt like a lazy way to develop her.

Because in my opinion, she had little to no development. Ironically, I think I prefer her All-Stars appearance because she had a good friendship with Gwen and we got to see how okay she was without Mike. But then I also despise her appearance because of M*chael.

Duncan warned her of Mal. Izzy questioned who Mal was and Zoey heard, without Izzy being told about him. Alejandro called 'Mike' Mal. And did she listen to them? No, not until the penultimate episode when she found a video hidden by Alejandro of Mal's actions. Why did Zoey not truly listen and follow up on the words of three people who had never spoken to each other about 'Mal' yet all knew him? I will never know, but it made her unlikeable to me. She just came off as stupid.

Let's not forget how she risked her life to try and get 'Mike' to help her. Or how her first word in All-Stars was "Mike". Her character was too heavily based around M*chael, and in my opinion, a character isn't good if their story and personality depends too much on one person, and it doesn't help that I'm not a fan of M*chael.

It's a shame Zoey didn't live up to her stereotype. She could've been a cool, lonely, indie chick who was trying to find her feet and place in a relatively large group of people, feeling out of place while also trying to make friends. Maybe she could've been annoying, getting really excited talking about a local band she loves to a love interest, and said love interest validates her interests and takes an interest in her. Maybe Zoey could've realised she already was a great friend (see: calming Gwen after her anxiety attack) and didn't need to change, and she was fine with how quirky she was. I wouldn't have minded if it was obnoxious, in fact, I'd prefer it if it was. I'd rather Zoey have been annoying on her own merit than annoying because of her association with M*chael.

So yeah, I found Zoey was inconsistent in abilities, personality, and interactions. Outside of M*chael, she was nice! She was a good friend. But sadly an episode or two of her being friends with Gwen and chatting with Duncan cannot atone for how unbearable I found her for 2 seasons straight.