Quote: Unless someone goes so completely opposite without some damn good explanation, for example a white supremist character all of a sudden works for the NAACP Actually TC, not even this I'd call OOC, maybe I'd say it was bad characterization, if there was no explanation - good or bad - for the new behavior. That was kind of what I was saying. If character does something that is so opposite what is already established without explanation then it is acting OOC. Say for example House, who we all know to be an athesist all of a sudden starts attending church religiously and leaving those little JC phamplets all over the place. This would be OOC for him unless the writers wrote a scene where House was on the way to a medical conference and God Sauled his ass, then his actions would have context. I wonder sometimes how much of fic Cameron is brought into the show? For all the screen time that Cameron gets, we really don't know a lot about her. Even House who is so into people's business he steals personnel files doesn't really have a read about her. I wonder if this is what fules the charges that a lot of Cameron's actions are OOC. Discuss

Point taken, TC. I guess I have a problem with the words "out of character" instead I prefer to use "bad characterization". For all the screen time that Cameron gets, we really don't know a lot about her. Even House who is so into people's business he steals personnel files doesn't really have a read about her. I wonder if this is what fules the charges that a lot of Cameron's actions are OOC. Exacly, so when fans claim that she is OOC they are projecting their own impressions about the character. Some of this I think is writer's fault - the bad characterization thing - some is bad acting. If the fans don't have any other source, they will fill the blanks with fic!Cameron. I want to believe that Cameron was suppose to be a confusing, damage character since the beggining, otherwise I'll think the worst about the writes and the actress and I really don't want that. She was never nice for me, but I can see how their fans got confused because the Cameron from Euphoria is hardly the same Cameron from Lines in the Sand, for example.

I'm in the room!: Allison Cameron. This I like! About Cameron, I don't really understand why its necessary to know more about her background. I think that we don't is part of the point. She's supposed to have the "insane moral compass" . There's a distinction between morals & ethics. I personally think Cameron is completely unethical - she ignores societal/professional ethical norms for her own internally determined irrational (after all, that is what insane implies) set of rules. I read somewhere that morals are inherently more selfish than ethics, because they are determined by an individual, not a group, & we see that repeatedly. For example, the AMA would never allow drugging George or calling the press in Spin, but Cameron in her own, isolated judgment thinks its the right thing. IMO the lack of background information is supposed to emphasize this. It also emphasizes the danger in making these kinds of judgments in isolation & its why so much of what Cameron does backfires - she doesn't help George in the long run, the cyclist "gets away" with something in Cameron's view, never mind that 1) he's sick & 2) he fits the societal norm. And it repeatedly backfires wrt House on the big stuff - she's shocked that she's rejected at the date because she's determined she's the best/only option and she's shocked in H-W because her compass isn't the same as House's - they definitionally can't be because both march to their own rules. If they used societies rules, they might have a shot at meeting in the middle.

I'm in the room!: Allison Cameron Me likey! That's our title!

"I'm in the room!: Allison Cameron." I really like that, I vote that we found our title.

Thank you, thank you! 8) Its funny, I can't stand Cameron, but I think she's a really interesting construct & probably one of the most misunderstood characters on TV - and I think part of the problem with the frustration with her is that JMo is one of the folks who clearly doesn't get some of this & that throws the performance ( a good rule of thumb for me is to ignore everything she says in the press). So, do you think Cam/Chase will work out? Probably not & for similar reasons - Chase's rationalizations are more clearly rooted in both his religious & familial circumstances & I can't see him being able to change when push comes to shove because of how distinctly they shaped him. Either she moves to match him or they split up (happy to talk about that in the ship thread).

Ah, zaara, I agree so much with your post(s). I do distinctly remember JMo saying in an interview that she and David Shore, when they were first discussing the character of Cameron in S1, decided that she had come from a lot of loss. Beyond her husband, she's witnessed a lot death in her life and this affects how she acts and what she believes in a lot. Considering this technically also comes from DS, I give it quite a bit of value.

"I'm in the room!: Allison Cameron." That is great! About Cameron, I don't really understand why its necessary to know more about her background. I think that we don't is part of the point. She's supposed to have the "insane moral compass" . There's a distinction between morals & ethics. I personally think Cameron is completely unethical - she ignores societal/professional ethical norms for her own internally determined irrational (after all, that is what insane implies) set of rules. I read somewhere that morals are inherently more selfish than ethics, because they are determined by an individual, not a group, & we see that repeatedly. I agree, one of the things I hate most about her is her hypocrisy when it comes to morals and ethics. She walks around judging everyone else but she's allowed to harass her boss into a date, steal meth, cause unnecessary harm to patients, and ignore patients when she wants to have sex. I don't want to know more about her background because a) I don't want any precious screentime devoted to it and b) I feel like it would be some sort of excuse for the way she is, like the big reveal about her husband seemed to me to be an excuse for how she treated the patient's husband in Fidelity.

I don't want to know more about her background because Neither do I :) I was just trying to understand why so many of her fans keep saying how much OOC she is every time she do something they don't like. Actually, the only thing I want to know is that she found a wonderful position in Alaska and will never again put her little feet in PPTH. And the thread's name is perfect!

firmly believe my main problem with Cameron lies somewhere between crappy/sloppy writing and JM not being the best actress in the world(my opinion). It was her bad acting that was the reason I didn't like seeing her on screen when I first started watching, especially as it's so jarring since the rest of the cast is so good. Whoever posted that she had a perpetual scowl on her face hit it dead on. The character also grates as well. I think what makes me really hate her, however, is how some of her fans will defend everything she does. Not only that, but they won't stop and keep repeating the same exact things over and over again trying to prove she was right. At least fans of other characters don't seem to do that, at least, not that I've seen. And most have been able to concede that their fave has been wrong without calling them OOC.

Do you have any more thoughts on how her past experiences of loss inform her actions/beliefs? Jumping in to answer this, I think we're supposed to believe that her experience with PDH has somehow made her less willing to accept death? We see that in Acceptance with CindyLouWho. Yet, I would have thought that marrying someone in that situation - House postulates she must have known exactly what was going on when she married him - would have made them more understanding & accepting of the inevitability in certain situations with her patients & more focused not on the denial, but helping them, prepare for the inevitable. Re the fans OOC thing, IMO its got to do with wish fulfillment. Certain fans want her to be this "perfect, warm, brilliant, ambitious doctor & she will save him through her love" image. Except she's not & never has been. So they accuse the stuff she does as being OOC because it doesn't fit - & who wants to admit they ship someone who's possibly the kind of damaged person Cameron is. I've seen a lot of folks dispute that Cameron is damaged, that its not true simply because House makes the statement. Problem I have is that House is DS's proxy & if he says it via House, I'm inclined to believe there's some kernel of truth even if we don't have all the facts.