Opinion time: what do you guys think of season 4 Jackie and season 8 Jackie?
Jackie was put in a situation the writers could had avoided if they had let her character and Michaelās grow after theyāve been apart. At the beginning it looked like things were going to be better between them but then, they put Jackie as struggling to make homework or to understand it (when previously sheās been shown as a great student), acting dumb in the sake of beauty and fashion (Someone wrote about Jackie forcing herself to be dumb during this season here, you should give it a read)and being even more selfish than before when Michael gets a modeling job.
Itās understandable she would be upset that he would get this job after she had to take aĀ ādegradingā one as a cheese maid. And Iām saying this because sheās a teenager and we tend to put every single little thing as a super terrible situation when at the age. But this Jackie should had known better than to abuse her boyfriend because of his job.
She could had quit the Cheese Palace and try another job, that is the logic thing to do. But nope, she stayed in her lesser job and prefered to treat Michael with all the disrespect in the world she could find. This and Michaelās nature drives him away and the writers let go of a good oportunity with him too.
Season 4 isnāt the best for Jackieās character, but at least she got to experiment what having a real job and real world problems are. She also got to see that being a bad person towards the people you love isnāt good and will drive them away. If the writers had given it more thought, she would had grown even more. Same for Michael.
All characters in this season got a re-write out of their pilot selves. Jackie is selfish, dumb, loud and, some times, rather abusive than good.
Yet she gets to keep her dream career in the sight for a few episodes and forgets her marriage-craziness started in the second half of season 7. This allowes her to have a job that makes her go through difficult times that later help her to deal with her feelings for her new love interest and the career she wants.
She becomes some sort of friends with an adult woman, something that didnāt happen until now. Jackieās treatment of adult women until Christine is pretty bad. While she doesnāt improve much with Christine, itās something.
Going to live outside her big house and motherās money is a good thing too. The characters are adults by now and everyone is struggling with going out their parentās houses and have jobs, and a stable love life. If the writers could had been better at their job, maybe we could have seen an adult show saying goodbye to us.
By having a roommate, Jackie has to learn to share and it is shown it wasnāt so easy, especially when her feelings for Fez grow and become evident, since she canāt stand having to share him with other women. Her love for him and the experience of having to care for herself makes her try and fight for it. A good thing that was bad written and directed to the wrong man at this point of her life.
Season 8 Jackie is pretty childish anyway, but not everything wasnāt that bad.