The show has a lot of elements for a good story, but the main character is insufferably naive with little signs of development. I read the book before the show kicked off, and the book had written comparable moments that are in the show, but with a self-awareness to them that's completely absent here. I recognize character depth comes with time, but we're on two seasons now and the main character is just now realizing her boyfriend (as lovable as the actor is) isn't good for her? C'mon.
Coupled with that, her friends have more character than her, but are barely given any screen time and are treated like fodder. This wouldn't be so noticeably egregious if they weren't minorities; this is improved somewhat in Season 2, but just barely.
And the city itself becomes an overdone gimmick for the stories, written with the disconnect of a tourist who read about it in a book instead of a local who's constantly surrounded by it. It's just Portland. It isn't your embracive, kooky fantasy land that has hip stuff happening all the time; it's a gentrified, NIMBY-filed city with narcissists who treat the microcosm of progressiveness around them like a permission slip to ignore having to do any further political activism.
And I suppose that's my biggest beef with the show, it just feels like it was written in a narcissist's bubble. It's OK to write a show about a narcissist-- there are many-- but when both the character AND the writers stay within themselves, the story feels unendurably claustrophobic and closed-minded, even when it's trying its darnedest not to be.
