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redfiona99I always got the feeling that they weren't ever quite sure what to do with Declan. It was like they'd have maybe three ideas for him a season, but once those were gone through, they didn't have anything else for him to do, and just shoved him off-screen somewhere. Which was a shame, because when they did bother to integrate him into the other stories, he became an interesting character. For instance, in series 2, while Amanda is pregnant and Jack is worrying about her, Declan does his best to cover for Jack at the bar, and keep the bar running, and trying to point out to Jack that Amanda might not be on the up and up, without, you know, completely upsetting him.
He also one of the better written teenagers on TV (and was lucky enough to have an actor that could be mistaken for teen under the right conditions), in that he is still growing into being himself, so he does do teenage strops and says things that he doesn't mean in a rage but he's actually growing into a decent, if occasionally brain-breakingly naive, person.
Which makes him being written out so odd. As I said, I don't know if it was just that they ran out of ideas for Declan or the actor had another show to be on, but it wasn't just an odd character to kill off, because it's not as though just damaging him wouldn't have been enough to set Jack off. It's not like it creates extra drama either, because there's more drama in the Declan - Charlotte - Whatsherface not quite love triangle than in Charlotte and Whatsherface flout social convention and raise the baby together (which, okay, I know is not going to happen, but a girl can dream, can't she?).
Which is before we even get to the way he was written out. Which was pretty severely off-screen, to the point, as I say, where I suddenly wondered if the character wasn't originally killed off, but then the actor needed to be elsewhere and it just became easier to write him off. I think they were lucky in having Gabriel Mann to do the emotion conveying bit because it was so spectacularly abrupt (and, unless they're claiming he banged his head as he fell and had some form of brain haemorrhage, so remarkably neat and tidy) that you're too busy going "huh?!" to be empathising with Jack.
It does seem to be a waste of a good character.
He also one of the better written teenagers on TV (and was lucky enough to have an actor that could be mistaken for teen under the right conditions), in that he is still growing into being himself, so he does do teenage strops and says things that he doesn't mean in a rage but he's actually growing into a decent, if occasionally brain-breakingly naive, person.
Which makes him being written out so odd. As I said, I don't know if it was just that they ran out of ideas for Declan or the actor had another show to be on, but it wasn't just an odd character to kill off, because it's not as though just damaging him wouldn't have been enough to set Jack off. It's not like it creates extra drama either, because there's more drama in the Declan - Charlotte - Whatsherface not quite love triangle than in Charlotte and Whatsherface flout social convention and raise the baby together (which, okay, I know is not going to happen, but a girl can dream, can't she?).
Which is before we even get to the way he was written out. Which was pretty severely off-screen, to the point, as I say, where I suddenly wondered if the character wasn't originally killed off, but then the actor needed to be elsewhere and it just became easier to write him off. I think they were lucky in having Gabriel Mann to do the emotion conveying bit because it was so spectacularly abrupt (and, unless they're claiming he banged his head as he fell and had some form of brain haemorrhage, so remarkably neat and tidy) that you're too busy going "huh?!" to be empathising with Jack.
It does seem to be a waste of a good character.
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Date: 2014-06-25 02:33 am (UTC)I read that the actor was shocked at being written out (and not happy) via Jack's actor, which doesn't surprise me. He doesn't have another show (as I checked), so it is very odd.
Though given the end of Season Three (no spoilers in case you're not up to it) I'm wondering if something else might not turn out to be the case.
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Date: 2014-06-25 06:40 pm (UTC)And I'm now very intrigued about the spoiler.
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Date: 2014-06-26 02:00 am (UTC)So I'm saying if David could still be alive, Declan could be. Probably not in canon, but given that I never expected David to be.
Also now I'm wondering if my old theory will hold up - I always said if David were still alive I would ship him with Nolan.