TV Underdogs: Could ‘Faking It’ season 3 use Lauren even more?

When you look at almost any high-school comedy out there, you’ll see a very common character pop up: The mean, sharp-tongued character who is often super-popular, and designed for the most part so that you hate them.

However, what MTV did with “Faking It” that was so interesting is that for the most part, they circumvented many of those expectations by making Lauren refreshingly human. Her intersex story made her much more relatable to people who feel different in their own way, and you start to understood why she put on the hard front that she did; sometimes, aggression is a great way to cover up anything that you are afraid of, and she was at one point very much afraid of being judged.

Through two seasons Lauren has gone from being an adversary of Amy and Karma’s to someone you want root for … and as a result she’s the perfect subject of our TV Underdogs series today.

Why she’s an underdog – Everything about her is different. She’s the one person with conservative leanings in a very-liberal school, and yet at the same time she’s also someone who is very different herself thanks to the way she was born. You root for her because of her moments of vulnerability, and because there is interesting depth to her relationship with Theo, one that has so much hope and heartache in it at the same time.

Why you don’t see more of her – Much of it starts with the foundation of the show being that of the Amy – Karma journey. They are always going to be at the centerpiece of the narrative, and accepting that is really the first step to getting to everywhere else that the show wants to travel. There are some episodes that just don’t need a Lauren Cooper story as much as the ones around it.

Ways to use her more – One of the best ways in which to do it is by putting Amy or Karma in a position where they need or. With Amy gone for the summer, what would happen if she and Karma became really close friends, or what would happen if Amy somehow now feels left out of her own family? At school, what happens if Lauren starts to feel fully accepted after she ironically ended up saving the school? She’s been on this journey to find some peace, so if she found it, would she be happy?