Winnie Cooper of The Wonder Years

     The Wonder Years was aired at the right time for my young tastes.  It started airing around 1987, when I would have been six, and ran for six seasons, meaning that I would have been twelve when it ended.  This is a really good thing for someone who was younger than the main character.  The same way that most high school dramas mostly appeal to middle school students, this would have guided me through my formative years.

     But I never got into the show.  The little bits of exposure that I had to it were awkward.  I don't know if I saw any complete episodes.  I mostly remembered one thing about the show.

     Fred Savage staring kind of blankly as a voiceover talked.  Then a line would be stammered out.

     What bothered me about this was that Kevin - as a character - was just so incredibly awkward, he defied normalcy, which flew in the face of the premise.  As a 6th and 7th grader, I was able to hold conversations with members of the opposite sex.  Kevin was able to have two-sentence exchanges with them, with massive pauses between each line.

     That was the main reason I didn't like the show.  The other reason was Winnie Cooper.

     In the past, my impression of her was that she didn't do anything.  She existed as a long-term love interest for Kevin, but I couldn't recall any personality that she had.


     I've gone back, and I've started watching The Wonder Years on Netflix, from the beginning.  I just finished the first episode of the second season.
      I'll ignore my thoughts on the writing, on the series itself, structure, characters, jokes... this is just about Winnie.

     Winnie is a blank slate for the audience.  She simultaneously exudes braininess, cuteness, beauty, attainability, and in-attainability.  She remains passive throughout most of these episodes, except for the end of this one I just watched, which also marks the first time that she and Kevin had a non-awkward exchange.
      Winnie has a habit of not actually doing much of anything.  She often has a blank expression (pictured above).  The only time she doesn't is when she's interacting with people in the background.

     When I say that Winnie is a blank slate, I mean that she seems to exist as a reflection whatever traits the audience wants to see.  I don't know how I feel about this.  She doesn't have a distinct personality in the show.  She rarely expresses any emotion at all.  I'm wondering how much this changes later on.