As you know, I'm on the pill, so here is your copy
of the prophylactic waiver.
Well, looks like we have a deal here.
I'm looking forward to consummation.
Excellent.
Thank you.
This is Donna Pinciotti, and this
is how Donna ended up during That
'70s Show's abysmal final season.
Hi, honey.
Thank you for the postcard with the monkeys.
I'm still bananas about you too.
Over the course of the eight seasons
that the show dominated airwaves,
Donna was developed into one of the most
interesting and endearing characters on TV
and then completely kneecapped during the show's
legacy-tarnishing slalom towards its ultimate conclusion.
Before we get too deep into today's episode,
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just like this one.
Laura Prepon's Donna Pinciotti might not
be the first character you think of when you picture
the cast of That '70s Show.
But on a closer look, she really is
one of the breakout characters.
Well hey Eric, don't you want your balls back?
OK, now look.
That's a little uncalled for.
Oh, yeah.
Thanks.
Culturally, she was just overshadowed
by Fez's cartoonish accent.
Michael, rub oil on my thighs while I spank you.
Or Kelso's idiotic comedic sensibilities.
You got a permanent.
So that's permanent?
In fact, most of the characters on That '70s Show
had clearly defined narrative real estate that they lived in.
But Donna was a bit more loosely defined
early on in the show, which gave her
more room to grow and change.
Donna was literally and figuratively
the girl next door in the show, but she was also so much more
than that.
She was a complicated person with a distinct background
viewpoint and wry sense of humor.
Oh, believe me, Donna.
I'd love to go, but Red said I can't, and--
well, he can kick my ass, so--
Eric, I can kick your ass.
We also got to witness Topher Grace's Eric Forman
grow and mature through his relationship with Donna.
They complemented each other and yet were also polar opposites.
That was the joy of the early seasons of the show,
seeing these two seemingly unlikely lovers
bounce off of each other and learn
and grow from their mistakes.
This dynamic, and all of its complexities,
are laid out in the show's inaugural episode,
the climax of which is Donna and Eric Forman sitting
on the hood of a flashy Vista Cruiser
that Eric's father explicitly told him not to take out
of town, and yet, thanks to Donna's encouragement, Eric
and the gang use the car to attend a Todd Rundgren concert.
Coming down off the high of this youthful rebellion, Donna
and Eric bond, simmering with romantic tension.
In some ways, Donna is presented as the manic pixie dream girl
trope, but Prepon's performance is so self-assured and nimbly
humorous that the rote elements of her roll's
initial characterization pale in comparison
to the magic on the screen.
The pilot climaxes with the quintessential high school
moment--
Eric Forman not seizing the opportunity
and going in for the kiss.
So what does Donna do?
She chooses to take the initiative,
sealing their burgeoning romance with a single good night kiss.
What was that for?
I just wanted to see what it was like.
What was it like?
You were there.
Under normal sitcom narrative construction,
this would have happened dozens of episodes
and countless seasons into the run of a show.
The Office took four seasons to finally get Jim and Pam
together.
For New Girl, it took six seasons
to finally seal the deal with Nick and Jess.
A normal sitcom wants to build an emotional investment
in the two leads' emotional dynamic
prior to eventually getting them together.
This is the pilot of That '70s Show.
We understand from the jump that Donna
isn't going to be your average love interest.
She's going to be an equal partner in the show
as it develops.
And over the first season, we see countless examples
of Donna's complexities and intricately
woven emotional life written across the series.
Like in episode seven of the first season where
Donna chooses to sing and dance the night away with Eric,
recreating the ABBA music they just
witnessed together as a means of helping them both evolve.
Donna and Eric quickly become the central narrative nucleus
that the show revolves around.
They are the emotional heart of the program.
The show does a masterful job of illustrating
why someone in Donna's position needs, enjoys, and loves
someone like Eric Forman.
It all stems back to her relationship with her parents--
Bob and Midge.
Midge is a free spirit, and Bob is more of a loud out there
ladies man.
Midge ends up leaving Bob since she
was unhappy with being a housewife,
and Bob subscribed to more of the man of the house
sensibilities of the time.
When Donna sees in Eric is the exact opposite, a progressive
with a non-threatening physique and an intricate knowledge
of Star Wars, and this is charming to her.
Donna goes through five seasons of characterization.
She has ups and downs, break ups with Eric,
starts dating Luke Wilson's Casey Kelso in season four--
Come here little guy.
OK.
All right.
OK.
All right.
Good to see you.
OK.
OK!
All right!
OK.
Then in season five gets back together with Eric
and we see how much they've matured but are stronger
together.
Despite the fact that Donna is in control
for much of her relationship with Eric,
the later seasons seem to lose the thread with her character.
In season five, they get engaged.
However, Eric stands Donna up on the wedding day only
to return saying he was scared.
All I knew was that I--
Donna, I think we were about to make a huge mistake.
I'm sure there's a good version of this storyline that
painted Donna in an empowering light,
but it just feels weird and wrong
that the show is doing all of this to her
and that she's not the person dictating how things turn out.
Because that's been basically her role the entire show.
This goes all the way back to the pilot when she's the one
to initiate that first kiss.
During season seven, Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher
were negotiating to leave the show
to pursue other opportunities, and by the time season
eight rolled around, the narrative runway was already
out from underneath the show.
Because Topher Grace wasn't going to be there,
Eric Forman had decided to take a gap year
and move to Africa, leaving Donna in the lurch
despite the fact that she had deferred her college choices
in order to be with him.
Kelso is also only in five episodes of the final season.
It's just a train wreck.
The idea of Eric hurting Donna in this way
is counter to both of the establishing characters.
Him doing it violates the exact reasons why she loves him.
Therefore, in later episodes where he returns,
she would never take him back.
It's very apparent from the beginning of season eight
that the showrunners did not know what to do with Donna.
They were trapped into only viewing her
through the Eric-shaped box they had put her in.
After initially trying to introduce a new Eric
stand in named Charlie, they wrote him out of the show.
Therefore Josh Myers was cast as Randy Pearson.
The showrunners decided to introduce Randy
as equal parts Eric and Kelso.
He could fill the narrative shoes of both of them
but also be presented as a potential love interest
to Donna, which is as horrible as it sounds.
Randy's whole thing is that everyone thinks he's perfect.
Even Red likes him.
They taught me how to play their games of chance.
Donna, must be nice to finally have a boyfriend who
can swing that sledgehammer and hit that little black thing
past-- seriously hit it.
And so that has to mean that Donna would immediately
fall in love with him.
Right?
It's not like there's seven previous seasons where
we learn that Donna doesn't want to be
with an over the top ladies man like her father.
Season eight just nerfs all of Donna's character development.
Even early on in the season when Eric is in Africa
and he's regularly calling his mother on the telephone,
he never calls Donna.
So I asked Mrs. Foreman is he OK,
and she said yeah, because he called her last night.
She even stays up through the night in one episode waiting
for him to call, even though he doesn't.
In a season filled with terrible ideas
like Jackie and Fez should get together
and what if Hyde marries a stripper,
the way Donna is treated is both the most subtly horrible
and the most frustrating.
He had to run the class.
So I'm going to go grab a beer.
Following closely behind the incomprehensible Donna
and Randy romance storyline for strangest subplot
involving Donna ever is the running narrative
all throughout the final season that
sees Kitty and Donna become estranged due to some mutually
misplaced anger.
This doesn't seem like anything that would ever happen.
Donna might as well be Kitty's daughter at this point,
and the whole season still takes place in their basement.
Having Kitty and Donna be estranged
but then having her in the basement every episode
feels forced and wrong.
And to top it all off, their big reconciliation in the finale
just feels completely hollow and unearned.
Like everything in season eight, it just
happens because it apparently needs to happen.
By the final episode of the season,
when Eric finally returns and he and Donna get back together,
it's too little too late.
The show has just belly flopped, dragged Donna through the mud,
and completely ruined the beautifully unique character
that it spent all of that time developing.
It's really a shame how That '70s Show
took one of the best and most tightly plotted characters
and then just said what if she dated Randy.
Well, that's all we have today.
If you liked this episode, please comment
down below what you'd have done with Donna
to fix her character.
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