User blog comment:Katapultman/My Take on "The Ape" and Miss Simian: Is Comedy More Important than a Character?/@comment-31194372-20171012005123

Nice, it's always great seeing your articles pop up!

There's an interesting connection to be drawn between Season 1 and Season 5 in their efforts to appeal to a broader fanbase. I wouldn't wholly agree in the sense that the show is getting more juvenile, though both seasons demonstrate an occasional (if not frequent, I would argue) lack of nuance and flair. The issue with Season 5 is more that it's compromising, whereas Season 1 was stuck laying out the foundation, but it's a valid observation: both were/are catering.

Beyond that and to the meat of the article, I actually haven't thought too much about the character's evolution. I think of "The Apology" as more of a way of inducting Miss Simian into Season 2 as a slightly more developed character, but it's not all that drastic of a change from Season 1 - on both occasions, she acts in manipulative ways for the sake of personal gain. The differentiation comes more in her newfound capacity to accept her wrongs, which are becoming increasingly more frequent, what with "The Grades" recently. However much her character should've grown from such episodes, though, the show frames the proper ending as one that works to undo her evolution and restore the status quo, sometimes to an ever lesser extent.

The show's penchant adoration for deflecting an episode's baited importance, though, was never too much of an issue for Miss Simian, in my opinion, because bringing her to a higher plane of understanding undercuts the role that she plays in the show. The downplayed endings come across less as betrayals but more as ways of exploring the ins and outs of the character's mind without leaving too much of a footprint for the series to have to embrace in the future. As such, I sense that the show's always peddled her as comedic first and foremost, though it still shows signs that it cares about how she gets trotted out, allowing Miss Simian to be infinitely more enjoyable.

Good job.