I find Liz irritating in S1 but she comes into her own in later episodes. During the whole Alex storyline she's the only likeable character of the bunch, and Shiri got to show different acting chops because Liz grew a backbone and had some plot action separate from (and at odds with) Max. Before that all she got to do was play the cute vanilla girlfriend writing Disney love songs in her lame journal.
I liked her episodes at boarding school too, especially where she gets drunk, she's pretty funny in that scene, and her final scenes with Tess in S3 were actually some of the most poignant in the whole series, IMHO. Liz's passiveness also gave stronger characters like Maria and Isabel plenty of room to do their kooky/bitchy/melodramatic thing.
It takes a special kind of actress to play sweet and innocent convincingly without appearing like a flat one-dimensional Mary-Sue. Once Liz matures a bit and is more world-weary, tough and resilient, Shiri pulls it off. I always enjoy it when Liz shows a rare moment of snark or arguing back, like when she tells Max to wake up to the fact that he's controlling, or shoots an equally snide remark back at Tess when Tess is trying to talk down to her. It gives her character depth.
The mirror... it's broken.
Yes, I know. I like it that way. Makes me look the way I feel.
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