Why the hell was Darlene a stupid, underachiever in the first few seasons and then around season 5, she started being one of the smartest characters and by the end, she was the most intellegent in the family.

I never really got the impression that Darlene was stupid. My impression of her was that she was kind of bored in school, and because of that, she didn't care to try her best. It also seemed like she felt that people looked at her as stupid, and for some reason she feared proving them wrong. One good example of this was in the episode where she had to read her poem in front of the school. She was afraid to read it because she didn't want to show a side of herself that people weren't use to seeing. Maybe because she thought more would be expected of her. But in this episode, we really get a good glimpse of how bright she truly is, and that the whole idea of her being stupid was just a facade. Aside from basketball, nothing really seemed to interest her until she discovered her love for comic books, and writing. I think she just needed to find something she enjoyed, and once she discovered writing, the true her came out. I believe she always had it in her, but she just needed something to get excited about so she could let it out. That's always been my feelings on the subject.

Darlene just wanted to leave Lanford. In many episodes she says I just want to finish high school and leave Lanford. So I thought she just went to school she didn't care about the grades so she didn't try to get good grades. But Darlene's talent was always writing (like ROseanne)

Brain Dead Poets Society (the episode about Darlene's poem) will be on Saturday, 29 at 1.30pm on oxygen and then again at 12.30pm on Sunday, 30.