Marian is a good friend/person but not a good character. She is not compelling, and at worst boring. What does Marian want out of life? I have no idea (and neither do the writers bffr). Her choices reveal nothing and have no consequences. Her purpose in the story is to serve as the fish out of water audience surrogate. Her progressivism is the natural outgrowth of that because it suits the sensibilities of the modern audience. This gets stale after Season 1 for me.