Melissa Shawcross (aka Oregon) is one of the main characters of Channel 4's television series, Fresh Meat, who lives in the shared student housing complex.
Oregon is a literature student and, like JP, she comes from a privileged background. As an idealist, Oregon is paranoid about how her peers perceive her due to her background. When she first arrives at the university, she gives herself the nickname "Oregon," makes a visible effort to hide her background, and immediately befriends Vod, the most outgoing and party-loving of the housemates.
Oregon attempts to emulate Vod in as many ways as possible, enthusiastically agreeing with every anti-establishment or anti-elitist view Vod expresses, even if she is guilty of what Vod criticizes. Vod eventually discovers the truth of Oregon's background, but the two remain close friends. Oregon soon embarks on an affair with her lecturer, Tony Shales, and later unknowingly forms a brief relationship with his son, Dylan. These relationships end at the end of the second series. Oregon fancies herself as a political activist, but often displays a lack of world-wariness or understanding of contentious issues.
After spending most of the third series running for Student Union presidency, Oregon discovers the difficulty of the post, and she spends the early part of the fourth series trying to enjoy the power of the job, despite budgetary problems and the obvious lack of respect she demands. Eventually, her arrogance and unwillingness to admit her own mistakes lead to her impeachment from the post as well as her rejection from the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship in the United States. Oregon's horrific final year is capped when she receives lower second-class honours (a "2:2"), far lower than her parents expected of her, and when she attempts to apply for a master's degree, the university grants her a place in Tony Shales's course instead, purely because of his desire to resume their romance. Vod ultimately stands up to Oregon's overbearing mother on Oregon's behalf, and the series ends with the two women relocating to Laos so Oregon can write a novel. In a deleted scene of a Skype call, the viewer discovers that Oregon and Vod have cut ties and that Vod has ventured to Vietnam.
Trivia[]
- She appears in every episode of the series.
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