Welcome to the fourth recap of the third season of Faking It, a show that was supposed to be about lesbians but isn’t, from the network that brought you my favorite show of all time I Want a Famous Face. This week Amy is going to make a documentary, so I had Grace prepare this inspirational graphic for you:
So guys. Should I keep recapping this show every week? Do you still care? Do you still look forward to this situation? Could I be doing something else with my time and just throwing a mini-cap into the Boobs Tube unless Amy kisses a girl? Because here’s the thing:
You may notice the biggest dip happened between Season 2A (which ended in November 2014 with Episode 210) and Season 2B (which began September 2015 with Episode 211). What happened between 2A and 2B besides an entire year of your lives? Well, I think that’s when we found out that Amy wasn’t going to be a lesbian after all, instead the show wanted to explore her sexual fluidity, champion the abandonment of labels (just for Amy though, not for Shane!) and leave Amy’s options open w/r/t dating men. As I’ve said a million times, this is of course a realistic and honest journey that many people can relate to and everybody is entitled to be proud of their label or eschew labels altogether, but there are already plenty of shows out there about girls dating boys. Like pretty much all of them. Yet somehow the most liberal high school in Texas has yet to offer up even ONE girl for Amy. I don’t care what her sexual orientation is as long as she dates girls on this show, okay? Just make Amy date girls. Thank you. And don’t forget that Emily Fields did eventually get to have sex with Allison before she became chaste forever!
Faking It has been doing a really good job with exploring other LGBTQ identities — Lauren is the first intersex character I remember seeing on television since a two-episode arc on Freaks & Geeks, and this week they introduced a queer trans guy. But so far this season, Amy’s love life has been a non-starter, just more of the same Karma/Amy can-we-be-friends thing. I hope this turns around soon.
We open with the most lesbianish scene of the whole episode, in which Amy has a large power tool and is using it to make or make an impact of some sort on, I believe, a chair. When she’s done I’m gonna sit on the chair and yell MORE LESBIAN SEX while throwing dried cherries at the wall.
Amy: “I learned a lot about refinishing furniture with all the lesbians this summer.”
Is everybody ready? I’m gonna explain to you how lesbians have sex.
Meanwhile, Lauren’s facing a spiritual and social media crisis because her (now fired) New Lisbeth tweeted that Elisabeth Hassleback was Lauren’s spirit animal, which is offensive to Native Americans. (Also to Team Rosie.) Amy’s got an idea to turn this whole situation around: she and Lauren should make a documentary!
No, don’t eat it; give it to Whiskers, please!
Good news at Karma’s: her parents found the missing half of her Best Friends heart necklace! Bad news: Karma doesn’t care ’cause she’s got no hope for an Amy/Karma reunion. She’d rather mope around and play music and then meet Shane for coffee.
HI HONEY IT’S MOM AND DAD WE HEARD YOUR GUITAR AND WERE HOPING YOU COULD PLEASE PLAY “BROWN-EYED GIRL” FOR US?!!
And then “Blowin’ in the Wind,” right?
You know us too well!
Here’s an idea, why don’t I play the music I want to play in my own room for myself?
Because I’m not a jukebox. I’m your daughter.
And I’m in an Ani DiFranco mood today.
Karma throws her half of the heart necklace into the garbage can even though she should’ve re-used it to make art. That’s what Liam would’ve done.
Back at Chez Fawcett, Lauren and Amy are prepping to begin shooting the documentary when who should arrive out of the blue but FELIX!
Hello, it’s me, the cis white straight man you ordered
Farrah is pleased as punch to have the opportunity to present Felix to her progeny, as she clearly still hopes Amy could fall in love with a man and have his babies and make meatloaf or whatever. “Even after a rehab reveal, your Mom still roots for me,” said Felix. No surprise there!
My intensely negative feelings about this development aside, I have to admit that I like Felix’s personality better than Karma’s. But also he kinda reminds me of my friend’s husband who was bisexual and had a British accent and was very nice, so I’ve sort of conflated them in my mind. Anyhow! Amy wants to know if he’s free tonight but he says he can’t date anyone for six months. It’s a recovery rule. But she wasn’t asking him on a date, silly! She just wants him to help her shoot her documentary! He says okay.
Cut to The Bohemian Surf Shack Coffee Shop Java the Hut, which now employs Liam Booker for some reason and decorates with those little fake lanterns you can get at IKEA for $3.
Why yes I AM a little low on cinnamon, thanks for asking
Shane is admiring a dude with a British accent playing a crappy song on his guitar. I can tell you one thing about this fellow: he isn’t Tegan and/or Sara.
Standing in the sunlight laughing, Hide behind a rainbow’s wall…
Although the show does not reveal this information to us, I have been made aware that this new character, Noah, is a trans guy, and he’s being played by an actual trans guy actor, and he is the result of last year’s search for trans actors! I predict that Shane and him are going to have a thing and Shane is gonna freak out about him being trans.
Liam brings Shane his drink, but then when Liam gets up to go back to work he takes the drink with him? I don’t know what that’s all about, but I’ll tell you what it’s NOT about: lesbians. Also not about lesbians: Shane thinks Liam’s supervisor has a crush on him, which’s probably true. Then Karma shows up and says she’s fine. She’s lying. Shane says Karma should do the Open Mic!
Yeah, my hair is filled with razorblades and secrets and I don’t see anything wrong with that
Chez Fawcett: Amy wants to make an intense documentary about being an intersex role model. Lauren wants to make a reality show about lip gloss with lots of product placement.
Okay, sit right there just like that, and give me your cutest facial expression possible
Amy thinks Lauren should really focus on the reason she’s got so many social media followers to begin with: pictures of her boobs. No just kidding: being intersex. Lauren gets upset and leaves, and Felix says it’s clear that what Lauren needs in order to get out of her shell and show her true self is One Special Person who can Just Listen and Won’t Judge. (I think she’s talking about me!!!)
Chew & Brew: Karma and Shane are doing the Open Mic together like two peas on a pod except instead of peas, they’re PEOPLE, and instead of a pod, they’re on a stage!
Do you remember when we used to sing Sha la la la la la la la la la la dee dah
They’re pretty good, despite not being Tegan and/or Sara, and that’s good news for many reasons, especially this one: this open mic wasn’t JUST an open mic, y’all. This open mic was also A CONTEST!
Hey if anybody here lost their Kroger Shoppers Card card in the men’s bathroom, we’re holding it for you at the frappuchino counter
Shane, I think that guy found your Kroger card
I thought that Kroger card was lost FOREVER!
Turns out that Shane and Karma’s band, Ze & Zim, are on their way to the grand contest extravaganza tomorrow night, where they might win $5,000! Their competition is going to be a band called “Noah’s Ark,” which unfortunately is not a spin-off band from the television show Noah’s Arc nor is it a bunch of animals and wives on a boat. It’s that guy Noah! He clearly also likes Shane. Also Noah tells Shane that if he wants to win, then HE should be the lead singer, not Karma. This is terrible advice and also Noah is “the competition,” but Shane listens to him anyway because Shane is inclined to believe people who think he is the greatest.
Look I can already tell that you like me now
But how do you like me NOW
Also Liam is still into Karma. Shane heads over to Karma’s with a brand new plan for the battle of the bands. It involves Shane being the lead singer, a full band, and cover songs. Karma’s not into it but also is stuck.
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I’m finding this series of Faking it so frustrating. On one hand there’s some really interesting topics being explored like the new trans guy and everything with Lauren, but then they bring back Felix and hook Karma back up with Liam.
While I love your recaps and look forward to them every week, given how much time it must take to write these I wouldn’t mind them being included in Boobs on Your Tube instead. Maybe just fully recap the super queer episodes?
i could just recap the queer parts, too?
I like these recaps, but like Jenny, I would understand if you wanted to stop writing them due to lack of readership and lack of queer girls (Other than Amy. Why are there no other lesbians at their *~*super liberal*~* high school?).
– Oh, hey look, ANOTHER woman is throwing herself at Liam. Let me break out my surprised face.
– On AE another user had said that she wished that they would bring back Felix, as long as he didn’t date Amy. I think we all saw what would happen if they brought Felix back.
What is AE?
AfterEllen
“AfterEllen”
*slaping my own forehead*
Of course! I feel like I should have known that.
Thanks for filling me in.
slapping, not slaping. clearly not my best day for thinking….
Your recaps are always entertaining but this show is so bad I can’t in good conscience suggest you continue to recap it.
Also, I find it impossibly difficult to stop watching terrible shows that I’ve already invested a lot of time with, and this is doubly the case with shows that are frequently mentioned on websites I care about. If Autostraddle stopped bothering with this show it would give me hope that I, too, could one day do the same.
I think you should continue. Even if what’s going on with Amy right now isn’t the most preferable thing, she IS one of the few lgbtq LEAD characters on TV. And she’s probably going to have a girlfriend this season, and I’m still weirdly feeling like the show will end with Karmy, no matter how many times Karma has said she is straight.
Or put in under Boobs on Your Tube! I didn’t know that was an option. Either way, I think you should recap it on Autostraddle. But no preference as to which way.
As much as I like the recaps (I spend an unreasonable amount of my Wednesday waiting for them), I’d support you moving the recap to Boobs on Your Tube.
I spent most of this episode willing Amy not to kiss or say she wants to date Felix, and then what does she do? Sigh.
aw, i love that you wait for them all day! i’m glad to know people still do that.
I like the recaps, but I also like most of the weird stuff you do with your brain. If this doesn’t feel like the best use of your time right now I completely understand. At the very least I don’t think you need to worry about covering the Liam Booker Finds Himself D plot.
That’s a really good point, actually. I’ve always enjoyed the recaps but that’s only because Riese is always funny, not because Faking It is worth reading about.
Maybe there’s something to be said about the type of humor that can only result from disliking what you’re writing about, but the stats show that nobody cares about that in this case anyway.
I’m also on team riese is really funny.
WELL I’M ON TEAM YOU GUYS ARE THE GREATEST
The only reason I’m reading your recaps, other than the fact that I’ll read anything that you write even if it’s a drill manual, is the off chance that this show returns back to what it was about (at least for me): Girl-Girl action. And I don’t mean like a 10 seconds kiss once every five episodes. An actual romantic/sexual relationship between two females. That’s the only way I’ll go back to watching this show. Maybe.
By the way, am I the only person here who absolutely can’t stand Karma? Maybe because she reminds me of my high school straight girl crush or maybe because SHE’S A MANIPULATIVE MANIPULATOR WHO MANIPULATES!
… Yeah I’ll just show myself out.
I agree with you on Karma. I was honestly hoping after the journal episode she’d be ostracized, because she’s just such an awful friend.
i always read the recaps because ??? and because you’re funny, but i’ve never actually seen an episode of the show, and it seems like it wouldn’t be any great loss if you stopped recapping it. just be funny about something else instead. (my vote: recap old episodes of xena. i can’t imagine that being anything but pure gold. [maybe don’t listen to me though.])
IF ONE OF YOU BRILLIANT HUMANS RETRO-RECAPPED XENA I MIGHT ACTUALLY WATCH IT FOR THE FIRST TIME
OH MY GOD I WOULD GIVE UP FAKING IT RECAPS IN A HEARTBEAT IF THEY WERE REPLACED WITH XENA RECAPS!
Like queer girl, I’ve never seen the show, but want to watch the reboot, so having recaps of the original episodes would be super awesome!
Have we tapped into an AS hive mind? Just this morning I was also thinking how great an AS Xena retrocap would be!
I’m actually sortof okay with Amy not having a Girlfriend as long as she keeps being this gay about not having a girlfriend.
Okay, for real, why does everyone hate Karma? Karma is just a teenage girl who wants to be loved. Amy is hardly a perfect person, either – she can be pretty self-centered and vengeful and careless. I still like her, but can we please just admit that both characters have flaws? The endless Karma-bashing makes me tired.
Riese, I enjoy these recaps greatly and look forward to them every week. Please don’t feel obliged to continue writing them if you don’t want to, but I would miss them.
I agree with this entire comment! Karma doesn’t deserve hate, and neither does any other teenage girl doing her best to be a good friend.
And I, too, would miss the recaps. Just like Karma in her “Hump Day” days, I look forward to them every Wednesday!
I totally agree. I feel like people forgetting she is a teenager. I don’t think her actions are coming from a place of malice or manipulation; she’s just confused and emotionally immature.
While I do love your recaps, and they are a large part of why I’m still watching this show, I’d be totally fine if you moved them to Boobs on your Tube, if it’s no longer worth the time and energy it takes to write them.
I’m actually okay with Karma and Amy not be together YET. (key word: yet). They are the will-they-won’t-they couple of this show, so I’m pretty confident that they WILL, eventually. But yeah in the meantime, they need to find Amy another girl at that school. Liam can’t walk two blocks without some girl throwing themselves at him. Where are the girls throwing themselves at Amy!? Why did none of the lesbians from the tour this summer spontaneously move to their town and start at their school like Karma’s summer fling!?
That said, everything about Lauren is perfect, and her character is easily the best part of this show.
Please keep the recaps! For whatever reason this show speaks to me on levels no other TV show ever has. It’s super unrealistic while at the same time being so real. However, the data suggests that by season 3.8C I might be the only reader of them, so no hard feelings if they have to go.
These recaps are one of my favorite things on autostraddle. The intros are always delightful. If you can keep doing them, this reader will appreciate it very much!
well this is very sweet thank you marcie!
I’d be fine with moving Faking It over to “Boob(s on Your)Tube”. I think there are probably more important things that you and Autostraddle could be doing with your time.
I haven’t commented on Faking It in probably over a year and I’ll admit that of all the AS recaps, this is the one lowest on my reading priority list. I find myself more drawn to Shane and Lauren than I do Karma or Amy, so I could see moving this farther down on the Autostraddle priority list.
REAL REASON I’M POSTING:
@Riese– Reading your intro about possibly not recapping due to a “click” drop off that you are theorizing perhaps came after we realized that Amy wasn’t going to be a lesbian, I was left coming back to a question that I have been wrestling with for a while now. What is the Autostraddle policy about shows with queer girls/women who are not actively dating a woman? I get the new AS focus was on “quality” and not “quantity”. And that is something I agree with in theory, but am confused about in practice. How do you decide what qualifies as quality?
For instance, “Faking It” is a show that has two possibly queer girls, neither of whom is currently kissing or dating girls. But it also has this awesome badass intersex teenage girl and very complex gay guy. How does that fall on the quality scale?
Put differently, if Callie started dating men on Greys- would that “demote” the Greys recaps? Would it matter that she’s still a fully fledged/developed queer character, even if she’s currently in a relationship with men? Or what about Annalise on HTGAWM? Are we only interested in queer characters when they are actively engaged in queer plots?
How would these shows compare in coverage to, for instance, Rosewood or Younger that have consistently queer women dating women, but in smaller supporting roles? The roles that women in those shows play are sometimes not much smaller than, say, The Fosters moms on any given episode- but we still do full Fosters recaps?
It all gives me a headache!
Basically, I’m wondering how do the AS editors decide: What shows are worth a full fledged recap? What shows are worth a Boob(s) recap? What shows are not worth covering at all? How do you decide to where to dedicate your limited time/resources?
These perhaps too complex and rhetorical to answer. That’s totally fine. Just wanted to let you know that I’ve been thinking about it! Especially with all the new recap changes going on.
^^^ All of the same could have also been said using the discontinued PLL recaps as an example, but I personally think that PLL has shown their cards with their transphobia, so I was fine with seeing those recaps go- regardless of whether or not Emily/ Ali got female love interests. I think we can all agree that the political underpinnings of that show got out of hand.
In case of Faking It there’s huge issue of lesbophobia. The premise of two girls faking being lesbians for popularity and attention and to get a guy in case of one of them, which led to jokes about “conquering lesbians”, is exploiting lesbians, not any other sexual minority, so it could be made OK ONLY if one of the main characters was a lesbian.
And we were misled to believe it is so – by what we were shown on screen in Season 1, and by what was told in interviews – one of the actresses straight up stated that Amy is a lesbian and is not into guys, and that they would never give us this representation only to take it away. Only it was taken away. Soon in Season 2A Amy suddenly started feeling that “boys make her body respond against her brain” (despite having to experiment with Oliver earlier only to find out it made her feel nothing) and turn her into “Sexual Hulk”. And Carter Covington further confirmed that she’s not into girls only, that she’s somewhere in the middle of sexuality scale.
Meanwhile, the only lesbian character this show ever had was a minor character, and she was made the bad guy – clingy and biphobic. The only lesbian representation this show ever had, after heavy exploitation of lesbians and lies to lesbian viewers that they’ll get a lesbian lead, was negative representation.
So I hope that viewers of different sexual orientations will still stand with us and recognize that this show is really damaging so far when it comes to treatment of lesbian representation.
Wow, that was a really detailed and thought out argument! thanks for sharing. I appreciate it as I’m only a casual watcher of Faking It, at best. So I haven’t thought about it in that much detail. What you are saying makes a lot of sense. If that is the case, however, then why do Faking It recaps at all?
This goes back to my larger questions, which I hope I’ve made clear are larger than Faking It, as I only marginally watch the show to begin with.
I’ve been wondering how Autostraddle decides what shows to cover and in what capacity they are “worthy” of covering? I’m sure the process is necessarily subjective, but all the recent changes has brought it up as a curiosity for me.
I agree with everything Amelia said wholeheartedly.
Regarding deciding what to stop recapping — it’s not exactly that we’re deciding what *not to* recap because *not recapping* is our default. Like we’re not AE who recaps every show a lesbian ever sneezed in, and we don’t do 800-word recaps/reviews w/o pictures like mainstream sites do. Not many sites do what we do anymore — a style I picked up from fourfour back in 2006 that involves screencaps, graphics, captions, a blow-by-blow. So for us a recap can take between five hours and two days to put together. and traffic for recaps in general is down overall on the entire internet. historically we’ve learned that the only recappers who get *really* big numbers for Autostraddle are me, heather — or, in the past, lizz and kate. but basically, we’ve decided what to recap based on which shows those specific writers care enough about to recap, not by which shows are the gayest. except the real l word, i hated that show but it was like my cultural obligation to recap it, it was just what the lord had planned for me i had no say in it. like transparent s2 was super queer but we just didn’t have a recapper for it.
so now basically it’s like, me and heather are super busy and have a million other things we also want to write and do. so what it comes down to is — after we spend 8 hours writing a particular recap, do we feel like we wasted the day on a thing that doesn’t deserve that much of our time?
also in the past we just recapped the gay parts of things and if there weren’t gay parts, there wasn’t a recap, like i just recapped the gay parts of PLL and Glee until Glee recaps started getting such good traffic that i started recapping every episode every week.
usually one-off essays about particular aspects of a show do better?
but as for what’s in boobs tube, we try to cover everything we can, but it comes down to which shows our writers watch anyway and are willing to write about, basically.
Riese, you are awesome! I appreciate that you took time (when I know you have so little time) to answer my ramblings! Truly.
And I appreciate your insight- because now I put my curiosity to bed! It appears I was approaching the AS recap policy all wrong! I was basing my thought process on an assumption that the gayest shows got recapped, as opposed to shows that interest you or Heather enough to spend a day on without the feeling of wasting your life! Which I totally get and makes a lot of sense. Especially because I personally know how much work goes into this style of commentary.
So, thanks for helping me through my confusion. I got it now!
I also just have to pause and highlight these gems:
“We’re not AE who recaps every show a lesbian ever sneezed in” <– I snorted so hard! Riese, you have the best humor/snark! As someone who was once an AE faithful in my baby gay days and is SO HAPPY that I made a forever exclusive life change to Autostraddle 2+ years ago, this comment particularly hit for me.
"Not many sites do what we do anymore — a style I picked up from fourfour back in 2006 that involves screencaps, graphics, captions, a blow-by-blow. So for us a recap can take between five hours and two days to put together. and traffic for recaps in general is down overall on the entire internet." <– This style of recapping takes so much, but I also want to say that I appreciate it and love it. It saddens me how hard that type of in-depth commentary is to find on the internet anymore! As long as you guys keep putting it out, I promise to keep reading (and trying to comment or add to the discussion where I can!)
If you ever have to give up long form recaps on AS completely, I would understand that too. And promise to keep my up readership on other articles. Whatever yall publish I will read because I trust you, is what this really comes down to.
I wrote it on AE, but I’ll repeat it here.
Felix telling Amy (who was clearly interested in him so again, why do they continue this farce with refusal to label herself? anyone still believes she’s lesbian?) that he will be up for dating again in New Year’s Eve is a total foreshadowing.
From what I’ve read the finale episode of the season takes place in New Year’s Eve. And I’ve seen a pic from an instagram of some camera guy that works behind the show which was apparently from filming season’s finale, and which looked like Amy in bed with Felix.
I don’t think they intentionally try to mislead us with this (what for?), so apparently the new girlfriend for Amy that will appear next episode will just be a placeholder until Amy ends up with a man. BTW, I predict Sabrina either won’t be labelled as lesbian, or if she will, she’ll be portrayed once again in negative way. There were apparently already some hints in interviews that she used to bully Karma in the past.
Hey Amelia, You responded to one of my posts earlier in the thread. Thanks for that! If I can just so gently say (both to you and the readers of this comment) that I think you lay out the details of your argument more clearly in that earlier response.
As it stands, this particular post edges a little bit towards biphobia. I say that as a bisexual woman. Referring to someone’s girlfriend as their “placeholder” before they end up in bed with a man is hurtful. The same can be said about ” why do they continue this farce with refusal to label herself? anyone still believes she’s lesbian?” There are other valid queer identities that reach beyond being a lesbian and those identities are not a “farce”.
All that said, as you wrote in an earlier reply to my comment, if the show’s production originally identified Amy as a Lesbian, sold her as such to a lesbian audience looking for representation, and then had her sleep with men and took away that representation, well that’s f*cked up. No excuses.
But let’s try and keep our rightful anger at the production if we can? Or towards challenging whether or not Autostraddle should continue with the recaps? I think there are ways to do that without using language that’s hurtful to bisexual/ pansexual/ queer audience members or readers. Yeah?
I used those words in context of what happened in and behind the show. The showrunner Carter Covington confirmed that he wrote this season as if it was the last one since he doesn’t know if it will get renewed. So if he gives us – lesbian viewers, since if I understood you correctly as a bisexual woman you’d be content with Amy being with a man – the only female same-sex pairing just for a couple of episodes before Amy and Felix being show’s end-game, and all that in context of the show mistreating lesbians as it exploited LESBIANISM, not bisexuality, lied to lesbian viewers the Amy is a LESBIAN, not anyone else, and then only gave us minor negative lesbian representation, then I think that IN THIS CONTEXT the words about the new girl being a placeholder are entirely justified and I assure you, they have nothing to do with biphobia.
And I must say it’s really hurtful to me to be accused that by saying: “why do they continue this farce with refusal to label herself” I tried to imply that other identities than lesbian are farce. I said that in context of Amy being established as strongly attracted to men since Season 2A, vide “boys make my body respond against my brain”, words about “Sexual Hulk”, interest in Felix, Carter Covington’s statement that she’s somewhere in the middle on the scale. So this is a farce that they continue pretending she’s confused about her sexuality when they already established she is perfectly aware of her feelings. Yet they hold what she’ll finally come to label herself as as some great mistery, which frankly is just ridiculous since I think everyone already knows she’s bisexual/pansexual, or at least those identities would make sense given how she’s been portrayed.
And below are the words of Rita Volk from 3 interviews after Season 1 finale. Have in mind she backtracked from it before Season 2B in yet another interview, but please don’t hold it against her since it’s obvious she just did what the showrunner, Carter Covington, told her to do (I can’t imagine an actress saying all those things on her own, it would obviously be against her contract).
“I don’t know about Karma’s path, but for Amy, she is a lesbian, and Carter and I talked about that. We don’t want it to be a tease, we don’t want people to feel like they can relate to this vulnerable process that she’s going through, and they can relate to this girl because she’s a lesbian and then have that taken away, like, “Oh, never mind, you know, I’m into guys now.”
http://community.ew.com/2014/06/09/faking-it-stars-talk-real-life-faking-it/
“Her sleeping with Liam is just a way to bury that because he’s a guy. It doesn’t even matter that it’s Liam to her, it’s just that she wanted a guy. It’s her effort to not be a lesbian. She’s trying to deny her feelings which won’t work, because that’s not who she is.”
http://zap2it.com/blog-post/faking-it-season-1-finale-katie-stevens-rita-volk-burnt-toast-post-mortem/
“Amy isn’t going to wake up wondering if she likes boys. Boy or girl, it makes sense to me why Amy slept with Liam (Greg Sulkin). They connect through their mutual love, and then hate, for Karma. /…/ It wasn’t the right decision, but it is understandable. It doesn’t mean that Amy likes boys.”
http://starrymag.com/?p=3327
“since if I understood you correctly as a bisexual woman you’d be content with Amy being with a man”
WOWWWWWWWWW.
Since I have been nothing but supportive of your point about Amy (not to mention- polite with you on multiple comment threads in this article), I have no idea what I did to deserve such a vitriolic brush off.
But, since you’ve decided to make this personal, I won’t be engaging further. And since you’ve also participated in my comment threads on multiple articles in the last few days, I would also appreciate it if you from here on out you would chose not to.
Thank you.
(For the record, as I said MULTIPLE TIMES ALREADY I don’t watch Faking It with a deep interest. I was previously unaware of the behind the scenes drama. And I don’t support the character assassination of a lesbian sleeping with a man.)
(For a further record, though it’s absolutely zero of your business. I am bisexual, but I haven’t slept with a man in over a decade either. I’m not part of some sort of secret d*ck worshipping coven. No bisexual woman is, no matter who their last partner was, anyway. But since you made it about me- I figured you should at least have all the facts.)
C.P. – I’m sorry, I really had no idea that would offend you. I’m not native English speaker so sometimes it’s hard for me to put my thoughts here clearly enough.
I noticed that some bisexual viewers pointed out that if Amy is bisexual there shouldn’t be any opposition to her being with a guy and I assumed that was what you were at. And I agree, it doesn’t nullify bisexual representation, but that also means no content anymore for lesbian viewers since even if in the pairing of two girls none is lesbian, there’s always the same-sex aspect. And I wrote why it would be shitty considering what this show has done to lesbian fans.
Amelia, I appreciate that you took time to come back to this board and deal with/ apologize for this. I know how hard it can be to express yourself on another language- heck, sometimes I can’t express myself in English, and it’s my first language! So, thank you.
ugh if this season ends with amy in bed with felix i am going to sit on a knife
I think a lot of us will. I’m trying not to worry about it at this point, though. This show has done enough dream sequences and fakeouts that I’m not believing anything until I see it.
We also know that Amy’s main love interest this season is a girl, and she’s supposedly separate from whoever the girl dressed as Catwoman (who Amy kisses in the supertease) is, so we can look forward to that!
Since I usually watch the show on mute while doing something else I do depend on your recaps to find out what happened and whether it’s worth rewatching with sound (usually not). But I can understand moving it to Boob(s) until there’s an original plot point.
I really enjoy the recaps! I don’t have cable and MTV is weirdly not allowing people to watch the videos a week after they air, so I keep up with it via your recaps.
I’m sorry, but this will always be my favorite cover of a song called “Somebody to Love” on Glee https://youtu.be/B9QpKr1x9PQ
this is an important point monique
I feel like an outsider because I actually enjoy Faking It and also, I always look forward to your recaps. I would definitely miss them
I agree the show has done a shit job with lesbians, but it’s the only show even trying with intersex, and one of an extreme few now also trying with trans, people. So, as a lesbian, it’s getting some very ambivalent reactions from me, and my loyalties are divided.
I think that if they had wanted to do a “fluid, not labeled” character, that’s fine but they did a bait and switch and that’s not fine. Also, they have no positive and only negative lesbian characters. So that’s shitty, too.
If they had shown us Amy’s adventures in Lesbian Summer Travels, maybe that would have helped. I admit, I’m a sucker for a power tool, so the sanding scene made me laugh (in a good way) even though it’s a cliche on a show that really hasn’t earned the right to use a stereotype about me and mine.
We currently have almost zero real lesbian characters on TV, but that’s still more in the aggregate than intersex or non-offensive trans representation, so I guess on balance I’m sticking around.
But I’m not backing off my irritation at the showrunners, either.
I like Felix’s personality. I wish they hadn’t felt the need to make him another cis white hetero male– and maybe they can reveal later that he isn’t. That would be kind of cool.
I don’t like Karma because to me she is just the sort of person I find annoying in real life. She’s insincere and an attention whore. She is just this stupid:
Amy says she needs Karma to stop forcing kisses.
Karma somehow does not apologize like any even moderately reasonable person would do, but says that she did that because she liked the attention, and then says she doesn’t know how to be friends with Amy.
Hello? Amy just told you what she needs in order to proceed as friends: stop kissing her.
Now, let’s say any other character on the show was asked to stop forcing kisses on another character, and that character not only did not apologize, but then said that they did not want to be in an actual sexy relationship, but if they could not continue forcing kisses they could not be friends anymore?
It’s not likable. Amy can’t win. It’s all about Karma all the time, and Amy’s supposed to just go along for whatever drama and attention-getting BS Karma decides.YUCKY.
Even the big reconciliation is about Amy being there for Karma.
It has always been like this, too, since the very first “let’s pretend we’re lesbians” episode.
Honestly, the show would be better if Karma wasn’t in it. She and Liam could go off to another reality and I think the show would be much less annoying on every level.
Shane is annoying, too, but he gets called on it, so it’s easier to take.
One thing I do think has been consistent about Amy’s characterization is that she’s attracted to whoever she feels close to as a friend. She wasn’t really feeling her sexuality at all until Karma kissed her, from what they told us. It’s not that she was mooning around before that; the kiss itself awakened her feelings. So seeing her get interested in Felix when he was being a friend to her is sort of in character. All the other people she’s tried to be with she didn’t know before dating, and it seems like what she really wants is a love who is also a friend. I think that’s a fine way to be, but it’s not clear to me whether that is the story they are actually telling, or why they have to mix it with the lesbian-baiting they have used so far.
“If they had shown us Amy’s adventures in Lesbian Summer Travels, maybe that would have helped. “
Yeah i agree
If you keep writing these, I’ll certainly keep reading them. That being said I think I may have to stop watching this show for the sake of my mental health. We’ll see if I have the self-control.
weirdly, I’ve gotten more and more invested in the show this past season even though the amount of lesbian content has plateaued, but in reading this post i feel angry at myself more than anything else. with karma and amy being the central “will they or won’t they,” I feel as though we’re building to this couple eventually getting together, but when I think about the hope I have that the show will end that way, I also think about how betrayed I would feel if, instead, amy ended up with a man. l do find the show entertaining, but i guess it speaks to how badly we’re represented in the media that i’m feeling so vulnerable about how a stupid teenager show jerks my heart around.
I love your recaps! I have been going back through all of your Faking It recaps since I just began the show and you are hilarious, Riese. I think that you should do what’s best for you though (like ignoring the Liam storyline because who cares? No one on Autostraddle!)
Okay, I’ll ask this. Does anybody else think that Carter Covington had Liam sleep with Shane’s sister in order to poison Paige McCullers in our minds? I know that Lindsey Shaw isn’t Paige McCullers, but Shane’s little, “You’re such a pretty little liar,” to Liam, just before his sister showed up, is something that I just can’t ignore.
Haha, no. Shows make such inside jokes all the time. I mean, when Lucy Hale guest starred on Baby Daddy as a priest’s daughter, she was called a pretty little liar, that doesn’t mean that we were supposed to think her character was like Aria. The Crazy Ones starring Sarah Michelle Gellar made quite a few Buffy-references, that doesn’t mean we were supposed to think of her character as being Buffy. There are a million more examples. If anything, Lindsey herself did a better job of destroying Paige by supporting Trump on Twitter.
Thank goodness for your recap, because for some reason EVERY video I find online through less-than-legitimate avenues stops just as Karma answers her phone, so I had no idea what happened in the last 3 minutes and it was driving me bonkers.
I, too, am conflicted about Felix because he’s actually a really enjoyable character, but I’m so sick of having white dudes be the voice of reason every fucking time Amy and Karma do something “irrational”. I don’t know what I resent more: that they’re making Amy/Felix a very real romantic relationship, or that I actually like Felix despite the former.
I love these recaps and look forward to them every week.
I’d understand if you change how you cover the show, but all i ask is that you keep me updated on lauren’s life.
speaking of: i definitely cried reading this recap about her parts of this episode, i wish i could watch this show, i love her character so much.
I love the recaps, but I also understand that you have to decide whether to do them based on something other than my personal feelings.
I wish you would recap You Me Her also, because I don’t have anyone to talk it over with, and it’s always more fun to not be watching alone.
Reading your recaps doubles the fun.
Personally, after the first episode (first two episodes? I can’t remember) of this season, I decided I can’t subject myself to this show anymore.
So to make a long sappy story short I watch Faking It every week with my long distance gf and then we read the recaps together. Like, I livestream myself scrolling through the recaps mostly because I am lazy but it’s become our thing and I think they’re hilarious and I love your alternate caption plotline BUT if you really don’t want to write them it’s okay.
Hi! I’m the long distance GF.
I don’t have much to add except that Trucy making me read your awesome Faking It recaps is what got me into the site! I love this stuff.
I understand if this isn’t driving clicks but please keep giving us little blurbs in the big TV posts–they’re brilliant.
THIS IS SO CUTE
hm.. as much as i get the ‘wanting to see w|w couples’ on tv.. i am getting incresingly frustrated with the notion, that bi+ girls are only worth our time if they are dating another girl.
i think it is doing nothing for fellow bi+ girls to see someone on tv struggle through their ‘labeling process’ and then hearing the community moan about wanting to see some more w|w action.
i mean.. sorry for your inconvenience i guess (?!) but this is a thing a lot of us bi+ people have to struggle with!
and the lg part of the community is partialy to blame for it (but that shouldn’t be news?)!?
every bi+ person who was ever told that they are not valid, not real, just greedy, slutty and so on-it is hard for a lot of us to find a label that feel comfortable and even if we do, we might nit feel comfortable to present it to others.
but what starts to infuriate me the most is this notion of bi+ girls not being deserving of time and space in the community if they are dating guys!
why is the story about HIM all of a sudden?
why can’t the focus stay on her in our perception?
this is still a story about a queer girl!
how about exploring her identity in a relationship that is apparently just a big *fart noise* for the community.
this could be talked about in terms of visibility; in terms of identity and in terms of managing identity in queer spaces when QUEER IS APPARENTLY ONLY ALLOWED TO LOOK HOMO.
i feel so sad about this
Agreed.
The whole rhetoric around “Well, Amy is probably going to end up dating a cis dude at some point (which means that she doesn’t count as queer anymore, as of the moment of this speculation), but Lauren is intersex(and that counts and we should support that) and Noah is trans and played by a trans actor (and that counts and we should support that) so we’re *so* conflicted about whether this show is queer enough” is way too reminiscent of my real life experiences in the queer community to make me comfortable with it.
I get that the show was marketed as having a lesbian main character and not a label-refusing one who has banged a cis dude during the show, and I get if Riese can’t even with it anymore, but the way this is being framed is a little gross.
Disagreed.
No one here says Amy being bisexual isn’t queer enough. The issue is this show’s LESBOPHOBIA (check out my comments above in which I desribed it in more depth) and only in this context it is discussed whether representation of other repressed minorities makes this show watchable.
I have a question. Knowing that the show is based on exploitation of lesbianism with its main premise, not bisexuality, that it made numerous jokes on lesbians and encouraged many damaging stereotypes about them, that we were straight up lied to that Amy is a lesbian, not bisexual and promised it won’t be taken away from us, and that the only lesbian representation was negative – a minor character who was a bigoted biphobe – you really don’t see any problem with Amy, even if bisexual, ending up with a man, assuming this season is the last one?
No. There are bi women who actually do end up with men and they deserve better than being told that their relationship is the “disappointing” option
Thanks Zimt and others for saying this! Yes!!
I also felt so saddened by this. It not only makes me feel that all too familiar biphobia but also this obsessive purity thing that is so rampant and unrealistic in the queer community. Most queer women, lesbian or not, have been with men, and maybe will be with men again – maybe they are confused, maybe they are fighting it, maybe their physiology has changed, maybe they are bisexual or pansexual, maybe their family is pressuring them, maybe they are confused or curious or WHO knows! This aspect of the show is just so realistic for so many people and the scorn towards this plot line represents the scorn the community feels towards visibly bi and fluid people. Stop letting who someone sleeps with taint you against them. Have empathy for people’s changing and sometimes very challenging sexual identity. Stand with queer women who don’t have the privilege of having a clean cut label even if they want one. This show does that – at an age that I wish I could have known that I didn’t need to “know” what I was and it was ok to listen to my desires and emotions and my intuition.
As for the lesphobia – I don’t really know what people are referring to. Other than playful stereotypes that seem more like a nod to lesbians. As for the “taking away” thing – this speaks to my first point. i have always assumed that Amy has more of a thing for women and she will eventually be comfortable with the label “gay” . . . Being interested in men or dating a man doesn’t mean she isn’t a lesbian. But either way, she is queer so who cares.
i feel like if you knew anything about me or my life or my history OR anything about the amount of time i have in the day to do everything i’d like to do for this community you would not be making all the assumptions you are making in this comment.
yes, it’s possible to misinterpret everything i’ve said about this show as biphobia or claim that it fits into a larger pattern of biphobia in the queer community… but it’s also possible *not* to. it all depends on whether or not you want to assume good faith on my behalf or not.
This was not directed at you at all. I was responding to more general comments here and elsewhere bemoaning that the characters are not gay enough. I believe that these comments stem from people wanting to police queer, especially bi/pan people.
I have read posts about your own experience and have appreciated them and they have helped me feel supported with my own stuff so no personal offence meant at anyone. But, all of us hold assumptions and expectations of each other as a queer community because representation is so contentious and hard and complex – but often, as a community, our instinct is to police inward and I would like us to be better at taking care of each other. That is my point in a nut shell.
“I was responding to more general comments here and elsewhere bemoaning that the characters are not gay enough. I believe that these comments stem from people wanting to police queer, especially bi/pan people. ”
Show me those comments here that did that. And tell me, how did you manage to completely miss my comments pointing out this show’s lesbophobia and broken promises about the lead character, Amy, being a lesbian who (as it was even further emphasized) is not into guys at all, which would be the only thing that would save this show considering its offensive premise that exploits lesbianism?
And if you knew that, how on earth can you attribute biphobia and “wanting to police queer” to people who are not OK with such treatment of lesbian audience and call the show out?
“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
Reise,
I need your Faking It photo captions in my life. They make life worth living.
ALSO even if you just recapped the queer parts for Boob(s) on… , that would mean pretty much everything except Liam and his non-Karma love life?
I am sorry for being selfish with your time, especially when I will probably never watch this show myself. But these recaps! They bring joy to a dark world.
Honestly, I think it’s GREAT that Amy is not identifying as a lesbian. She probably watches Empire, and The 100, and all of the other gay-burying shows. She knows what’s up if you’re a lesbian on TV these days ?
Technically Faking It already buried its only lesbian character, Reagan. Not literally, but they commited character assassination on her.
I LOVE your Faking It recaps & totally wait for them the next day. The show is pissing me off in a major way but I can’t seem to stop watching (???) so the humour and snark and excellent takes on Autostraddle soothe my soul after watching yet another lacklustre and lesbianless episode. I want this Felix storyline to die in a fire.
I don’t watch TV at all, and I’ve perceived a shifting focus towards TV on AS, which doesn’t really speak to me, but I love everything Riese writes so I always jump when I see a Faking It recap because I know it will be fun to read, much like Glee and L Word of old. I’d be happy if you took screencaps and generated your own plot a la Ani above, or just wrote about something else with as much snark and wit.
DON’T STOP. DON’T EVER STOP.
you know what makes me feel good about recapping is 62 comments i can tell you that right now (the past few recaps have only gotten a handful! i require constant affirmation)
ME TOO.
I’ve never actually watched this show, but I can do affirmation: You’re one of the awesomest awesomes who has ever awesomed! =)
we’re all coming out of the woodwork (woodworking? how gay can i make this idiom?) to throw fistfuls of praise at you
*affirms*
I’ll probably cry if you stop recapping. Also I really want Lauren to date women. I think it could happen now that she’s decide to stop trying to be “normal,” and maybe let herself have actual feelings.
holy gosh i never imagined that as a possibility and wow, that would really… complete my life
If you stop recapping, I’ll have to read FI recaps on AE, with all the virus like pop up ads that entails. That would make me sad, plus your snark is just better. But you do you, Riese.
I love the recaps. Can’t watch the series live (/ its just not worth figuring out how at this point).
They provide me with so much comic relief in a world otherwise filled with far too much angst and stray bullets.
But I bet they take ages and there are so few queer romantic prospects right now. But also some good other stuff I guess.
I wouldn’t mind you switching to a small recap on BOYT, just give me one or two good captioned photos
This show gives me an insane amount of feelings for some unknown reason, and these recaps are great for making that okay/enjoyable. Possibly I’m reliving my own internalised homophobia highschool years?? But these recaps give me life and I will read them forevs if they continue to exist. I understand there are factors in this world apart from My Feelings though so live your best life Riese!
PLEASE continue the recaps! I am commenting for the first time here just to say that.
Just because Amy isn’t dating a girl right now doesn’t mean she’s not queer. If she ends up being bi/pan that is INCREDIBLE representation for the bi/pan community, and still valid. Her character is just a teenager and finding herself. We all make dumb decisions at that age, I know I did. Please stick with it – unless she comes out at straight in the end.
Also: Lauren is one of the most dynamic characters on TV and her character development has been amazing!
Also: William Carlos Williams poem…I died. I hope the plums were cold and delicious.
Your recap for 3.03 actually got me slightly interested in the show again. The dialog is great, and I love it whenever’s Amy’s being portrayed as, like, super nice. And just too nice to write anything really mean in her diary. Or even when she’s doing cruel, impulsive things and then feeling really bad about them. Rita Volk is also great at conveying emotion and her speech at the end of that episode was great.
What had knocked me out of the show was her relationship with Reagan and how that emphasized her worst trait; lying about big things that will be discovered for basically no reason.
All of that said, the obvious foreshadowing for a relationship with Felix is really making want to stay away. For one thing, I agree that it’s super fucked up to have a show that starts out with faking lesbianism without having either part of the fake couple end up as a lesbian.
For another, I’m still bitter over the assurances that Amy was going to be a lesbian (which I’m guessing was an MTV-directed change?). Combining that with the first arc about how men are extra into lesbians so they can “convert” them is just super icky to me. I’m not bi, and I’m not ever going to be bi. It’s fine that other women are bi, but there’s this really common idea that we can be converted and it upsets and frightens me because of what it means when men think that. And I feel like that’s feeding into that idea.
This stuff wouldn’t be a big deal at all if there were any lesbian characters on the show as prominent as Shane.
Just wanted to say that I love your recaps and they make a great double act with Elaine Atwell’s at After Ellen; I make a point of reading both, one after the other and they take turns being read first so I can’t be accused of playing favourites
I love your recaps, I hope that you keep writing them in some form, but, as others have said, I can’t really lay claim to your time or your priorities – so you go do you.
But I do feel the need to say something about the contention that this is a show that was supposed to be about lesbians but isn’t. If anything, it was supposed to be about straight girls: and when it was announced, the internet waved its arms in the air screaming about how exploitative a concept this was. Then the producers trolled and teased us with the idea that maybe the straight girls weren’t going to be *quite* so straight, but they never claimed that it was going to be ‘L Word: The Next Generation’ or something.
It was supposed to be about “Faking It”, and over the course of the seasons it has used that initial provocation as a jumping off point to meditate on ideas of authenticity, and had its characters play with identity and try to work things out in their various relationship permutations. The arc of season 1 started with Karma’s fakery, then revealed Amy’s realization of her own fakery, climaxing with Lauren’s fakery, with these strands beautifully threaded together. At its heart, it’s about three girls who are trying to work out who they are, and there ain’t nothing queerer than that.
The idea that Amy is somehow not queer now is a bit offensive, and commentators above have articulated this argument very well. Every time Amy looks at/kisses/sleeps with a boy, the internet again runs around screaming and waving its arms in the air, as if each time represents the crystallization of the character and her story, as if there’s no room for her exploration of herself, of her trying to navigate being a late teenager.
And Karma, as annoying and infuriating as many people find her, is also a great representation of those kids who would be and do and say anything at all as they tried on various personas and ways of being.
I think that this is one of the most remarkable shows on TV right now. Yes, the topics cover a terrain of sexuality and identity that is broader than any other show. And yes, it has a range of queer writers on staff. And yes, the last episode featured intersex and trans actors — and a trans director. But it is also unlike any other show in its representation of high school. It’s not heavy (Fosters) or inane (every sitcom) or full of heightened metaphoric melodrama (PLL); it is a kind of burlesque sex comedy about being a teenager, which allows it to resonate in ways that other shows can’t.
Personally, it moves me in ways that it shouldn’t. I am honestly too far removed from high school to even be watching MTV, and yet every week I cry small tears at its representation of the central friendship. That’s me and my best friend! And all the stupid things we did and didn’t and couldn’t say to each other back then. And today we are super gay in the married-to-women cat-owning kind of way, but we sure weren’t back then. And most of the people I know/have dated/have been gaymarried to did have high school boyfriends and did do all kinds of inconsistent things, and a farce like this is such an effective way to explore the struggles and contradictions inherent in finding yourself when you don’t fit the hegemonic narrative.
And so it does us no good if we go OMG SHE KISSED A BOY SHOW’S OVER, as if that isn’t something that is completely authentic to girls in her position, and as if the show has no long game. You might not like it if/when she ends up with Felix for a while (in the same way that I didn’t like it when my high-school crushes had boyfriends) but that’s not the end of the story.
“Then the producers trolled and teased us with the idea that maybe the straight girls weren’t going to be *quite* so straight”
That’s completely untrue:
below are the words of Rita Volk from 3 interviews after Season 1 finale. Have in mind she backtracked from it before Season 2B in yet another interview, but please don’t hold it against her since it’s obvious she just did what the showrunner, Carter Covington, told her to do (I can’t imagine an actress saying all those things on her own, it would obviously be against her contract).
“I don’t know about Karma’s path, but for Amy, she is a lesbian, and Carter and I talked about that. We don’t want it to be a tease, we don’t want people to feel like they can relate to this vulnerable process that she’s going through, and they can relate to this girl because she’s a lesbian and then have that taken away, like, “Oh, never mind, you know, I’m into guys now.”
http://community.ew.com/2014/06/09/faking-it-stars-talk-real-life-faking-it/
“Her sleeping with Liam is just a way to bury that because he’s a guy. It doesn’t even matter that it’s Liam to her, it’s just that she wanted a guy. It’s her effort to not be a lesbian. She’s trying to deny her feelings which won’t work, because that’s not who she is.”
http://zap2it.com/blog-post/faking-it-season-1-finale-katie-stevens-rita-volk-burnt-toast-post-mortem/
“Amy isn’t going to wake up wondering if she likes boys. Boy or girl, it makes sense to me why Amy slept with Liam (Greg Sulkin). They connect through their mutual love, and then hate, for Karma. /…/ It wasn’t the right decision, but it is understandable. It doesn’t mean that Amy likes boys.”
http://starrymag.com/?p=3327
Ugh, I didn’t paste the whole quote, I meant that the claim that people behind the show never promised us lesbian lead is completely false.
And I think this comment needs to be repeated:
No one here says Amy being bisexual isn’t queer enough. The issue is this show’s LESBOPHOBIA (check out my comments above in which I desribed it in more depth) and only in this context it is discussed whether representation of other repressed minorities makes this show watchable.
I have a question. Knowing that the show is based on exploitation of lesbianism with its main premise, not bisexuality, that it made numerous jokes on lesbians and encouraged many damaging stereotypes about them, that we were straight up lied to that Amy is a lesbian, not bisexual and promised it won’t be taken away from us, and that the only lesbian representation was negative – a minor character who was a bigoted biphobe – you really don’t see any problem with Amy, even if bisexual, ending up with a man, assuming this season is the last one?
I still think this show is worth recapping. It IS super frustrating that Amy’s still so hung up on Karma and no other queer girls are coming her way. But even though it would be so nice to see Amy date another girl, something about the place that she’s in now hits home to my experience in high school (having a complicated thing with my BFF starting sophomore year and then not getting a real girlfriend and boyfriend until senior year). I’m also really interested in Lauren and Noah. And now maybe since Karma and Amy seem to have reconciled a bit maybe Amy will get another not-male love interest? Also sidenote- I would love to see Amy or anyone on this show date someone genderqueer/nonbinary because there is zero representation there.
I like the recaps because it lets me know someone else shares my frustration about this god forsaken show. Also your captions on the screencaps make me laugh way too hard.