Tag Archives: Faking it

MTV’s New Show ‘Mary + Jane’ Could Become Your Replacement For ‘Faking It’

MTV aired their new show, Mary + Jane on the 5th September and already the LGBTQ community is asking if this will be the new ‘faking it’ replacement. Mary + Jane is about two friends that set up a marijuana delivery service company in Los Angeles. Jordan (Scout Durwood) and Paige (Jessica Rothe) are determined to be the best in the business and both like to sample their wares as well.

Jordan’s character is sexually fluid and Paige isn’t 100% hetro either so there is a lot of scope for the characters to have some fun. Paige enjoys some marijuana induced fantasies about involving some famous women and Jordon’s love life is far from simple.

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Out actress Scout Durwood told afterellen:

I think what’s exciting to see is queer as usual, as opposed to gay and that’s what the show’s about,” Scout said. “So I’m excited the show is about queer as usual. … I think Jordan doesn’t ever define it; she never labels it. So my fingers are crossed, double-crossed, triple crossed that we get some more gender fluidity and gender bending in it.”

Because of the good friendship between the characters and the fact they are both open to experimentation fans are already asking if there is likely to be something romantic between the two of them, as there was in ‘Faking It.’ And most audiences always like it when the BFF get together if there is a chemistry there.

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Scout said:

Faking It was really good at having those moments. We have those moments, but they’re a little more light-hearted. They’re less sincere. Because everybody’s gay. I think guys have this kind of bromance genre now, and that’s fine, now it’s becoming a thing, and it’s great. I think we’re kind of like the femme bromance. So even though it’s not sexual, it’s everything but. Like it’s emotional.”

In episode 2 Paige gets a little queer and as we see the depth of their friendship it could be possible that Paige and Jordan go there. When asked about this Scout replied:

We’re definitely not saying no”

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And Jessica then followed that comment with:

We’re not saying anything, but we’re not saying no.”

Paige seems a lot straighter than Jordan and Jessica explains that she is not as straight as she seems and will discover a lot about herself over the season. Jessica continued with:

I love that pallet of getting to explore both within myself and also let other people know it’s ok to have these thoughts and it doesn’t mean you’re weird and it doesn’t mean you have to decide right now.”

It’s also good to see a female focused show where the protagonists play characters that are normally reserved for men. There aren’t many strong female characters on TV where they are a little more off the cuff. Scout said:

It’s so smart. Even with police officers—women in positions of power are statistically less corrupt than men. … Hating on weed right now feels so fuddy-duddy. Honestly, what we’re doing is mostly legal.”

Whether these characters get together or not remains to be seen but the show has a lot going for it and it will be a lot of fun following their antics as the season develops.

Daily Juice: Karma Explains That Kiss, Disney Accused Of ‘Declaring War’ On Religion, & Kristen Stewart Heading to Cannes

All the latest celebrity and lesbian news, gossip, photos and videos.


You heard right, a Christian group has accused Disney of declaring war on religion after the company threatened to boycott the state of Georgia if a bill restricting the rights of LGBT people was signed into law.

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Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg’s new movie Café Society, directed by Woody Allen, is set to open Cannes Film Festival this year. Stewart and Eisenberg play two 1930’s Hollywood aspirers who fall in love. Steve Carell, Blake Lively and Parkey Posey also star, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

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Stewart, in an interview last year, said she was “exceptionally nervous” during her audition for the film. (ah, bless)

He [Woody] wasn’t in the room, but I did audition for it,” she said. “I wanted to take that tape with me. I walked out of that room and I was like, ‘Uhhh.'”

Award-winning, media mogul Queen Latifah is continuing to add more pieces to her growing entertainment portfolio by launching a new TV series. ‘The Best Place To Be’ will be travel show that will air on the Travel Channel.

Malina-Gulino has written a great piece for the Columbia Spectator ‘Last Call: Columbia’s Queer Women and the End of the Lesbian Bar Era’

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Park Cannon – a queer black millennial – is planning to shake up Georgia politics.

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Sweden is flying a flag for LGBT rights with new stamp.

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In Faking it news we finally find out the truth comes out about why Karma kissed Amy (And boy, does the truth hurt).

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After warring it out in the halls of Hester High, Amy and Karma were forced to confront their elephant-sized friendship demons. However, ladies let their pain flags fly — hurling statements of who hurt who more (and who kissed who), which culminated in the truth about that smooch.

Karma humbly says,

Maybe I kissed you in the pool because maybe a small part of me does want you to be in love with me. Because it feels good. I know, it’s so selfish. I don’t want to keep hurting you, Amy. But I don’t know how to be your friend without hurting you.”

Ouch

And finally loads of your straight friends have had gay sex, just FYI


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MTV Stars Discuss The Network’s LGBT Legacy And The Importance Of Visibility (Video)

Thankfully, over the year, MTV has been actively pushing for greater LGBT visibility on it’s television shows.

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Recently several cast members from the network’s various programs spoke with The Advocate about the importance of LGBT visibility in their own programs as well as their pride in being a part of MTV’s diverse legacy.


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15 Fictional Lesbian Couples That Are Ruining Our Collective Lives

If there’s one thing lesbians love, it’s other lesbians. Hey, we are notorious for jumping into a fandom just because of lesbian subtext – and sometimes that subtext is quite a reach! But 2015 was full of lesbian relationships (both on-screen and implied) just begging to take our attention.

And, of course, the lesbians obliged.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a shipper. I think I always have been, but for a long time it was really hard to see my ‘ships come true. Thankfully, the past few years have been very generous, and my inner matchmaker is giddy.

But what happens when these relationships don’t work out like they’re supposed to? Either the writers break them up, or they kill one off, or – even worse – they publicly announce that those characters are definitely not interested in each other, nor will they ever be.

Our hearts are broken on their behalf – it feels almost like our best friend’s cat died. We just have to learn to move on, and hope that, maybe someday, they’ll end up together after all.


#15. Palex (Paige and Alex, Degrassi)

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I was a huge Degrassi nerd as a teenager – I actually kept an active account on their little fan site (I can’t remember the name of it now) and made LiveJournal layouts with my favorite characters. OK, so it didn’t hurt that I happened to be around the same age as these kids, and they were going through things that were actually relevant in my life. When Paige and Alex kissed for the first time, it was one of the catalysts for me coming out. (True story.) The fact that their relationship is still breaking hearts almost ten years later means I’m not alone. (Although I did always want to see Alex get with Darcy!)


#14. Golly (Gail and Holly, Rookie Blue)

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While I have yet to watch Rookie Blue myself, I’m inclined to start. This show is your typical cop drama (I can get on board with that) – but there are female kissing scenes in it! I know it’s a bit of a stereotype, but one way to ensure you have lesbians in your audience is to have lesbian characters – and apparently the romance has a solid share of lovers and haters.


#13. Reamy (Reagan and Amy, Faking It)

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When I first started hearing about Faking It, I wasn’t really enthused. I sort of picked up that it was some high school girls pretending to be in a relationship with each other for some reason or another. But as time went on, I started seeing more and more members of the fandom popping up on my Tumblr – and I have to say, the pairing of Reagan and Amy is absolutely adorable. There are Reamy fans and there are Karmy fans, though – I wonder which ‘ship I’ll ship!


#12. Karmy (Karma and Amy, Faking It)

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This is one of those canon-but-not-really ships we see sometimes. The characters are confused for lesbians, and you want them to really be into each other, but one of them was really just faking it the whole time. (Hence the name of the show!) As someone who has had many straight friends pretend to be my girlfriend, I think I’d sympathize with Amy in this Faking It ‘ship.


#11. Annalise and Eve (How to Get Away with Murder)

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I love the idea of lesbian power couples (as I think most of us do), so Annalise and Even on HTGAWM are a match made in shipping heaven. Annalise is a high-profile defense attorney, and Eve is a lawyer who deals with death-row cases. The two are highly successful women with a passionate past – and of course we just know they’re going to get back together.


#10. Rizzles (Rizzoli and Isles, Rizzoli & Isles)

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Rizzoli & Isles follows Jane Rizzoli, a police officer, and Dr. Maura Isles, the Chief Medical Examiner. Although officially Rizzles are just best friends and colleagues, their lesbian fan base knows better. We can sense lesbian subtext when we see it, and these two belong together!


#9. Hollstein (Laura and Carmilla, Carmilla)

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Carmilla is a web show I haven’t gotten the chance to watch yet, but it seems to fill the need of all those vampire romance lovers out there who are disappointed at the availability of lesbian bloodsuckers. With as many lesbians love vampires, wouldn’t it make sense that there’d be more? Anyway, in true vampire romance fashion, Laura is a young student and Carmilla is a 300+-year-old vampire – naturally! But somehow, despite these significant cultural differences, they manage to find love. Unfortunately, even when you live forever, relationships can still end – but we can hope for a reunion!


#8. Cophine (Cosima and Delphine, Orphan Black)

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I can’t remember which KitschMix reader suggested I start watching Orphan Black, but I am so glad that I did – the relationship between Cosima and Delphine is complicated but beautiful (and Tatiana Maslany is gorgeous in every character). My partner has commented that she’s interested in seeing Helena in a lesbian relationship in the future – anyone want to ship it with her?


#7. Bubbline (Bubblegum Princess and Marceline, Adventure Time)

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One of my first sleepovers with my current partner involved her introducing me to Adventure Time – and naturally the subtext going on between Bubblegum Princess and Marceline. After a long conversation amongst the fans, in 2014 it was confirmed that BP and Marcy had, in fact, dated – putting all our little lesbian hearts aflutter. Sadly, things obviously didn’t work out between them – but it opens the door for different same-sex pairings in the future!


#6. Brittana (Brittany and Santana, Glee)

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Sometimes I feel like I’m the only lesbian ever who didn’t really get into Glee – but I spend enough time on Tumblr to get the gist of this ‘ship. For the five lesbians left who don’t watch the show, either, it details the comings and goings at your typical American high school. Brittany and Santana start off as BFWB’s, leading to them making out on screen and eventually confessing their love for each other. I do like that these girls are both cheerleaders, as opposed to the “traditional” softball or tennis playing lesbians. This relationship has gone back and forth, causing fans to rip their hair out in despair, but thankfully these two worked it out in the end and are apparently still together in the glimpse into 2020!


#5. Korrasami (Korra and Asami, Legends of Korra)

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It’s still pretty ground-breaking to show same-sex relationships in animated shows, so the confirmation of a relationship between Korra and Asami a little over a year ago was a pretty big deal to anime-loving shippers. Apparently, everyone should have seen Korrasami coming – but some people still claim it’s a “reach”. Rest assured: The writers confirmed that this ‘ship really did sail.


#4. Vauseman (Alex and Piper, Orange is the New Black)

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In my household, OITNB is one of very few shows all three of us watch religiously (me, my partner, and our puppy, of course). Alex and Piper are one of those couples that you don’t know why you want them to work it out, you just do. (I mean, it’s so obvious that they are terrible for each other! Why, why, why!) These two have been breaking hearts since the first season, but what’s eating at my heart is my poor sweet Nicky – please tell me she’s coming back in the next season!


#3. Bechloe (Becca and Chloe, Pitch Perfect)

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I honestly never had any intention of liking Pitch Perfect – I’m not a fan of musicals, after all, but I do have a giant crush on Anna Kendrick and Brittany Snow, separately – so, of course, when people start speculating about their characters getting together – I am definitely on board. When you find out that the actresses are actually on board with this idea, too – our Fictional Gaydar Senses go insane! Will they or won’t they? No one really knows where the future will take them, but you can always get your fill of their fanfiction in the meantime.


#2. Swan Queen (Regina and Emma, Once Upon a Time)

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If you want an example of “when shipping goes wrong”, look no further than the Swan Queen fandom. When Once Upon a Time crew members Et Kitsis and Adam Horowitz each confirmed that Swan Queen will never happen. These two characters are definitely both straight, but they’re not opposed to having gay characters in the future. However, unlike most sunken ‘ships, this one actually outraged fans – enough that some vowed to never watch the show again. Yikes – talk about an overreaction!


#1. Clexa (Clarke and Lexa, The 100)

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Clexa is a love story to rival Romeo and Juliet. They once were allies, but when Lexa betrays Clarke, all bets are off. Are they friends? Are they lovers? They’ve kissed, they’ve been through some tough spots, their feelings are still up in the air – but fans of The 100 want to know where this ‘ship is going, and soon!


So, which is it? Swanqueen, Karmy or Rizzles? Which fictional lesbian couple is currently ripping your life apart?

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Bi Erasure In Television Perfectly Summed Up In These Wonderful Memes

Are you tired of the straight-as-default trend in most media today? Are you tired of all queer subtext being read as gay or lesbian, but never bisexual? Then you are not alone.

Author and activist Nicole Kristal’s memes about bisexual TV characters hilariously point out, not a single one has used the word “bisexual” on screen.

Talking to Bustle, Kristal explained.

Labels are important because they create visibility and community, and they help dissolve shame.When you’re a minority group who cannot see a positive representation of yourself on television or in films, it’s damaging. It accounts for the horrific stats that have recently come out about bisexuals.”

In an effort to draw attention to bisexual erasure and its effect on individuals, Kristal created the #StillBisexual campaign last January, which features bisexuals discussing their sexuality and dating history in confessional-style videos.

I thought if people could see our bisexual stories, they would finally start to believe that we exist.

When bisexuality is depicted on television, it’s often shown as a transitional stop on the road to gay town …or as ambiguous and undefined. Characters almost never say the b word, especially not in reference to themselves, and often times their sexuality is used as a plot twist rather than a permanent identity.”

As a result, Kristal created memes featuring frustrated TV characters…

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Introducing, ‘The Flannel Channel’, A Web Series About Falling For Your BFF

If you ask a queer woman about whether or not she’s ever fallen for her best friend, there’s a strong likelihood that she’ll say yes. When your best gal pal is constantly by your side, being cute as a button, laugh out loud hilarious and oh so endearing, it’s bound to happen, especially when you’re a young adult not yet old (or wise) enough to explore the wider dating scene.

One of the most current examples of the trope recently is Faking It, but with the MTV show (which is all about a high school lesbian who discovers her sexuality and falls in love with her best friend) proving to be incredibly offensive and being filled to the brim with unlikeable characters, it’s not particularly helpful to viewers who are going through a similar thing and are in desperate need of some advice or just something to make them laugh.

So, a god alternative is the new Tello Films web series The Flannel Channel which describes itself as being like “Faking It but without the straight people” and it was also created with “combined forces of a lesbian and a gay man who were tired of seeing LGBTQ+ characters portrayed in the same predictable ways!”, says co-creator Jessica Nicholas.

The show is all about a girl named Jordan (played by Kaytra Parkman) who sets up an online video channel as she is in desperate need of advice – she’s fallen in love with her BFF Ashley (played by Megan DeHart) and doesn’t know what to do about it.

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Turning the trope on its head though, The Flannel Channel stays true to its word as Ashley isn’t a straight girl and there will be no lucky horseshoe kissing or praying to four leaf clovers in the hope that Ashley will suddenly be attracted to women – Jordan being that woman in particular. No, Ashley is actually bisexual.

Viewers, along with Jordan (who is aided by her gay guy friend Joe in some of the videos) will agonise over whether or not the two girls (Jashley? Ashdan?) are meant to be together or whether they’re just destined to be a couple of non-het gal pals who stay friends until the end.

The Flannel Channel has five episodes and you can watch them all now over at Tello.

Karma and Amy Share Steamy Kiss In This ‘Faking It’ Trailer (Video)

WOW!! It looks like chemistry is in the making when our favourite Faking It BFFs – Karma and Amy – share a hot swimming pool kissing in the new season trailer.

The dramedy, which due to return August 31st, looks heat up several other relationships too.
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‘Faking It’ Renewed for a Third Season AND there’s a New Spice Season 2B Promo

There’s nothing fake about this news: MTV has renewed its team comedy Faking It for Season 3, and we have been given a new premiere date the second half of Season 2 – the 31st August 2015. And although the summer seems so far away, it’s never too early to have feelings and make judgements about what’s in store for our favourite fake lesbian couple.

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MTV’s half hour drama/comedy had a bit of a rocky start. As one of few shows to feature a queer female lead, Faking It focused on two characters, Amy, who was in love with her best friend, Karma. Many people liked the show, but it weaved a complicated web in its portrayal of queer women.

The girls, in the very first episode, are actually forced into pretending that they are dating when a (queer, male) classmate outs them at a party. Hardly the most progressive way of portraying a ‘coming out story’ is it? And then, to make matters so much worse, the series ended with Amy being rejected by Karma only to drunkenly sleep with Karma’s male love interest.

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However, season 2 looked to correct some of these issues and the show has started to blossom, developing queer characters we can kind of relate too.

 

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | Faking It 210 Recap – Busted

Welcome to another Faking It recap! Faking It also know as that show you’re probably ashamed to let everybody know you watch (you’re secret’s safe with us, do not fear!)

This week in the show, a whole lot of everything happened as this is the mid-season finale.

As always, the recap is split into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly, so read on to find out what went down this week.

The Plot

After last week’s drama, everyone is looking to overcome it. Amy is sad that Karma wants nothing to do with her (and that she has now returned her box of friendship trinkets) but she is determined to fix it, things are ‘unbearable at home’ for Liam since he told everyone that his ‘sister’ is actually his mom and is going to try and win and art fellowship, Shane is contemplating outing his ex-boyfriend Duke and Lauren is running for class president since boyfriend Theo skipped out on her.

Not that it’s going to be easy for any of them though. Karma straight up ignores Amy in the cafeteria, whilst the art fellowship man isn’t convinced that any of Liam’s work has meaning (yeah, us either). As for Lauren, her chances of succeeding in this school democracy are dashed when Shane is revealed as her likeable and popular opposition.

Amy is the first to try and dig herself out of a bad situation when she speaks to Karma’s mother at the juice truck. Karma’s mum won’t help though and any hopes Amy had of convincing her otherwise get steamrolled by Karma point blank telling her mother not to speak to Amy. They may be talking a whole lot soon though…

Jumping out of a police car is Theo. Badge on show, gun in pocket, Theo and his team of police officers arrest Karma’s parents as they’ve been dealing illegal drugs from their food truck. Uh-oh. Karma gets arrested too, having worked at the truck for a time and not wanting her friend to go down alone, Amy welts Theo in the face so they can all go down together. Friendship!

As Liam is elated to find out that he got the fellowship after all (because putting pipes together to say ‘Karma’ in a shadow is ‘art’?), Lauren is anything but. Outraged that Theo could have lied to her, she storms into school and breaks down in front of Shane. She wasn’t going to win anyway, she says, crying. Not even Shane’s confession about Duke cheers her up – instead she says she feels sorry for Duke’s new beard of a girlfriend as she deserves to know the truth about her closeted boyfriend.

Banged up, Karma and Amy can’t even sit on the same side of their jail cell. Karma is still too angry at Amy for having slept with Liam. It’ll take a whole lot of emotions to fix this then – and that’s exactly what Amy serves up in a heart-wrenching speech about how she’s loved Karma for as long as she can remember, even if it took her some time to realise it. Does it work? You betcha, and all that honesty sees Karma deciding that they should still be besties.

They’ll also get to be besties on the right side of a jail cell when Liam makes a deal with the literal devil (ok, he cuts a deal with his dad but same difference in this case) that Karma and co. can get out of jail if Liam agrees to forego that fellowship and become a pawn in the family corporation instead. Free and happy thanks to Liam, Karma and Amy hug and make up and Karma sends Amy on her way to a hot camping date with her girlfriend, Reagan.

Still suffering from the repercussions of the drama is Lauren. She asks Theo if any of it was real – presumably including their relationship. His answer? ‘No’. Ouch. She screams at him and says she opened her heart to him she even told him that she’s intersex and there it is – Lauren accidentally outs herself to the student body – she leaves, offering a ‘fuck off’ to a school journalist as she goes.

Don’t worry though! There’s still hope for one heterosexual couple on this show. Well, sort of. Liam and Karma hook up in the art room, Karma having sort of forgiven him for sleeping with her best friend. Unfortunately (for her), she can’t seem to get the image of Liam and Amy kissing out of her head and when her and Liam are done with the hooking up, that becomes all she can think of.

Also, although Theo has left her a woman scorned, the school journalist and all of Shane’s followers soon join the #TeamLauren cause and vow to help her win school presidency.

The Gay

Similarly, as Amy and Reagan put the sturdiness of their tent pegs to good use, Amy starts to imagine Karma making out with her. It’s uh…something.

I suppose Reamy shippers will be disappointed by it but for those of you still on the good ship Karmy – now is the time to wave those flags around!

More happy gays as Duke does a press conference about his sexuality confirming that not only is he gay but that he’s in love with Shane. Due to the circumstances in which the confession came about (read below) I’m not in favour of them as a couple but yay to representation, I guess?

The Ugly

Faking It, you’re really testing me. As in, despite ‘outing’ being the consistent complaint that everyone has with this show, you continue to make it a plot point.

This week’s episode even started with Shane saying that he’s done with outing people and then in the next breath he suggests outing Duke. And, despite battling with it a little bit and vowing again to turn over a new leaf (that’s what the school presidency was all about) he does eventually settle on outing him, deciding to leak Duke’s sexuality to a gossip rag.

This is absolutely deplorable – along with the fact that Shane is still promoted as one of the most wholesome lovely characters on this show. Disgusting on so many levels and I sincerely hope the Faking It writers buck up their ideas when the show comes back after Christmas. Expect a new episode and another recap then.

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | Faking It 209 Recap – Karmic Retribution

Welcome to another Faking It recap! Faking It also known as that moderately okay queer TV show from the channel that brings you the latest in hetero-leaning love songs!

This week in Faking It, there actually wasn’t a lot of gay. But in the spirit of the show, let’s fake our enthusiasm and hope for more in future!

As always, the recap is split into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly, so read on to find out what went down this week.

The Plot

Last week saw Karma find out that her boyfriend Liam had slept with her best friend Amy. The end of the episode saw Karma throw him out of her room in a rage! This week we see the fallout from that.

That ‘fallout’ has to be put on hold for all of 15 minutes though as after waltzing into school in a frenzy, worried that Karma will put her head on a stick, Amy is actually comforted by a lovely cuddle from her BFF. Karma tells her “The only person to blame is Liam F*****g Booker!”. Success? Success!

Convinced that Liam has forced her into silence, Karma chooses not to hate her best friend, which is just as well as part of Hester High’s annual social experiment, Amy is set to become Karma’s servant! Rain Dweller and Cloud Spinner robes donned, the two are joined in the social hierarchy by lowly Mud Movers Liam, Shane and Lauren along with Theo who’s part of police group Fire Dancers.

Sadly, the first instances of social tension creep in when Theo isn’t too keen on switching with Mud Mover Layla to hang out with new girlfriend Lauren. Instead, he says, he’d rather ‘play by the rules’ and hang out with pot dealer Brandy. Awkward!

Also dealing with the new rules are Liam and Karma, Karman who as a Cloud Spinner (adorably referred to as a ‘Salad Spinner’ by Amy) decides that Mud Movers aren’t to interact with them in an effort to get Liam off her case. Mud Movers’ punishment for violating this? They’ll be shot by a Fire Dancer and anyone who gets shot is ‘dead’ and is relegated to the basement to watch ancient sex education videos. But, despite staying well away from Cloud Spinners, Liam’s aggressive texting to Karma gets every single one of the Mud Movers’ phones taken off of them.

Naturally, Lauren, Liam and Shane who has also been making good use of his phone (to text his closeted ex-boyfriend) hatch a plan over a lunch of unidentifiable slop to break into the Cloud Spinners lair and get their phones back. Also to cause anarchy. Same difference really. Plan engaged, the Mud Movers bust into the lair Trojan Horse style via an ice cream cart but foiled in an instance, Liam pays the ultimate price. Despite apologising, trying to convince Karma that Amy is as guilty as he is and even telling Karma he loves her, she shoots him with a Fire Dancer’s gun and so off to the basement with him.

Elsewhere in hetero-loveland, Lauren confronts Theo about his avoidance. He says he’s not interested in Brandy, he only wants Lauren and doesn’t care that she was born intersex. Aww, it’s the cutest. He even says he wants to set up a meeting with her after school to tell her a secret of his own!

Still not satisfied with having shot Liam earlier in the episode, Karma calls a meeting to put Liam’s dirty laundry on blast. She plans to tell the school that Liam’s family are big corporation owning meanies, but before she gets a chance, Rain Dweller Amy shoots her and has Karma sent to the basement before she can say another word. Amy’s punishment? She’s shot and sent to the basement too. Ah, the three, love triangled musketeers reunited at once!

Abstinence videos playing, Amy defends her Karma shooting, telling her it would have been a bad idea to tell the whole school about Liam’s family secret. Furthermore, Liam’s family stuff is “a lot more complicated than that”. Uh oh, how does Amy know about Liam’s family? That’s precisely what Karma asks and as she’s not privy to Amy showing up and causing trouble at Liam’s house a few episodes ago, automatically assumes that something more is going on between them.

Making an emotional plea to forgive or hate them both, Amy explains that she was selfish. Karma’s verdict? She decides to hate them both and we later see her ignoring a text from Amy and ripping down all of the Karmy photos she has stuck on her mirror. Heartbreak emoji times 50, y’all.

As for Lauren waiting for Theo, she waits and waits and waits and waits. He doesn’t show.

The Gay

The only gay we get in this episode is right at the beginning of the episode. Girlfriend Reagan wakes Amy up with a few kisses, apparently having slept together the night before. It’s the shortest scene in the history of short scenes, but Reamy shippers eat your heart out.

The Ugly

I have quite a lot of issues with Karma, namely that she is oft presented as the good guy. Over the last two seasons we’ve seen her walk all over Amy like a doormat with her name on it so although she was probably quite right to be mad at Amy for sleeping with Liam (and vice versa) where is the retribution for all of the times that Karma has treated Amy like dirt (dare I say, like a Mud Mover)?

The next episode appears to be the last in this half of the series so stay tuned for my recap of that.

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | Faking It 208 Recap – Zen and the Art of Pageantry

Welcome to another Faking It recap! Faking It also known as the show where the motto is ‘fake it till you make it: including your sexuality, your secret drunken trysts and the manipulative friendships you have with those you care about!’

This week on the show, the gays try to bring down The Establishment on more than one account and Amy makes out with a girl (again). Basically top notch viewing.

As always, the recap is split into The Ploy, The Gay and The Ugly so read on to find out what happened this week.

The Plot

Aw, what a sparkly sequined dress Lauren has! Isn’t it just horrible and makes you want to fry your eyeballs in a pan? As horrible as Lauren’s choice in formalwear is, it’s been picked for a very good reason – the local beauty pageant. Seeing her mum coo over Lauren, that familiar pang of jealously gets Amy and so wanting to impress her, our favourite queer Texan teen hatches a plan with girlfriend Reagan to enter the pageant and win.

Only Reagan has other ideas, namely she wants to expose the beauty industry for what it is: a terrible monstrous thing that wants to exploit women! With a slideshow and laptop in hand the plan is to publicly shame the pageant as Amy tears into them via a well written speech.

As expected, Amy chickens out, the hopes of impressing her mum proving too strong. As she’s asked what she thinks of pageants she provides a diplomatic answer, disappointing Reagan and boosting Lauren in the process. Enraged by the pageant system that’s been shuffling her onto stages, in bikinis with high heels (worn together! Ludicrous!) she yanks the mic and rips the pageant folk a new one, proceeding to throw her bra fillers into the crowd and hit a judge in the face. Following the debacle, she meets up with boyfriend Theo and tells him about her being intersex. The whole 3 minutes was incredible.

Meanwhile with the boring and mildly irritating heterosexuals (aka Liam and Karma), they are having dinner with Karma’s parents and her brother Zen, choosing the meal to ‘come out’ about the fact that they are dating because Karma is now straight after being a fake lesbian for an entire series. After a bit of ‘will she won’t she’ she eventually confesses that Liam is her boyfriend and that she was worried that her parents wouldn’t be proud of her any more. It’s sort of lovely to see them love her anyway actually (even if brother Zen soon steals the limelight).

After dinner, the MIHs (their official name now) head upstairs for some sloppy making out, with Karma telling Liam that she’s so glad that they can be honest with each other Welp. Of course Liam takes this very moment to confess that not only did he sleep with someone the night that he and Karma broke up but that that someone was her best friend, Amy. Double welp with a cherry on top.

 

The Gay

Things aren’t going better for the Sometimes Irritating But Mostly Just Angelic Homosexuals (don’t worry, I shan’t be abbreviating that and making it A Thing) either.

Still trying to drag his boyfriend out of the closet, kicking and screaming (and not in a good way), Shane is heartbroken this week when his hunky trainer boyfriend gets a new sports sponsorship. Only it’s not from your friendly marriage equality non-profit, but his new sponsor is a homophobic chicken company.

Sadly his dreams of going pro are just stronger than Shane’s protests! He chows down on that burger like he hasn’t eaten in three weeks. Yeah, get that anti-gay money, son.

As for Amy and Reagan, Reagan is still hurt and wants to know if Amy’s heart is really in it. She ditched the plan and she didn’t introduce Reagan as her girlfriend! Amy is very much into her and they make out. A lot. As Amy’s phone lights up (it’s on silent) because Liam has just texted her. Drama!

The Ugly

It was that aforementioned Amy/Reagan scene that I had a bone to pick with. Make outs and heavy petting aside, Reagan also asked Amy if she was straight, explaining that she once had a girlfriend who ditched her for her ex-boyfriend, saying that her Reagan dating was just ‘a phase’.

Faking It doesn’t have the best track record with bisexuality and this rubbed me the wrong way. It wasn’t explicitly biphobic, but it was suggested, y’know? Like Reagan would have a problem if
Amy was into girls and guys as opposed to one or the other. This will only blow up once Reagan inevitably finds out that Amy and Liam slept together so expect another scene like it to end up in ‘The Ugly’ section soon.

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | Faking It 207 Recap – Date Expectations

Welcome to Faking It! The show where all of the high school teens are played by actors well on their way to 30 years old and everyone is either ridiculously attractive, ridiculously clueless or both.

This week on the show, Karma really wants to meet Amy’s new girlfriend meanwhile Shane is trying to out someone (again). Such fun!

As always the recap is split into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly, so read on to find out went down this week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMgKXy1oNoU

The Plot

This week’s episode of Faking It was the best of the season so far! Each with their choice of love interests (Karma and Liam, Shane and his trainer, Lauren and Theo, Amy and Reagan) they’re all pretty much keeping to themselves. Lauren yells Theo into submission to take her on a date, Amy and Reagan have plans of their own, Karma and Liam are sort of getting on with whatever boring things insufferable characters do meanwhile Shane is trying to coax (read: mercilessly yank) his trainer out of the closet via something called a “group hang”.

What the hell is a group hang? Apparently it’s what the cool kids call ‘gathering in medium to large numbers’, aka ‘hanging out’ and Shane thinks that a group hang will give his closeted trainer boyfriend an excuse to meet his friends and maybe tumble out of the closet. Or something.

There’s some resistance from Karma though but after some conniving manipulation he convinces her that she needs to come along to check up on Amy and Reagan to make sure that Reagan isn’t some lesbian witch who wants to have her wicked way with Karma’s best friend. Karma wants to protect Amy but personally, after placing her feelings in Karma I think a wicked lesbian witch would be a massive step up.

And so there we have it! All four couples are at a sharing eatery where you have to share everything you order with one another. That’s disastrous for everyone but Lauren is the first to make the most of it, convincing Shane’s boyfriend to flirt with her to make Theo jealous. Their time at the restaurant ends with them making it so go figure.

The Gay

Everything else that happened though, falls squarely into ‘The Gay’.

It all kicks off when Amy/Reagan and Karma/Liam are sat right next to each other. About as jealous as you can be when you feel as though your best friend is being stolen away from you, Karma flaunts off her knowledge of Amy. From their past field trips at school to her favourite foods (mushrooms), Karma is keen to show that she knows Amy best. And in some respects she does, but Regan, who started off the episode making out with Amy and asking her about her friends has never heard of Karma at all, despite prompting Amy to reveal more that very morning. So, she’s equally as possessive.

So possessive that when she order the kale and encourages Amy to eat it, Amy ends up having an allergic reaction to the peanut oil that the dish is covered in because she was unaware of her allergy. Does Amy pass out? Die? End up in hospital? Well she probably would have wished for either of those outcomes as after Karma stabs her leg with the epipen that she carries round for just these moments Reagan becomes more frustrated, outright asking if Amy is in love with her.

Amy was in love with Karma and she tells Reagan that. Reagan storms out and Amy, hurt that her girlfriend probably wants nothing to do with her, sits looking glum. It’s not until Liam steps up and tells Karma to put a sock in it that she realises she needs to run out and get her girl!

Amy sprints out to the parking lot and begs Reagan not to go; but Karma has followed them out. So Amy does the only thing she can really, she tells Karma off and tells her that she’s making things worse. But! After some heartfelt explaining that yes Karma will always be a part of her life but she wants a future with Reagan, the two girls (literally) kiss and make up.

Across town Shane and his trainer are having a heated debate about Shane’s repeated attempts at getting him to come out. His trainer says he has to stay closeted for his career but that he *might* come out at some point for Shane. Aw!

But then! Star sweep across town once more and Karma and Liam are sat talking about the evening’s events in his car. Liam outright asks “sometimes I wonder if I’m the one you wanna be with” and while I was gasping, yelling and shouting at the screen (all at once, it was very impressive) Karma tried and failed to appeal to Liam who was having none of it. And then! When she got out of the car she started crying!

What a whirlwind.

The Ugly

This would have been the perfect episode of Faking It save for Shane trying to out someone again.

At this point I’m wondering fi the writers even listen to criticism because we’re on what? Our fifth outing/attempted outing at this point? And still it’s a sad trope that keeps happening.

Suggesting that outing is normal and even condoned by people in the LGBTQ+ community is really gross and toxic because people will watch this and fail to realise why outing is wrong. Faking It should be ashamed that it keeps doing this, really.

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | Faking It 206 Recap – The Ecstasy and the Agony

Welcome to another Faking It recap! Faking It known as the teen comedy/drama that will break your heart and try and tape it back together with half decent comedic timing!

This week on the show, we met up with Amy’s new love interest once again, #TeamSass (Amy, Lauren, Shane) attended a rave and Karma and Liam’s plot line sent everybody to sleep!

As always, the recap is separated into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly, so read on to find out what went down this week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdfiYgSDEg4

The Plot

What’s a girl to do when the boy she just exchanged mouth fluids with won’t text her back and even her sexuality confused step-sister stands half a chance of getting some? She’s going to tag along with her and her gay bestie to an all night rave, of course!

The lights are neon, the bodies are sweaty and the drinks are flowing like an iceberg slap bang in the middle of the Sahara, so obviously it’s the perfect place for Shane, Lauren and Amy to dance away their love troubles and get #crunk as the kids would say. (Are kids saying that? My go to word is ‘groovy’.)

Karma meanwhile, is getting her kicks in a much more tedious (read: generically heterosexual) way at school as she’s attending the Hester High art show with new boyfriend Liam. And, by kicks, I mean ‘having boyfriend trouble’.

You see, crippled by the soul-crushing guilt of having slept with her best friend and his serious commitment issues, Liam can’t call Karma his girlfriend. Despite how hard he tries the word just won’t escape his mouth! Poor thing, he’s finally seeing the girl he likes but he can’t open up to her (maybe try being honest with her next time? Just a hint).

Karma, fretting about the pending implosion of her budding het romance rings up Amy begging for her help. They cat and mouse for a while because Amy is still caught up in those Mushy, Gushy feelings for Karma that she told her best friend about just weeks ago and when she finally answers, Amy essentially tells her friend to stuff it because she can’t hear about her love life like this.

Liam gets a similar response when he rings Shane and so is left to wonder around the exhibit (his piece is a bunch of tangled metal pipes that says ‘KARMA’, ironically) and ponder his existence/the future of the relationship.

Being caught up in their friends’ drama however, the two leave Lauren to party it out in her own little world. She’s jamming away, she’s really going for it. And then she accidentally takes a pill of ecstasy, mistaking it for an aspirin. Whoops. She’s pissed when she finds out, obviously and goes to ride/cry it out amongst a pile of coats in a cupboard.
It all ends up well for the heterosexuals in the end though! Liam admits that he doesn’t think he can be Karma’s Prince Charming while she says that they should agree to be better people and give their relationship a shot. I say that they’re both pretty awful and that terribleness must be attracted to each other, but alas it’s not up to me.

Lauren is also rescued by love interest Theo who is harbouring a Highly Sensitive secret that’s still being teased like you wouldn’t believe.

The Gay

Shane’s love life is minimal in this week’s episode of Faking It save for some definitely not safe for work photos from the closeted MMA trainer from last week.

More importantly: Amy’s love interest makes a new appearance! Knowing each other as ‘Shrimp Girl’ and ‘Cater Waiter’ the two make light jokes as Reagan (the cater waiter of this budding romance) shows up as the DJ for the rave that #TeamSass are attending.

It’s all ‘I’ll help you push your records cart’ and ‘I’ll make eyes at you from my DJ booth’ until Amy finally gets the courage to go up there and share Reagan’s oversized headphones. Aww! They are genuinely adorable together and agree to exchange numbers, go on a date and all that jazz. It’s confirmed that they make out next week too so now is as good a time as ever to get invested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUQuhFvCzQQ

The Ugly

While the entirety of the #Kiam storyline was a total snoozefest, what bothered me the most is that Reagan is 19. Amy confirms it in a conversation with Karma at the end of the episode but keeping in mind that Amy is just 15 years old (a legal child) and Reagan is an adult with an apartment and a good many years on her new girlfriend, it’s a bit concerning.

It skeeves me out and while I’ll inevitably fall into a shipping spiral for the two of them, that age gap is definitely…something.

‘GLAAD: All Access’ is Talking With The People Making a Difference For Equality

GLAAD has launched a new online video series – ‘GLAAD: All Access’ – that features interviews with newsmakers, hit-makers, and people making a difference for equality. The series is hosted by Claire Pires, who formerly worked at ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’.

In the series’ premiere episode, Pires talks with Emmy-nominated actress Laverne Cox about her groundbreaking documentary, ‘Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word‘, which introduced millions of viewers to transgender youth making a difference.

“Telling our stories is so deeply important. But the way in which our stories are told can really make a huge difference in terms of whether the message gets out about our humanity and the complexity of our humanity.”

Laverne Cox

The series’ second episode, features an exclusive interview with Ugandan LGBT advocate Clare Byarugaba of the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law, who discusses the horrific violence and oppression facing LGBT Ugandans.

 

Episode 3, features an interview with ‘Faking It’ stars Rita Volk and Michael Willett, who talk about the importance of LGBT and intersex representation on TV.

In episode 4, host Claire Pires talked with editor-in-chief of Rookiemag.com and feminist Tavi Gevinson about the importance of LGBT content in her new book, Rookie Yearbook Three.

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | Faking It 205 Recap – Present Tense

Welcome to another recap of Faking It! Faking It also known as the show where all the men are The Worst and bad things happen to lesbians.

This week on the show, Amy is the world’s best friend, Karma is sad about a boy and Liam is a a useless, crusty dishrag. So like most episodes then!

As always, our recaps are split into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly so read on to find out what happened this week.

The Plot

There’s no way to say happy birthday to your best friend in the whole wide world (and also the girl who you are madly in love with) like a day-long scavenger hunt that celebrates the important parts of your friendship, right? That’s what Amy does for Karma’s 16th this week on Faking It, wrenching her straight friend out of a lovey dovey staring contest with hunky loaf Liam Booker.

Part one of the super birthday scavenger extravaganza involves…rummaging through a load of balls. Plastic ones, mind you, but the task still proves tiresome for the two best friends especially when Karma is stressing over a birthday note that Liam slipped into her locker. Amy stole it on the sly and Karma is distracted but that doesn’t mean that the birthday fun times must end.

Part two saw Amy and Karma having tea with Karma’s psychic aunt, Sage. Flying all the way in from Arizona, Amy’s second gift was a tea leaf reading so that Karma can find out what the gods of fate have in store for her. What do the leaves say? That ‘someone’ is standing in the way of Karma and her true love. The idea is that we’re meant to think that Amy is standing in the way of Karma and Liam but Amy will be damned if she’s be handing over the note just yet.

The two have a slight scuffle as Karma lies through her impossibly perfect teeth that the letter is from Erma the lunch lady before she eventually ‘fesses up and says it’s from Liam. Cue sadfaces all round when Amy hands over the note before Karma rips it up explaining that she sacrificed Liam and ‘chose Amy’ instead. Amy notes that it doesn’t feel like it, at which point I simultaneously wanted to cry and high five her.

A heart to heart with her mum and the offer of a boob job to get over her #Karmy feelings later and Amy meets Karma at school for the final section of the world’s most disastrous scavenger hunt. There are doll houses meant to represent how they’d live side by side, but now they realise that rather than being the bestest neighbours, coming over for tea and biccies, they’ll probably be y’know, living with their partners and children in them instead.

It’s sad until Amy becomes the MVP saying that she thought about standing in the way of Karma and Liam but the angel on her shoulder told her to do right by her friend and not her feelings. This is soon backed up by Liam showing up (per an invite from Amy) as one of Karma’s birthday gifts.

And as for that letter from Liam? All it said was ‘happy birthday’. Who said chivalry was dead…

The two also meet up again afterwards, Amy giving Karma the half of a friendship necklace that she spent hours winning from an arcade. Aww!

Other heterosexual pairings are preparing to shack up and mash their tongues together in admiration across town at a martial arts class that Lauren and Shane followed Liam and new boy Theo to. The plan is to punch out their feelings but cut to the chase, it ends with Lauren and Theo admitting that they like each other and kissing after class. Finally! It’s not all love and stuff though as Theo pegs it for some unknown reason that we probably won’t find out until the season finale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCmgKCL3znY

The Gay

With Karmy off the cards this week, the gay romance was left to Shane.

Convinced that the martial arts instructor has a profile on a gay hookup app, Shane makes it his business to seduce him and/or prove it via the means of sweaty shirtless body slams in the name of ‘health and fitness’.

Shane loses a bet with Theo about the man’s sexuality when he refuses to come out in the middle of the class but he still wins some sort of prize when he and the instructor have sex in the parking lot. Yay to breaking public indecency laws!

The Ugly

In quite candid terms, this episode of Faking It was a real stinker.

The Karmy content of this episode made me incredibly uncomfortable not because Karma treated Amy incredibly disrespectfully (because she did – the way she clearly didn’t appreciate or acknowledge the effort Amy went through to plan the day was downright rude) but because the show made attempts to gloss over it.

Although Amy flew in one of her relatives, spent almost an entire day winning the necklace and then planned the scavenger hunt itself, Karma doesn’t seem that into it and the show sadly makes this friendship dynamic seem normal and ok. In season one Amy expressed her frustration about Karma walking all over her like a doormat (and that was before she told her she loved her) so the fact that it’s still going on here was really unfortunate.

I also didn’t like the way that despite outing being Faking It’s biggest problem to date, it was almost used a plot device again this week. This is the third time this has happened and I found it really gross that Shane was willing to out the martial arts instructor for the sake of a bet. Never mind that the state they’re in (Texas) is incredibly conservative and being outed could have ruined the man’s career. Absolutely shocking.

So a disappointing 20 minutes overall, but girl group Fifth Harmony make a guest appearance next week and Reagan (the cute, queer waiter from last week’s episode) also makes a return. Better things to come then.

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | Faking It 204 Recap – Know Thy Selfie

Welcome to another Faking It recap! Faking It also known as the show that’s 5 parts ridiculousness, 3 parts heartbreak and 2 parts slightly questionable queer representation!

This week on the show there’s a whole lot of drama, a new love interest for Amy and Laverne Cox makes a guest appearance!

As always, our recaps are split into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly so read on to find out what happened this week.

The Plot

Remember last season when the school started to protest against the search engine company that Liam’s family owns (that wasn’t at all modelled against Google, no way!), Liam ended up hooking up with one the protesters, Karma was sad about said hooking up and Amy was sad about Karma’s sadness? Of course you do.

Well, that storyline is rearing its ugly head once again this season as Liam’s family is hosting a celebratory bash. Unfortunately for Liam, Amy soon shows up to kick his teeth in as he’s been threatening to tell Karma that she and him slept together. DUN DUN DUN! She keeps quiet though, if only because she wants to make his life a living hell just to make him promise to stay hushed. Atta girl, Amy.

Bonding between Amy and Liam’s “sister” ensues when the former tells everybody that she’s Liam’s date and so she needs a dress for the party. It’s almost cute, watching Amy meet Liam’s relatives. They’re rich and a bit up themselves but for a good 30 seconds they seem like nice people.

It soon goes downhill rapidly though after Amy tells everyone she’s pregnant, but just kidding! It’s a joke, “a little in-law humour to break the ice” she explains, but Liam locks her in a storage room anyway.

Hightailing it out of the storage cupboard (insert closet joke here), Amy soon reveals that Liam hates the family business and led a protest against them and that he also slept with Amy’s best friend. Good god. After a stern talking to by his “father” Liam looks bitter and deciding to damn it all to hell, he tells all of the partygoers that not only is his sister not his sister, she’s also his mother. Telenovela writers eat your heart out.

It does end somewhat well though when Liam agrees not to tell Karma about he and Amy’s hook up. He says he knows now what secrets do to people and he doesn’t want to spoil Karma’s day by telling it to her. It’s almost sweet! I can almost forgive the oddly accented piece of eggy bread. I really do hope MTV continues with the character development.

Segway over to Hester High’s campus and Karma, Shane, Lauren and returning character Oliver are having a little character development of their own. Episode guest star Laverne Cox (of Orange is the New Black fame) stars as the school’s drama teacher, putting the character through a hilarious series of acting, singing and dancing trials.

It’s actually really entertaining! Laverne is sassy, fierce and all of those other synonyms and I’m so glad she was a part of the episode. The other actors pull their comedy weight too, warbling really awful high notes and flinging each other about on stage in the name of ‘interpretative dance’.

The most notable thing of that half of the episode was that Karma told the auditorium that her and Amy’s relationship was faker than a Burberry wallet from a market stall and how that affected her. Would I prefer this big emotional run down to be said by Amy instead? Well yeah, but this was heartfelt nonetheless.

The Gay

Not much to report on this week on account of Amy and Karma being in separate storylines but there was one big/little thing: Amy’s new love interest!

In that closet (again with the obvious jokes) Amy meets her new love interest Reagan. They don’t exchange many words but Reagan, a member of the catering staff, does agree when Amy says that she ‘doesn’t have many boyfriends around her’ which is about as big a hint we’re going to get until the two meet again.

The Ugly

My concern with the show (again) is all about outing. Faking It has a history of this, as recently as the second episode of this season where Amy and Karma nearly outed Lauren for being intersex and here it nearly happened again.

When it was Lauren’s turn for the acting trial Laverne’s character asked her about the mysterious ‘pills’ that Lauren has been taking. Never mind that this is wildly inappropriate for a teacher to be asking about (even one with unorthodox teaching methods) but it would force Lauren to come out when she probably wasn’t comfortable in doing so.

I didn’t like the way that the show did this and I’m really disappointed.

Hopefully this nonsense will disappear once and for all in next week’s episode.

The Plot, The Gay, The Ugly | Faking It – 203 Recap: Beware of the Thirdwheel

Welcome to this week’s Faking It recap! Faking It, also known as the show that takes all of your nightmares about falling in love with a straight woman and makes it a painful, scripted television series!

This week at Hester High, the blue oasis in the red sea of Texas is embracing all things Brazilian, Liam reveals a huge secret and Amy gets to kiss a girl who is actually into her! Whoo, big stuff.

As always, things are divided into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly, so read on to find out what the hell happened.

The Plot

At Hester High this week, the school is embracing the party spirit when its partner school from Brazil sends a busload of stupidly attractive, flirty students and tells them to have fun for the week. The reason for this? There isn’t one really, but Katie Stevens (who plays Karma) speaks Portuguese so let that be an excuse for her to speak it.

After wringing the principal’s arm last season so that she could become the events leader, Lauren is in charge of setting up a carnival to welcome the students. But, failing to understand the difference between a carnival (fairground rides, sugary snacks, attempts at throwing things to win stuffed animals) and carnivals the way the Brazilians know them (dancing, partying, the whole shebang) the visitors get a slice of North American culture.

As well as being an organisational nightmare for Lauren, who ropes in new boy Theo to help her man one of the aforementioned stuffed animal booths, it’s basically an excuse for the main cast to get their love on.

For Liam though, this won’t be so easy as the lovestruck softie (read: one dimensional loaf of bread) is still pining over Karma and feeling bad that he got drunk and slept with Amy. Obviously, after weeks of Amy explicitly telling him not to say anything to anyone and Liam promising to keep quiet, he tells his best friend Shane. Shane, also known as the guy who outed Amy and Karma last season and cannot keep a secret to save his life. Yup, this is going to end well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXH0SzARAcc

The Gay

Amy got to kiss a girl who’s not Karma! That in itself should probably be a reason to rejoice – for those who are looking forward to Amy moving on from Karma, anyway – but for Amy it’s about her finding herself and coming to terms with her sexuality.

Despite Karma saying that she is 100% totally not in love with Amy, proceeds to follow her BFF round translating for her. There’s a date Amy goes on with a boy that Karma messes up when she doesn’t directly translate what they’re saying to each other, instead playing adlibs and when Amy moves on to date a girl, Karma spies on that too.

She spies from afar though, which is lucky. Amy complains to the girl about Karma and after not really understanding very well, the girl asks if they should kiss. They do and Karma puts her binoculars to her face to get a better look. I’m sure all viewers can relate.

Amy and her new Brazilian love interest won’t last though, the plot was that the students are just there for a week and as Amy was put off by the girl’s fake tan, it’s unlikely that they’ll do the long distance thing either.

As for Faking It’s other canonly gay character, Shane, he is officially single. As I speculated in last week’s recap, he and his boyfriend have broken up so we’ll see if he gets another long term love in the upcoming episodes.

The Ugly

I’m thrilled to report that there was actually very little complain about, which makes a change.
I was put off by the way Shane spoke about women in this episode (he referred to one as a ‘grenade’ to say that she was ugly) and there’s a scene where Liam squirts sun tan lotion everywhere which is a lot more vulgar in context.

I’m also concerned that Faking It will see Karma running back to Liam despite betraying her trust by not telling her that he and Amy slept together, while Amy will be left out in the cold for doing exactly the same. I can’t say for certain that that will happen but I’ll let that theory go once I see how this storyline plays out.

Weekly Recap: Gotham, Faking It and HTGAWM Have Strong Second Weeks

Hundreds of channels! Hundreds of TV shows for you to choose from! But definitely not enough time to watch everything! With the Fall TV season upon us, with even more shows debuting, you’re probably a bit overwhelmed. Furthermore, every show you choose to watch runs the risk of disappointing you.

New programs might fall flat, returning programs might step on your toes like a giant in heavy, metal clogs and when there are gay characters involved you know the risk of stuffing it all up are only that much higher. So to save you the trouble, we’ve taken a handful of promising shows from this year’s fall lineup and will watch them, recap them and deliver the verdict on how well they fared each week.

For readability, things have been broken down into ‘The Plot’, ‘The Gay’ and ‘The Ugly’ which are pretty self explanatory. Read on and see what we thought!


Gotham

The Plot

On Monday night we sauntered over to the city, the city of Gotham, where every piece of scenery is out of a time warp, everything is devoid of colour and it hasn’t stopped being overcast in about three decades.

This week, Bruce ‘Snot Dribble’ Wayne is toughening himself up (the show is set in the years before he becomes Batman) by sticking his hand over a candle. I’m not entirely sure why he doesn’t just go on an extreme adventure holiday or something a lot less painful but his eye-rollingly stupid antics have at least been carried over from the season premiere (he stood on the roof of his mansion as if he was threatening to jump off) so that’s consistent, I guess. It also lets new detective on the block James ‘Jim’ Gordon step in and assume the father figure role for young Bruce, also helping Jim build up his ‘good cop whose morals are being tested’ persona.

When Jim’s not being a friend to troubled children, he’s also saving the homeless youth! The big police plot of this week features he and partner Detective Harvey Bullock as they attempt to thwart a couple of child snatchers who are rounding up homeless kids and shipping them overseas for unknown reasons. After a run in with the Mayor of Gotham, who is as corrupt as a two decade battery and doesn’t care about the children’s wellbeing, they eventually save the day and stop the snatchers. We don’t find out where the kids were being shipped but we do at least get some good scenes with young Catwoman (known as Cat in the show) as she is saved from the juvenile system.

The Gay

There was somewhat less of our queer, justice dealing favourite, Renee Montoya, who dogood’ed her way into our hearts last week with her tailored suits and the maintext history she has with Jim Gordon’s girlfriend, Barbara. This week, Renee and her partner Crispus Allen were trying to uncover a corruption plot featuring the disappearance of Penguin, the villain whose life Jim spared last week and has now turned to cold-blooded murder.

Barbara, meanwhile, rats out the Gotham police force to the local newspaper after Jim explains that the Mayor won’t let him rescue the children. It’s a really short scene but it’s significant just because Barbara’s moral code is clearly so black and white (just like Renee’s) in comparison to Jim’s grey one and this could potentially be what breaks her and Jim up. Good news for Barbara/Renee shippers but less so for the future Police Commissioner.

There’s also a scene with mob boss Fish Mooney, who is planning to usurp fellow crime leader Carmine Falcone. Falcone shows up, asks who her lover is and then proceeds to have his goons beat her lover (a male bartender at Mooney’s club) to a pulp. Lovely. There have been rumblings that Mooney is Not Straight though, so with this lover scared off maybe she’ll find the arms of a woman next time.

The Ugly

A big problem for Gotham’s writers is not being too obvious about upcoming storylines. This is a prequel to all of the comics and movies we’ve seen featuring Gotham’s superheroes but sometimes it feels like certain lines are included just to wink at viewers who are clued in. It probably seems weird to those who know nothing about the universe, which is unfortunate.

We’re only two episodes in though, so while it’s a little off-putting, there’s plenty of time for Gotham to find its footing.


Faking It

The Plot

This being Faking It, almost everything about the plot is gay! The not-gay action here is the subplot with Shane and Liam.

These two bros for life get a thirdwheel in the form of Theo, a new addition to the cast and Liam’s potential new bestie. Ditching Shane’s plans for a Frozen sing-along costume party, the three go out to a bar for some not-so-legal underage drinking and after a fight with the patrons they end up hightailing it the hell out of there. Liam is hurt and still upset that Shane didn’t tell him that Amy loves Karma and Karma (Liam’s crush) was only faking being a lesbian.

Maybe it’s just my continued apathy for Liam but I think he was probably being a crying pissbaby about this! Shane was trying to be a good friend to both he and Amy, protecting them both in the process, something which Liam doesn’t give Shane a chance to explain, so for now they’re on the outs.

The Gay

Shimmying over to Casa de Raudenfeld and Karma and Amy are having a girls’ weekend! Except Amy having told Karma she’s in love with her and them trying to figure out a way to be platonic friends and not suffocating close ‘soulmates’ means that awkwardness soon ensues.

So, what’s a girl to do? Amy brings in her step-sister Lauren, who came out (read: was outed) as intersex in last week’s episode and who soon invites her #Karmy shipping buddies over to get the party started.

The party atmosphere soon devolves after a game of truth or dare goes awry with Karma having to discuss what it was like to have sex with Liam, Lauren almost reveals that Amy slept with Liam too and Lauren is nearly outed once more. There’s also a scene where Amy and Karma almost kiss which nearly made my head explode but overall it’s nice to see that they’re dealing with the tension in a genuine way.

Also, Shane and his boyfriend may have broken up? An advice seeking session saw Shane putting the phone down on him. The scene seemed shoehorned in so here’s hoping it will get covered next week.

The Ugly

Following the truth or dare sesh, the next morning Lauren does come out to her two best friends and her and Amy have a heart to heart which made me realise that Lauren is without a doubt my favourite character on the show. But, Amy and Karma nearly outed her the previous night and neither had an apology for Lauren which was downright rude. For a show that’s already been heavily criticised for this you’d think they’d do more to leave it out, but alas, hopefully they’ll move on from it.


How To Get Away With Murder

The Plot

Fresh on the TV block this year, How To Get Away With Murder (HTGAWM) is now in its second week as Viola Davis plays the insanely talented and powerful lawyer, Annalise Keating.

This week’s case features a widower being put on the stand for his wife’s violent, brutal murder. Whether he did it or not, it’s the team’s challenge is to make sure the jury thinks he’s innocent but this is a job that becomes all the more difficult when it’s revealed in court that he was also a suspect for his first wife’s murder too. Yikes!

After some leg work by Alfie – and some mumblings from his fellow classmates that he is Annalise’s favourite – and a point made my Laurel that as a hunter, the client couldn’t have done the murder because the kill was too messy, he actually goes free. It actually turns out that the client’s daughter did it and tried to frame him but they don’t dob her into the police because, well, that’s not their jobs.

Annalise’s life isn’t all roses and won court cases this week though as she’s gradually starting to suspect her husband for the murder of one of his students. He knew the girl well according to emails (that Annalise has snooped through, naturally) and so she turns to her lover, a police officer (who was put on probation after helping her out last week) to check out his alibi. To make matters worse, her husband is worried that their marriage is going through a rough patch so after almost breaking down to her boyfriend, she has sex with her husband and hides her tears afterwards. I’m pretty sure I watched the whole thing with a shocked look on my face because Viola Davis is such a good actress that it hurts.

We also find out more about the shocking reveal at the end of the premiere that Annalise’s husband has been murdered. The above storyline happens in the past (with her husband’s murder taking place two months later) but it’s threaded together impeccably well. What we learn is that Wes is trying to protect his neighbour Rebecca after she becomes his girlfriend at some point during the two months. It’s not much but it’s a delicious mystery to follow.

The Gay

Connor is the only gay lead in the show (so far) but he’s being represented incredibly well!

After getting a guy into bed last week to help solve a case, he enlists him again for some computer hacking. Some overtime, a delayed dinner date and some refused apologies later and the two have a bit of a rough patch. It lasts for all of 5 minutes though because Connor soon wins him over with food and sex, of course.

I can’t fault the way he’s being presented and I’d love for there to be a queer woman on the show who’s given the same opportunities, but if you’re looking for any gay content at all, How To Get Away With Murder’s plot and representation means it’s highly recommended

The Ugly

I can’t say a bad word about this show! The only downside to it is that it doesn’t air seven times a week, so I’m impatiently waiting for the next episode, but I can live with that. Just about.

What to Expect From MTV’s Faking It Season 2

MTV’s half hour drama/comedy had a bit of a rocky start. As one of few shows to feature a queer female lead, Faking It focused on two characters, Amy, who was in love with her best friend, Karma. Many people liked the show but it weaved a complicated web in its portrayal of queer women.

The girls, in the very first episode, are actually forced into pretending that they are dating when a (queer, male) classmate outs them at a party. Hardly the most progressive way of portraying a ‘coming out story’ is it? And then, to make matters so much worse, the series ended with Amy being rejected by Karma only to drunkenly sleep with Karma’s male love interest. And all all happened in just 8 episodes.

Faking It season 2 looks to correct some of these issues though, so read on below to find out the scoop before the new series airs.

First thing’s first, the fallout from that hook-up with Liam? Yeah, we can expect that to be huge. Judging by the promo for the second season above it doesn’t deter Karma from pursuing him but it will likely cause a rift between the two besties. And, although there might me a great helping of angst between Karma and Amy, we shouldn’t expect a blissful, lady-loving reunion as ‘Karmy’ won’t be canon just yet.

Instead, Amy will get a new girlfriend! Not much is known about the character just yet other than her name (Deacon) and that she’ll be a “hip, edgy lesbian with a rebellious streak”. Could that end up being a little tropey? Have we not seen the hip, edgy lesbian persona portrayed on PLL (Paige McCullers) and The L Word (Shane et. al)? Arguably yes, but if Amy gets a chance of love that’s not the sometimes confusing, sometimes heart-wrenching and awful to watch romance with Karma, then Amy’s new lady love sounds alright by us.

Meanwhile, we can expect a huge, whopping bombshell to be dropped by Amy’s step-sister, Lauren. Or, rather, we can expect her to be unceremoniously outed as intersex. Again, outing is not ok and Faking It really needs to stop doing this but the fact that they are addressing the rarely touched upon topic of intersex people is nothing short of massive. The last intersex television character was a girl named Amy on the cancelled TV show Freaks and Geeks in 2000 so Lauren’s story is a Very Big Deal. There’s hope for Faking It to deal with her storyline in a nuanced way and not mishandle it so we’ll see how it does over the next set of episodes.

Furthermore, we can also expect cameos by Orange is the New Black’s Laverne Cox who plays a drama teacher while girl band Fifth Harmony will be starring as “an all-girl band with an edge who cover pop music’s most memorable boy band songs”.

Faking It season two premieres on September 23rd on MTV.

 

A New Season and New Face – Laverne Cox to Join MTV’s Lesbian Comedy ‘Faking It’

Laverne Cox, the actress best known for playing transgender inmate Sophia Burset on Orange is the New Black, has signed up to the second season of comedy Faking It.

Faking It is based on two best friends in high school,

Faking It, is about two teen girls – Amy (Rita Volk) and Karma (Katie Stevens), who pretend to be a lesbian couple in order to become more popular, only for one of the girls to realise that she has genuine romantic feelings.

The show attracted some controversy when it first aired earlier this year, over its portrayal of gay characters. However, the shows creator Carter Covington says that it might sound like a wild premise, but it’s actually based on many calls he fielded when he worked as a crisis counselor for the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention hotline for LGTBQ youth.

“For the young people today, this show is not going to be controversial. I genuinely think it’s going to feel like, an exaggerated version, of course, but very much based in the world they live in now. Kids these days don’t see the world through the eyes that I did when I was kid, but the core things stay the same: Who am I? Who do I want to be? How do I want the world to see me? Those things are only accentuated with social media.”

Says Covington.

According to Entertainment Weekly, in an episode set to air later this year, Cox will play drama teacher Margot, described as “demanding, intense, and full of herself” and “a big fish in a small pond”.