I thought the premise of this show was very interesting. Initially I thought it had great potential but then it got super raunchy unnecessarily. I like the cast, there are many places the writers could take the plot without forcefully pushing the envelope every episode. It's cheap, I think its a sign of lazy writing.
shareIt's cheap, I think its a sign of lazy writing.
I agree with the show being relatable, but I can't agree with the show being realistic. If it were realistic it would not be a comedy. Everyone is so accepting (even the characters who are less accepting eventually come around). This is not the real world. I know many LGBT young adults that were bullied unmercifully, abused, disowned, assaulted and even killed. The show takes place in Texas, it's not as progressive as we see on Faking it (many places aren't). Failure to address some of the real issues that LGBT young people face is in fact what's fake and unfortunately a missed opportunity. Also if this show depicted what is real somebody would have an STD by now or unplanned pregnancy, there's a lot of sex happening without the issue of protection being brought up often. The show can still be funny, still address sex and sexuality without the the writers lazily overloading salaciousness. In their quest to make sure the show is "unsanitized" sex has become contrived on Faking it because the writers are trying too hard to be edgy.
shareI didn't argue that the show itself is realistic, merely that the raunchiness is. It's kinda like South Park in that it accurately depicts what kids talk about when their parents are away but the show itself is far from being realistic. If you take the raunchiness out of Faking It it'd immediately lose a lot of its charm and become like any other sanitized Disney television teen drama, and it would have been done not for any good artistic reason but to appease puritans, kinda like how they bleep out all the curse words when the show is aired in America (but not here).
sharePoint taken mikko-sandt.
shareThis!! I was agreeing with both you ladies, but this comment pretty much summed it all up! Great analysis!
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Not disagreeing with your main point, but you've got a few of the details wrong. It takes place in AUSTIN, Texas, which is almost as liberal as Berkeley, California. If you've never been, it's this one weird pocket of super liberal artsy people in red Texas. The step-sister was complaining in the beginning of the series that her dad chose to move to the one place in Texas where somebody like her would never be popular.
Also, I'm binge-watching the show right now (just started S2) and they've brought up protection quite a bit. Liam got a ton of condoms for the threesome, and after he slept with Amy, they had a discussion about STD testing and she took the morning after pill. When Amy's mom approached her after Liam, she told her she didn't care what she did, as long as she used protection. Not saying this is a super responsible show, but they've definitely talked about sex safety a few times.
All of your other points are valid, but this is definitely not cinema verite style tv. It's meant to be a heightened reality. The show is def raunchy, but I don't think it's far past what older teens talk about or see. I'm old compared to these kids and it wasn't like that when I was a teen, but (unfortunately) things have gotten way more sexualized for younger and younger kids.
Thanks for your informed response Pumpyjones. I didn't know Austin was so liberal.
shareIt's an MTV comedy. Raunchiness is a given. And teens nowadays (maybe have always?) talk about sex like it's nothing, so it's realistic in that aspect, IMO. As for your thread title; MTV targets teens above all else. :)
I hope you continue to watch. The show gets better with each episode. :D
"You're an idiot." - Irisa Nolan, Defiance (2013)
This season is a little better so I'm sticking it out.
shareIt's edgy. It's not One Tree Hill. It airs at 10 p.m. on a school night for a reason.
shareMTV has always been raunchy especially after about 10 pm.
I could do with less naked men in the show but other than that I enjoy it as it is.
Yes it's aimed at teens, but not exclusively or else they would have cast actual teens to play the parts and it would air on Teen Nick or something.
I don't think this show is that relatable to young teens (13-16). Even though they're in high school, I don't believe that this show is specifically targeted at young teens. The confusion around sexuality and failing to grasp how complicated sexuality can be is something that a lot of teens struggle with though, but that's also a struggle that continues on well into your twenties.
Keep in mind all of the actors in it are well past their ugly/awkward phases. They're in their early to late twenties. The amount of sex and partying on the show isn't as raunchy as say UK Skins, but by American standards they do push the envelope. Teens just don't do the kind of stuff that's portrayed in the show, which is fine as long as everyone is looking at it from a healthy realistic perspective.
I find this show much more relatable as an early twenty something. A lot of teen shows I couldn't really relate to as a 15 year old have popped back up into my life recently, and it's sort of weird how I relate to them more. Until I realize that the actors are actually older than I am now, and the situations they're placed in by the writers are not something the average 15 year old goes through.
However the show does need an anchor, and high school is the perfect setting to create different story lines and keep the cast together each week. I'd really like to see a series like this that doesn't use the high school setting as a crutch to lean on in the future though.
Also just a side note on Texas. Yes, many parts of Texas are wildly and openly intolerant towards LGBT peoples, but there's an old meme that goes around about Austin. Austin is a very progressive city, especially by American standards, but homophobia still does occur. I wish the show was a tad more realistic in portraying that, but like I said, if you've ever been to Austin you'd realize what they're talking about. I do think that Amy's mom is a good representation of how most families today react to their son/daughter coming out as gay or bisexual. Uneasy, confused, at times overbearing, but overall accepting.
This response isn't to anyone in particular- I just couldn't figure out how to reply to the whole thread instead of a single comment XD
I'm currently 16 years old and I started watching this show at age 14. Throughout it all, I've found it all VERY relatable, and actually VERY realistic. Although I agree, it is unlikely someone has gone through EVERYTHING they go through on the show, nothing they've done is unrealistic.
1) My best friend came out when I was 12, and we were super close. We got mistaken as a couple all the time. So Shane mistaking them as a couple is completely realistic.
2) Austin is basically one of the most liberal places around, so LGBT being cool isn't weird.
3) I don't really relate to the whole sex or threesomes aspect, because I haven't done any of that, but most of the kids in my grade have done all that and more. A handful of kids in my grade got charged with sexual assault a couple years ago, and they all get DUIs all the time. So what they do on "Faking It" is a LOT more innocent.
4) Okay... so even though Austin is super liberal, I get that Hester isn't realistic in terms of them never actually doing any work. But that's the joke, it's part of the comedy. It's also supposed to be like the "dream school", the school that doesn't actually exist, but we all wish did.
5) They deal with ideas of acceptance that are crucial at such a young age. It's shocking how ugly people can treat other people, just for being different, and it stems from how kids have grown up. So targeting a young audience helps promote acceptance before it's too late. I finally came to terms with my sexuality shortly before watching the show. And I wanted to die. Yes. I was 13 years old, and I wanted to die. No matter what your opinions on whether or not someone can know their sexuality in their teenage years, it can't be denied that if a 13 year old kid wanted to commit suicide, something was wrong. "Faking It" taught me, there was nothing wrong with me, and I should accept myself for who I am. I also had no clue what intersex was before watching, and I'm so glad I know now. I feel so much more knowledgable. I also didn't really understand the transgender community. I always accepted them, because I believe in equal rights, but internally, I was always pretty conservative. Elliot Fletcher, and his character Noah, break the transgender stereotypes. He showed me that transgender people are people too, and that they have the right to choose their own gender. So this show is really educational, and provides knowledge necessary for teenagers.
6) Okay, yeah the actors are all adults. But that goes for all TV shows today. Other than on Disney and Nick, the majority of teenage shows have the teenagers played by adults. Why does this show get so much hate just for doing the normal thing?
So overall, what I'm trying to get at, is teenagers are changing, which is making this show very relatable and very real. This show is really good, so let's focus more on watching it to get its ratings up, and less on giving it hate, k?
I appreciate your response fakingithq. I never meant that teens aren't doing what's happening on the show. My point is/was that the lack of realism is with the absence of consequences that comes with being so sexually out there when you're so young. I still think the writers missed the mark on some things...but it's Hollywood and its about entertainment.
shareShows like Faking It while not aimed exclusively at teens are still great shows for helping teens accept their sexuality and understand what it means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, polyamorous, etc. Yeah this show employs actors that don't even remotely look like teens. But I can tell you it's not uncommon anymore for kids in middle school to be openly gay or bisexual and even openly dating other kids of the same sex. Some schools this is more accepted than others, but in Austin I imagine it would be one of the places where a lesbian couple would be no big deal. The only thing unrealistic is that there aren't more lesbian/bisexual/bicurious girls at the school because in real life it's practically the norm depending where you go.
shareNot actually, the nudity is blurred and it doesn't have softcore sex scenes like most FX/HBO shows.
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