glorious fucking headfuck thing.
Mar. 24th, 2011 09:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ever_neutralSo… DLAKFJDSAL;FKDJ AFDJLDF ADSLK FJS
OK, so this season has been pretty awesome. But just, right now, unfiltered, off the top of my head, what the actual fuck is happening with this love dodecahedron thing. I know that Skins loves to do that shit, but the first two generations' romantic entanglements at least made a vague sort of sense. This season, it was just, FUCK. ANGST AND SEXUAL TENSIONS EVERYWHERE FOR THE HELL OF IT. I mean. what was the real point of anything.
But more on that in a bit.
Let's talk about things that are made of sunshine and wizards.
Namely, MINIIIII MCGUINESS MY LOOOVE.
So yeah yeah, she's a horrible person at first, and then there's her episode which is perfection on a platter and now she's my favourite.
Actually that was a pretty simple story.
Though, what has always been great about Skins is its ability to make me adore characters I initially loathe. Another case in point: Nick Levan. I saw early on that he had an episode of his own and I was like, what a fucking joke. AND UM NOW HE IS LEGIT MY FAVOURITE HUMAN BEING?
"Save yourself, and leave me to the bears!"
"We're in Somerset, Nick."
"… TO THE FUCKING SQUIRRELS, THEN!"
*draws many hearts and flowers*
But no, really, the one thing that can always get me with a fictional character is that moment when they leave a room with people in it, and then that moment after when they're alone and their whole self visibly changes. Like Nick leaving matty with the gang with many a smile and boisterous laugh, and then walking down a corridor on his own, towards the boys' locker room, looking like he's headed to his own funeral. Or, to put it another way, looking like he's preparing to slowly kill pieces of himself for an audience. Which is exactly what life is about, really.
And on a nostalgic note, that moment in question totally gave me flashbacks to Cook's series 4 episode - that pause where he collects himself, just outside the door, before making his (performed) presence known to a room full of people. Connecting with these people, how does that work. (Don't ask me.)
So, yes, the name of the game is performance, which is my favourite motif any work of fiction can choose to do, so. Good show.
That said, I think some characters are more successfully executed than others. I feel like I like Franky less than I should. And Liv is just all over the place to me. However, I actually do love nearly all of them. Mini and Nick, already the lights of my life. (Though, uh, not together. That doesn't work.) Alo is like, that dude that I want to be best friends with fucking everybody in the cast because he's fucking awesome. Rich is totally and utterly realistic and it is sort of scary how well I would have gotten along with him in high school, particularly when he and Grace started yelling Rage Against The Machine lyrics. Ah, angry high school days. Good times.
Grace is just marvellously written. I'll often think the actress's delivery feels very stilted, but it more or less works with the construction of Grace as a person in performance mode 24/7. There are no words for how much I adored the development of that ship in Rich's episode. Though, strangely, my investment in them sort of fizzled out once they actually got together in a relatively drama-free way. (But actually, not very strange, considering me. *rolls eyes*)
I also have a weird fondness for David Blood and his totally wrong parenting. Usually I'd be all RAAAAGE and HOW DARE YOU, INCOMPETENT PARENT. (Family issues, okay whatever.) But I am actually sold that David genuinely loves Grace, and genuinely believes that what he wants for her is in her best interests, even as he's taking unacceptable and controlling measures to ensure her compliance. Hmm.
Speaking of familial relationships, NICK AND MATTY. SO MUCH LOVE. That scene where they play rugby together. Ugh, my heart. And I adore the twist of Nick being the favoured son, but who actually envies his out-of-control brother, because it's so easy for Matty, isn't it. Except not. People don't go "psycho" and smash all the furniture in their house because things are jolly good up in their headspace. (Things Nick learns the hard way.)
Matthew is an enigma. He's probably the most emotionally/psychologically unstable of the lot, but he genuinely seems less troubled than he (probably) is, because he's got the ~I'm so fit and mysterious~ thing down so well. A whole season, and I'm struck by how there's hardly a moment he shows honest human emotion and vulnerability. (Save for the times Franky's in the same room, which, more on that in a bit.) He insists he wants to come back home, begs Nick to talk to their dad, but once he's actually back under the family roof, he shows nothing but contempt (and falsified obedience) towards the idea of being a family. He makes fervent declarations of love towards Liv, insists that he really fucking loves her, but it just rings hollow. It's as though he's performing emotion. All the other characters are busy dressing up their out-of-control emotions in fancy disguises; Matty's trying to be out of control because he doesn't really know how to feel. It makes me wonder if he might have been subject to some Really Bad Shit in the past, worse than the usual verbal/emotional abuse their father dishes out. I... honestly don't know if that's just the way the actor's playing him, or if I'm making up things I want to be there. In any case, I fervently hope the dude gets a centric episode next season, because he really quite needs it.
But okay. These fucking romantic plots. They bewilder me.
Grace and Rich, ironically, the metalhead and the ballet dancer, are the least drama-tastic and most sense-making of the lot.
And also I know everybody ships Mini and Franky, but I strangely have no feelings about them. Possibly because I don't have many feelings about Franky? Hmm. Also I'm bothered by Mini going from being confused about kissing Franky in Grace's episode, to having an all-out crush and being her "best friend" in the finale. Hey? Missing a few steps much.
Mini and Nick's farce of a relationship, I get. Nick and Liv hooking up - because Nick is inclined to be attracted to people who don't worship at his feet, and because Liv is projecting her anger at Mini in the wrong direction - okay, fine. I'm not gonna pretend like Nick sincerely yelling "YOU'RE THE ONLY PERSON WHO UNDERSTANDS ME!!!1!1!!" at Liv from below her balcony doesn't move me a little. So, that triangle I can deal with.
But then you have Liv/Matty/Franky. Which, just. What is happening. To be honest, all the romantic happenings in this gen feel criminally underdeveloped to me, but this is the nadir of it. It is like a black hole for sense.
So, first we have Liv and Matty, which did not do as much for me in Liv's episode as I feel like it should have. I feel like a dynamic like theirs - spontaneous and whirlwind and built on the desperate urge to escape from reality - should have that blazing fire appropriate for the storyline, but instead what I saw was a barely adequate flicker. Which did not really make that episode as enjoyable as it should have been for me. (Though, I guess the whole escaping-from-reality idea sums up why they could not last after the fact.) But then Liv, who is actually pretty sympathetic in that episode, suddenly turns into ~the insecure woman~ whose purpose for the rest of the series is to stare jealously at Matty and Franky staring at each other. Yeah… Poor way to service one of your major characters, show.
… Unless that was somehow supposed to be about Liv getting punished for betraying Mini - having her be the one ~struggling to hold on to the (wrong) guy and losing him to someone else. That, I could see. But. Well. I don't have to like it. Especially when she has dialogue like, "but do you love HER???" There is nothing about that that's not ridiculous. At what point during their copious staring competitions (which, admittedly, they do pretty well) could Matty and Franky have feasibly fallen in love? Unless they ~fell in love~ with each other during their first meeting when Franky was aiming a gun at his chest. (lol) Which I would find intriguing, except for the part where I don't believe in love at first sight.
And yet. idk. My feelings towards Matty/Franky are the epitome of conflicty. I feel about them the way I felt about Melanie and Finn in Angela Carter's "The Magic Toyshop". Their dark 'n' twisty-ness naturally appeals to me, yet the idea of shipping them in a straight up way repels me.
(Though I'll admit, I am a sucker for great imagery, and these two get a lot of it. The aforementioned first meeting with Matty walking towards Franky's gun; Matty leaning in for the kiss just as Franky turns away; the motif of, uh, headfucking that obvs I had to use as a post title at least once. I mean. lol moment of the season.)
But while I know on an intellectual level that they make no sense, on a non-rational level they actually make perfect sense. (And now I'm arguing with myself.) If I'm correct in my assumptions about Matty, then that would make him the only person who could equal the level of psychological trauma that Franky harbours…
Okay. So, Liv tells Matty that Franky will "always be lost", which is exactly why Matty is compelled to run after her. Matty tells (texts) Franky that he's okay if she is, because he doesn't know what he is; he needs her to assure him that he's as fucked up as she is, because that's the glue that holds him together. They're in love with each other's damage. But to act on that desire just leads to horror, because such tactile contact apparently dredges up bad mental shit. Matty forcibly reminds Franky of her innate wrongness… And that would explain Franky's "I just wanted to be normal" remark after the sex!fail. Which seemed to be put there as some sort of message not to ship them romantically.
I don't know. I do find it interesting that the writers would go out of their way to make one of their major romances so… not-romantic?
(And actually, now that I think about it, the whole ship has been constructed around the idea of touching/not touching. Franky uses the gun as a barrier in their first meeting, Matty covers Franky's mouth with his hand before "kissing" her, their text conversation across the dance floor, etc. This would explain why most of their interactions seem to be about staring across a distance - because it's so imperative that they don't touch?)
I will say that I found their text convo/big hug at the end really poignant? It seems like they actually have a really strong platonic connection and sex just ruins things. So, I guess the moral of the story is that EVERYONE SHOULD BE BROS.
lol. trust me to write a mini-essay about a ship I don't even ship. (Yet? :\ Arrrrgghhhh who knoooows.)
Oh Jesus I have written enough. AND NONE OF IT IS COHERENT. SORRY TO WHOEVER MAY ACTUALLY HAVE GOTTEN THROUGH ALL OF THIS.
To sum up: Skins! I am excited about you again! COME BACK TO MEEEE. SOON.
OK, so this season has been pretty awesome. But just, right now, unfiltered, off the top of my head, what the actual fuck is happening with this love dodecahedron thing. I know that Skins loves to do that shit, but the first two generations' romantic entanglements at least made a vague sort of sense. This season, it was just, FUCK. ANGST AND SEXUAL TENSIONS EVERYWHERE FOR THE HELL OF IT. I mean. what was the real point of anything.
But more on that in a bit.
Let's talk about things that are made of sunshine and wizards.
Namely, MINIIIII MCGUINESS MY LOOOVE.
So yeah yeah, she's a horrible person at first, and then there's her episode which is perfection on a platter and now she's my favourite.
Actually that was a pretty simple story.
Though, what has always been great about Skins is its ability to make me adore characters I initially loathe. Another case in point: Nick Levan. I saw early on that he had an episode of his own and I was like, what a fucking joke. AND UM NOW HE IS LEGIT MY FAVOURITE HUMAN BEING?
"Save yourself, and leave me to the bears!"
"We're in Somerset, Nick."
"… TO THE FUCKING SQUIRRELS, THEN!"
*draws many hearts and flowers*
But no, really, the one thing that can always get me with a fictional character is that moment when they leave a room with people in it, and then that moment after when they're alone and their whole self visibly changes. Like Nick leaving matty with the gang with many a smile and boisterous laugh, and then walking down a corridor on his own, towards the boys' locker room, looking like he's headed to his own funeral. Or, to put it another way, looking like he's preparing to slowly kill pieces of himself for an audience. Which is exactly what life is about, really.
And on a nostalgic note, that moment in question totally gave me flashbacks to Cook's series 4 episode - that pause where he collects himself, just outside the door, before making his (performed) presence known to a room full of people. Connecting with these people, how does that work. (Don't ask me.)
So, yes, the name of the game is performance, which is my favourite motif any work of fiction can choose to do, so. Good show.
That said, I think some characters are more successfully executed than others. I feel like I like Franky less than I should. And Liv is just all over the place to me. However, I actually do love nearly all of them. Mini and Nick, already the lights of my life. (Though, uh, not together. That doesn't work.) Alo is like, that dude that I want to be best friends with fucking everybody in the cast because he's fucking awesome. Rich is totally and utterly realistic and it is sort of scary how well I would have gotten along with him in high school, particularly when he and Grace started yelling Rage Against The Machine lyrics. Ah, angry high school days. Good times.
Grace is just marvellously written. I'll often think the actress's delivery feels very stilted, but it more or less works with the construction of Grace as a person in performance mode 24/7. There are no words for how much I adored the development of that ship in Rich's episode. Though, strangely, my investment in them sort of fizzled out once they actually got together in a relatively drama-free way. (But actually, not very strange, considering me. *rolls eyes*)
I also have a weird fondness for David Blood and his totally wrong parenting. Usually I'd be all RAAAAGE and HOW DARE YOU, INCOMPETENT PARENT. (Family issues, okay whatever.) But I am actually sold that David genuinely loves Grace, and genuinely believes that what he wants for her is in her best interests, even as he's taking unacceptable and controlling measures to ensure her compliance. Hmm.
Speaking of familial relationships, NICK AND MATTY. SO MUCH LOVE. That scene where they play rugby together. Ugh, my heart. And I adore the twist of Nick being the favoured son, but who actually envies his out-of-control brother, because it's so easy for Matty, isn't it. Except not. People don't go "psycho" and smash all the furniture in their house because things are jolly good up in their headspace. (Things Nick learns the hard way.)
Matthew is an enigma. He's probably the most emotionally/psychologically unstable of the lot, but he genuinely seems less troubled than he (probably) is, because he's got the ~I'm so fit and mysterious~ thing down so well. A whole season, and I'm struck by how there's hardly a moment he shows honest human emotion and vulnerability. (Save for the times Franky's in the same room, which, more on that in a bit.) He insists he wants to come back home, begs Nick to talk to their dad, but once he's actually back under the family roof, he shows nothing but contempt (and falsified obedience) towards the idea of being a family. He makes fervent declarations of love towards Liv, insists that he really fucking loves her, but it just rings hollow. It's as though he's performing emotion. All the other characters are busy dressing up their out-of-control emotions in fancy disguises; Matty's trying to be out of control because he doesn't really know how to feel. It makes me wonder if he might have been subject to some Really Bad Shit in the past, worse than the usual verbal/emotional abuse their father dishes out. I... honestly don't know if that's just the way the actor's playing him, or if I'm making up things I want to be there. In any case, I fervently hope the dude gets a centric episode next season, because he really quite needs it.
But okay. These fucking romantic plots. They bewilder me.
Grace and Rich, ironically, the metalhead and the ballet dancer, are the least drama-tastic and most sense-making of the lot.
And also I know everybody ships Mini and Franky, but I strangely have no feelings about them. Possibly because I don't have many feelings about Franky? Hmm. Also I'm bothered by Mini going from being confused about kissing Franky in Grace's episode, to having an all-out crush and being her "best friend" in the finale. Hey? Missing a few steps much.
Mini and Nick's farce of a relationship, I get. Nick and Liv hooking up - because Nick is inclined to be attracted to people who don't worship at his feet, and because Liv is projecting her anger at Mini in the wrong direction - okay, fine. I'm not gonna pretend like Nick sincerely yelling "YOU'RE THE ONLY PERSON WHO UNDERSTANDS ME!!!1!1!!" at Liv from below her balcony doesn't move me a little. So, that triangle I can deal with.
But then you have Liv/Matty/Franky. Which, just. What is happening. To be honest, all the romantic happenings in this gen feel criminally underdeveloped to me, but this is the nadir of it. It is like a black hole for sense.
So, first we have Liv and Matty, which did not do as much for me in Liv's episode as I feel like it should have. I feel like a dynamic like theirs - spontaneous and whirlwind and built on the desperate urge to escape from reality - should have that blazing fire appropriate for the storyline, but instead what I saw was a barely adequate flicker. Which did not really make that episode as enjoyable as it should have been for me. (Though, I guess the whole escaping-from-reality idea sums up why they could not last after the fact.) But then Liv, who is actually pretty sympathetic in that episode, suddenly turns into ~the insecure woman~ whose purpose for the rest of the series is to stare jealously at Matty and Franky staring at each other. Yeah… Poor way to service one of your major characters, show.
… Unless that was somehow supposed to be about Liv getting punished for betraying Mini - having her be the one ~struggling to hold on to the (wrong) guy and losing him to someone else. That, I could see. But. Well. I don't have to like it. Especially when she has dialogue like, "but do you love HER???" There is nothing about that that's not ridiculous. At what point during their copious staring competitions (which, admittedly, they do pretty well) could Matty and Franky have feasibly fallen in love? Unless they ~fell in love~ with each other during their first meeting when Franky was aiming a gun at his chest. (lol) Which I would find intriguing, except for the part where I don't believe in love at first sight.
And yet. idk. My feelings towards Matty/Franky are the epitome of conflicty. I feel about them the way I felt about Melanie and Finn in Angela Carter's "The Magic Toyshop". Their dark 'n' twisty-ness naturally appeals to me, yet the idea of shipping them in a straight up way repels me.
(Though I'll admit, I am a sucker for great imagery, and these two get a lot of it. The aforementioned first meeting with Matty walking towards Franky's gun; Matty leaning in for the kiss just as Franky turns away; the motif of, uh, headfucking that obvs I had to use as a post title at least once. I mean. lol moment of the season.)
But while I know on an intellectual level that they make no sense, on a non-rational level they actually make perfect sense. (And now I'm arguing with myself.) If I'm correct in my assumptions about Matty, then that would make him the only person who could equal the level of psychological trauma that Franky harbours…
Okay. So, Liv tells Matty that Franky will "always be lost", which is exactly why Matty is compelled to run after her. Matty tells (texts) Franky that he's okay if she is, because he doesn't know what he is; he needs her to assure him that he's as fucked up as she is, because that's the glue that holds him together. They're in love with each other's damage. But to act on that desire just leads to horror, because such tactile contact apparently dredges up bad mental shit. Matty forcibly reminds Franky of her innate wrongness… And that would explain Franky's "I just wanted to be normal" remark after the sex!fail. Which seemed to be put there as some sort of message not to ship them romantically.
I don't know. I do find it interesting that the writers would go out of their way to make one of their major romances so… not-romantic?
(And actually, now that I think about it, the whole ship has been constructed around the idea of touching/not touching. Franky uses the gun as a barrier in their first meeting, Matty covers Franky's mouth with his hand before "kissing" her, their text conversation across the dance floor, etc. This would explain why most of their interactions seem to be about staring across a distance - because it's so imperative that they don't touch?)
I will say that I found their text convo/big hug at the end really poignant? It seems like they actually have a really strong platonic connection and sex just ruins things. So, I guess the moral of the story is that EVERYONE SHOULD BE BROS.
lol. trust me to write a mini-essay about a ship I don't even ship. (Yet? :\ Arrrrgghhhh who knoooows.)
Oh Jesus I have written enough. AND NONE OF IT IS COHERENT. SORRY TO WHOEVER MAY ACTUALLY HAVE GOTTEN THROUGH ALL OF THIS.
To sum up: Skins! I am excited about you again! COME BACK TO MEEEE. SOON.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-04-10 08:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-11 01:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-24 02:23 pm (UTC)But no, really, the one thing that can always get me with a fictional character is that moment when they leave a room with people in it, and then that moment after when they're alone and their whole self visibly changes
Oh yes. Really, really yes. Like the moments when Damon's crazeh eyes go away. Or when Buffy plays salsa music so she's free to cry when she does the dishes. Or when Spike on Angel is *only* an ass when Angel's in the room ... I love when characters stop pretending, if just for a second.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-25 12:13 am (UTC)Very much word on your examples. ♥
no subject
Date: 2011-03-25 12:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-25 10:14 am (UTC)(And I'm not sure one could appreciate the fabulousness of the first gen from catching random snippets, but each to their own. ;))
no subject
Date: 2011-03-25 01:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-25 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-25 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-26 01:21 am (UTC)LOL I LOVE THAT EPISODE THOUGH.
Talking foods and showering teachers. Well, if you're gonna absorb any details, haha.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-24 04:45 pm (UTC)I agree that Mini and Nick are great, though I wish the guy playing Nick could act a little better. I quite like Rich and Grace as well, but there are moments with both of them where they suddenly seem, I dunno, a little inflexible and snappish, which is a quality I tend to be wary of. Alo is fab, but I want to know more about Liv, who along the way seemed lose a story beyond 'messed up; does drugs'.
(I don't want Mini and Franky to get together though - Mini should totally own her lesbianism and find someone outside the group.)
no subject
Date: 2011-03-25 12:12 am (UTC)Naomi turning out to have been secretly in love with Emily all along (because nooo! it was much better the other way)
Ugh, total word.
I quite like Rich and Grace as well, but there are moments with both of them where they suddenly seem, I dunno, a little inflexible and snappish, which is a quality I tend to be wary of.
Huh. D'you think you could elaborate?
no subject
Date: 2011-03-25 08:52 am (UTC)I don't know if I can describe it better than that, really... Things like Rich declaring so strongly to Alo that 'I'm metal; that's who I am'. Grace comes out with a couple of similar 'my way or the highway' comments, IIRC. It's all probably just about them being teenagers, but it makes me frown momentarily.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-25 10:04 am (UTC)