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flowrs4opheliaFinally sat down and caught up on a lot of TV a while ago, and am now finally sitting down collecting some thoughts about these. (Yeah, just in time for the next one to be up soon. Heh.)
SKINS 405.
So, maybe I have at least "casually" shipped Freddie/Effy since the first episode of Skins I ever watched, but at the same time I understand some of the hate because their relationship was handled disappointingly pretty much more often than not in Series 3. But this episode made me love them a lot more than I ever could have expected and was surprisingly powerful considering Freddie's first episode was one of the weakest in the last series.
Maybe Effy's been through some pretty tough stuff with her parents' divorce and everything that happened to her brother, but even before that she's always been characterized as a sort of troubled person. For her to actually have a serious mental illness made perfect sense to me, and honestly it redeems her from being a slightly lame character in some ways. I've always liked Effy myself, but sometimes it's been easy to associate her with lots of typical goth kids who act cynical and sullen just because they're average teenagers who think their lives suck so much for little compelling reasons. But her dispassionate nature and self-destructive behavior makes so much more sense if she's always been inclined toward depression and instability and what we've seen her at before has actually been her highest points.
I loved that we found out what happened to Freddie's mother and how that ties into his problems now. Weirdly enough, in a post-S3 fic I started writing a while ago, I entertained an idea that Freddie wasn't always such a "fun sponge" and it was the loss of his mother that somehow made him start feeling this need to be responsible for everyone and be more careful, but I never imagined we would find out something like this about how she died. Even the way he had some self-preservation kick in when Cook's reckless behavior was getting out of control in S3 and that was part of what made him reluctant to keep hanging out with him is easier to understand now considering what it put him through when his mother also needed someone to look out for her but ultimately couldn't be saved. The same thing happens when he has to distance himself from Effy for a while in this episode, but he still tries to take care of her even though you can see this is making him have to live his worst nightmares over again.
As much as I liked this episode as one of the world's only Freffy fans, the part that actually had me tearing up was the moment between her and Katie at the carnival. And I loved Cookie in that scene, too. He and Katie lost Freddie and Effy to each other and were both at least considerably wounded by that, and when they were both kind of being jerked around it's totally understandable why they couldn't get past it easily. But in this series we're seeing a lot of characters no longer being petty about letting these things get between them, and it was great to see them both completely able to put all that aside when some support was direly needed. So many people complain about how the friends in this generation don't seem to care about each other as much as the first characters, but I don't see this generation as lacking in strong/interesting platonic relationships at all. They're different and more unstable in a lot of cases, but the bonds are definitely there. (I didn't review "Cook" but OMFG, I have to say I don't care about Naomily nearly as much as just seeing scenes between Naomi and Cook. They're GOLD.)
SKINS 406.
If I think about the problems a lot of people had with this episode, I actually don't disagree with most of them generally, but I wouldn't say I was disappointed by it because I enjoyed watching it. Though JJ is probably one of the best characters he's not one of my favorites that I'm the most invested in, so I didn't exactly have huge expectations for this episode, and I also wasn't really thinking about the fact that this is one of the last ones for this generation. And it definitely doesn't help that this kind of self-contained episode was done at this time when a lot of peripheral storylines could use a little more development and explanation and are being drawn out for too long with no advancement.
JJ's was one of the best episodes in S3 and one of the reasons it worked so well was the way it used all the characters and moved the overall story along while still focusing mainly on JJ. Though I'm kind of annoyed by a lot of fans' complaints about how "Everyone's ignoring what happened to Effy" or how "They could have at least showed us more of what's going on with Naomi/Emily instead of some dumb stuff with J's mom" because the show doesn't always have to be about your favorite characters, the fact remains that if you compare this to the last "JJ" in that way it just shows a lot more how much the story in this episode kind of fails to fit in this late in the season. I think a light-hearted episode was a perfectly good idea after "Freddie" was so intense, but they still should have been able to make it seem relevant instead of giving us an hour of simply giving JJ something to do.
Anyway, some random specific things....
- JJ and Thomas are so cute as friends. Their scenes at work were definitely a highlight.
- I kind of like Lara. I think a lot of people who really dislike her are expecting a lot from a newly introduced minor character. But I do wonder what they'll do with her in the...two entire episodes that are left.
- Why does it seem like on this show, just about every single teacher, counselor, therapist, or person with any other job that should involve enjoying kids and helping kids is fucking terrible at their job? I fear what kind of hands Effy is in if all the professionals in Bristol are as helpful as JJ's doctor or that clinic Cassie went to. (But on a random related note, when there was a picture released a long time ago of Effy's calendar with "pills" written all over it plus "Freddie" at some times of day, my first thought was that she's taking something for psychiatric purposes even though everyone assumed it was referring to the fun kind of pills Effy pops all the time. I love how I was totally on the right track the whole time as far as where her character was going without realizing what I was on the right track about, lol.)
- COOK IN A BAG HEEE. Wearing a Stone Roses shirt. ♥ He totally must be shitting everyone with telling them he broke out because there are just so many unrealistic things about that and it's hard to see why he would after where things were going with him in his episode. Mrs. Jones's reaction to discovering him in the bathroom was pretty funny.
- I felt like there was no reason for Emily and Naomi to be in this episode. I didn't necessarily have a problem with the Naomi/Sophia thing at the start, but like everybody else says this is getting dragged out way too long, and I was just annoyed to see Emily still being bitter. At first I could understand a little how Naomi would cheat when I have to say it does seem a little soon in a relationship for them to be moving in together and talking about traveling together after college and all, and to me Emily's line "We were special" almost seemed liked a commentary on how the fan base has turned this relationship into this epic and uber special thing but it's totally not perfect. Skins sometimes has a brutal way of telling you not to get too invested in the ships over everything else or expect things to play out like a sentimental romance movie (Freddie/Effy finally hooking up in a fucked-up way that made me kind of careful what I wish for being my favorite example). But now it's starting to seem more like conflict for the sake of conflict and I just want to tell Emily to get over her reality being shattered already because we all know they'll eventually work things out anyway.
SKINS 405.
So, maybe I have at least "casually" shipped Freddie/Effy since the first episode of Skins I ever watched, but at the same time I understand some of the hate because their relationship was handled disappointingly pretty much more often than not in Series 3. But this episode made me love them a lot more than I ever could have expected and was surprisingly powerful considering Freddie's first episode was one of the weakest in the last series.
Maybe Effy's been through some pretty tough stuff with her parents' divorce and everything that happened to her brother, but even before that she's always been characterized as a sort of troubled person. For her to actually have a serious mental illness made perfect sense to me, and honestly it redeems her from being a slightly lame character in some ways. I've always liked Effy myself, but sometimes it's been easy to associate her with lots of typical goth kids who act cynical and sullen just because they're average teenagers who think their lives suck so much for little compelling reasons. But her dispassionate nature and self-destructive behavior makes so much more sense if she's always been inclined toward depression and instability and what we've seen her at before has actually been her highest points.
I loved that we found out what happened to Freddie's mother and how that ties into his problems now. Weirdly enough, in a post-S3 fic I started writing a while ago, I entertained an idea that Freddie wasn't always such a "fun sponge" and it was the loss of his mother that somehow made him start feeling this need to be responsible for everyone and be more careful, but I never imagined we would find out something like this about how she died. Even the way he had some self-preservation kick in when Cook's reckless behavior was getting out of control in S3 and that was part of what made him reluctant to keep hanging out with him is easier to understand now considering what it put him through when his mother also needed someone to look out for her but ultimately couldn't be saved. The same thing happens when he has to distance himself from Effy for a while in this episode, but he still tries to take care of her even though you can see this is making him have to live his worst nightmares over again.
As much as I liked this episode as one of the world's only Freffy fans, the part that actually had me tearing up was the moment between her and Katie at the carnival. And I loved Cookie in that scene, too. He and Katie lost Freddie and Effy to each other and were both at least considerably wounded by that, and when they were both kind of being jerked around it's totally understandable why they couldn't get past it easily. But in this series we're seeing a lot of characters no longer being petty about letting these things get between them, and it was great to see them both completely able to put all that aside when some support was direly needed. So many people complain about how the friends in this generation don't seem to care about each other as much as the first characters, but I don't see this generation as lacking in strong/interesting platonic relationships at all. They're different and more unstable in a lot of cases, but the bonds are definitely there. (I didn't review "Cook" but OMFG, I have to say I don't care about Naomily nearly as much as just seeing scenes between Naomi and Cook. They're GOLD.)
SKINS 406.
If I think about the problems a lot of people had with this episode, I actually don't disagree with most of them generally, but I wouldn't say I was disappointed by it because I enjoyed watching it. Though JJ is probably one of the best characters he's not one of my favorites that I'm the most invested in, so I didn't exactly have huge expectations for this episode, and I also wasn't really thinking about the fact that this is one of the last ones for this generation. And it definitely doesn't help that this kind of self-contained episode was done at this time when a lot of peripheral storylines could use a little more development and explanation and are being drawn out for too long with no advancement.
JJ's was one of the best episodes in S3 and one of the reasons it worked so well was the way it used all the characters and moved the overall story along while still focusing mainly on JJ. Though I'm kind of annoyed by a lot of fans' complaints about how "Everyone's ignoring what happened to Effy" or how "They could have at least showed us more of what's going on with Naomi/Emily instead of some dumb stuff with J's mom" because the show doesn't always have to be about your favorite characters, the fact remains that if you compare this to the last "JJ" in that way it just shows a lot more how much the story in this episode kind of fails to fit in this late in the season. I think a light-hearted episode was a perfectly good idea after "Freddie" was so intense, but they still should have been able to make it seem relevant instead of giving us an hour of simply giving JJ something to do.
Anyway, some random specific things....
- JJ and Thomas are so cute as friends. Their scenes at work were definitely a highlight.
- I kind of like Lara. I think a lot of people who really dislike her are expecting a lot from a newly introduced minor character. But I do wonder what they'll do with her in the...two entire episodes that are left.
- Why does it seem like on this show, just about every single teacher, counselor, therapist, or person with any other job that should involve enjoying kids and helping kids is fucking terrible at their job? I fear what kind of hands Effy is in if all the professionals in Bristol are as helpful as JJ's doctor or that clinic Cassie went to. (But on a random related note, when there was a picture released a long time ago of Effy's calendar with "pills" written all over it plus "Freddie" at some times of day, my first thought was that she's taking something for psychiatric purposes even though everyone assumed it was referring to the fun kind of pills Effy pops all the time. I love how I was totally on the right track the whole time as far as where her character was going without realizing what I was on the right track about, lol.)
- COOK IN A BAG HEEE. Wearing a Stone Roses shirt. ♥ He totally must be shitting everyone with telling them he broke out because there are just so many unrealistic things about that and it's hard to see why he would after where things were going with him in his episode. Mrs. Jones's reaction to discovering him in the bathroom was pretty funny.
- I felt like there was no reason for Emily and Naomi to be in this episode. I didn't necessarily have a problem with the Naomi/Sophia thing at the start, but like everybody else says this is getting dragged out way too long, and I was just annoyed to see Emily still being bitter. At first I could understand a little how Naomi would cheat when I have to say it does seem a little soon in a relationship for them to be moving in together and talking about traveling together after college and all, and to me Emily's line "We were special" almost seemed liked a commentary on how the fan base has turned this relationship into this epic and uber special thing but it's totally not perfect. Skins sometimes has a brutal way of telling you not to get too invested in the ships over everything else or expect things to play out like a sentimental romance movie (Freddie/Effy finally hooking up in a fucked-up way that made me kind of careful what I wish for being my favorite example). But now it's starting to seem more like conflict for the sake of conflict and I just want to tell Emily to get over her reality being shattered already because we all know they'll eventually work things out anyway.
