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finnished watching episode one of serries five

its not up to gen 1 standard but better than gen 2(the whole feddie/effy/cook triangle annoyed me not to mention effy and freddie were both pretty bland)

the plot was a bit mean girlsesque so not strikingly original..it'll take a couple of episodes to warm up and develop the currently flat and sometimes unlike able characters(mini and her boyfriend(who I don't believe I remember speaking at all))

i loved Frankie a lot and Rich, Alo and Grace seemed cool though

edited 28th Jan '11 6:20:13 AM by faradayangel

I really enjoyed it. I'm glad that the "lighter tone" didn't mean that we'd lose the darkness entirely.

I loved the subversion of the "Hollywod Homely character puts on a beautiful dress and is istantly the most beautiful person in the world" — not once, but twice!(is that a trope?). I'm glad she went back to dressing how she wanted to in the end.

What was the manequin a metaphor for? Androgeny?

I love Grace. I've met a lot of Graces in my life, but never seen any on television or in movies.

Dibs on Grace being a Stepford Smiler. Mini clearly is; while I liked that they gave her a lot of vulnerability I think they rather over-egged the pudding. In just that episode she showed a damn lot of weakness.

Other questions: Did Nick even have a line? How will Matty figure into things — is he even in college? Does Alo live in that van?

well grace doesn't appear to be a stepford smiler

I didn't think rich was going to be such a dick though, even though I ended up liking the character, I hope they continue with the rich/grace storyline

There were moments where I thought that Grace was putting on some kind of a show. Her cry of "nobody fucking understands me", or the stealth heavy metal sign language at the end.

they really need to do something about mini's character 'cause she's pretty annoying and smug

it's funny unlike the previous generations this one doesn't seem to be as cohesive as a group what with the separate factions it'll be interesting to see if they develop as a group

edited 5th Feb '11 10:07:30 AM by faradayangel

That's her episode next week though!

... and she's vomitting all over her boyfriend. Yaay?

I dunno. I'm can't bring myself to hate Mini. She's clearly massively insecure, and in no way the queen bee she thinks she'd like to be — she leads a hive of three!

Plus that moment when she just wanders away while everyone else was having fun in episode 1 was really sad. Why did she do that?

^^

re: the group thing... I think they're far more of a group than say...gen2. At least here you can perhaps see the chance oh them all coming together whereas everyone seemed to hate at least one person in the group in gen2 and it didn't really make sense why they'd hang out at times.

On the subject of Mini...okay, she's a huge bitch but I just can't hate her because Freya plays her so well. I mean, it's obvious there's some sort of facade there but I'd be fine if she was a huge bitch for a bit longer. Her episode is going to be pretty interesting judging by the spoilers there are for it.

well it made no sense why anyone would hang out with cook in gen 2

I'm thinking that the groups this year are going to be far more starkly devided than previous years. Just look at the group portrait near the end of the credits: in previous years, they were all together. This time around, they're staggered and standing in distinct groups. Alo and wassface (the metalhead); Frankie, Liv and Grace; Mini and Nick; and Matty far to the right.

That was so sad.

franky/mini ship FTW

oh and I loved the episode

edited 12th Feb '11 8:34:37 PM by faradayangel

I know Mini's a massive bitch, and shouldn't really be remotely likeable no matter how much pressure she's under, but I do. She puts herself under immense pressure, and holds herself up to a very specific set of standards only to inevitable fail them. She seems to have some kind of body dimorpshism going on, and lashes out at anything that doesn't seem to live up to her expectations, whether that be potential friends who could ruin her "image", like Franky or Grace, or at people who don't live up to the standards she's set for her friends, like Rider.

She doesn't trust anyone, and can't confide in people due to a combination of being fiercly independant and refusal to show weakness, but her attempts to take charge and make things safer for herself just end up overwhelming her, causing her to lash out at everyone.

I doubt she's remotely as popular as she first appeared she'd be given the way she was snapping at her friends/people at school, and being laughed at in the halls. Both her friends have seemingly betrayed her, her boyfriend was never on her side to start with, but she's going to continue acting like there aren't any cracks in her armor anyway.

I admire that.

I just can't see it ending well for her. That's why I feel bad.

Edit: She's also the anti-Katie in a way. Katie was a strong woman who climbed all over her sister in order to emulate her mother, whose life fell appart when both her supports fell away. Mini's a weak woman who has little to no support, but has set a target that she feels will give her strength, even though it appears sadly unachievable.

edited 15th Feb '11 10:11:53 PM by Nicknacks

so in essence she's like a tragic heroine, it's a credit to the show that the character can be a massive bitch and still be believably sympathetic

edited 15th Feb '11 10:57:16 PM by faradayangel

Pretty much.

What she did this week was pretty reprehensible though. :(

I pretty much loved this week's episode, but I can't work out what it was about in the end. Who is Liv? A girl in danger of having her life fall appart, and one who strongly believes in speaking plainly and honestly. Who then goes on to speak plainly. And then in the final scene doesn't.

Feels like some stuff with the older sister — regarding the mother — was cut out (check ou the funky pacing/editting on the first prison scene). Shame as I couldn't get a handle on the mother's character, despite being played by an actress I love.

(outside the fact that she seemed to displace a lot of her anger by aiming it at unrelated targets. And weird shit. Like aliens. Perhaps tieing into the "honesty is a better policy" theme.)

Edit: Liv never changed her clothes for the entire episode. Which lasted at least three days. And lots of sex in them. Seriously woman, take a bath!

Also: preview was great! Nick sure likes punching Ryder, doesn't he?

edited 17th Feb '11 8:07:23 PM by Nicknacks

it wasn't as good as last week's in terms of getting to know the characters especially Liv and her mother... i'd have like more stuff on the family which felt pretty vague

I was kind of expecting her to stand up to Mini in the final scene or refuse to drink the vodka, while it would make sense for her to try and reconcile it's still pretty weak

yeah the preview was good plus if I was him I'd feel like punching Ryder to

i'd to have seen more of Franky and the gang hanging out while it might be too much to hope they'd become the breakfast club

edited 17th Feb '11 11:16:46 PM by faradayangel

I thought it was pretty clear that Franky/Alo/Grace/Rich were doing their own thing, while Mini continued to passively punish Liv by abusing her house, and possibly Nick. Amused to see him going down on her.

we need More Alo though

Definitely — and Rich. Those two keep on getting shunted.

the relationship between Matty and Nick should be interesting, I didn't see that coming

I personally hate Nick though he's the only character I don't identify with at all

edited 17th Feb '11 11:33:36 PM by faradayangel

Nick's the least developed too. I was quite taken aback by his "Stay away from Matty, he's a lunatic" speech. He seemed to be genuinely worried about his brother's actions, even if he clearly cares for the guy.

There's been some talk online about how they might have once — in a previous version of the season — been exes, back when Matty was bi.

edited 17th Feb '11 11:37:39 PM by Nicknacks

i heard that rumour(I'd have like for them to make the character Bi but keep the brother thing), that would make the love triangle(?) pretty weird

also i applaud both the use of Simon and Garfunkle and nick cave(the delightfully titled no pussy blues) on the soundtrack

edited 18th Feb '11 12:20:48 AM by faradayangel

Yeah, this week's soundtrack was amazing. But Skins has always had good music.

I was amused that so many of the reviews were complaining about the music in Rich's episode — completely missing the point.

I liked the episode but Franky needs to stop randomly appearing to give good advice or whatnot that's the third episode it's happened in they could of used a different character and the encounter with the prostitute was unneeded

edited 25th Feb '11 2:18:18 AM by faradayangel

Oh and Rich and Grace are Getting married, also apparently Rich loses his hair

And Mini is such a closet lesbian

edited 11th Mar '11 9:29:32 AM by faradayangel