Forelsket

Dark-Zero

I expect this to be the episode that changes Franky haters in to Franky fans.

Simon Spier

Thanks for the new thread!

myusername

lol

Dark-Zero

I do, i really do

myusername

haha i know you do

jenaya

The trailer makes it look like Minkys finally gonna happen lol. Keen to know whether its just a tease and it's nothing of a sort

raybanchica

it's just for ratings.

SomeConstellation

Just a smart (read: manipulative) move on the production team's part I think. Actually writing a Mini/Franky episode so close to the finale was brilliant also. Ratings will be up, plus people are surely going to tune in for the finale after it.

Zefiro

Let's see if it's good

Edit: Rich wins. So ****ing much. He makes an appareance and he's the best. You're too good for this ****.And I love you so much. :') I thought it was not possible liking him more but yet he did.

All the awards to Shirley for telling first Franky and then Alo to get the **** out of her house. Bless this woman. And her partner,Eric.

Next week: OMG another episode about Franky? Unbeliavable

Dark-Zero

Well, that did the exact opposite of what i had hoped. Damn, i dont know what to say about that episode. It was probably the worst episode of the series. The only good part was the end with Rich, Mini, and Alo. I expected more in that fight between Matty and Nick.

Inesal

The main question is why Skins went this route. Was it a belief that most viewers are drawn to rigid male worship with young women recognizing that only that guy they wrongly push away can fulfill them? This means an attempt to grab ratings by undoing the complexities of series 5 (and it's intriguing sexual dynamics) and restore a simple why can't the girl see the boy is the only one that can satisfy her and make her fulfilled. Or was it a grudge as heavily rumored, a show creator lashing out at the audience that he feels unfairly salvaged Skins US? For it was that audience that ridiculed his interview and attacked his show despite him giving them Naomi/Emily.

Skins series 6 with it's retcons and it's need to proclaim a woman's place is being girly, recognizing her main priority in life is to be a mother, and understanding that one must give oneself to the outcast boy, is something fascinating. It is a reactionary revision of series 5 replacing nuance with simplicity, pansexuality with 100% heterosexuality with it's returning characters, representation with tokenism (best illustrated by the only intriguing character Alex who now seems simply there to stem the bleeding caused by hostility from gay men). One can feel the show saying look we gave an episode which actually focused on a gay man (after all Maxxie's few episodes always belonged more to someone else whether they be a bus crash victim or a female stalker). Now pardon us as we place Alex back on the periphery and get back to our great fill in the blanks love story (Alo has no one - Mini is free - lets have Alo and Mini be a couple).

Don't forget Alex though. That this is supposed to make up for the weak treatment of Maxxie and excising the gay male on Skins US is laughable.

The most important thing here is for women to fit their womanly roles. If Mini and Franky pretend to be a couple at one point, it is solely about ridiculing the notion that it once seemed headed towards (particularly with Mini). The Mini who disliked the thought of sex with men and who crushed heavily over Franky has grown up thanks to the masterful penis of Alo. She has long ago realized that same sex romance attraction for women is for children, a phase to be grown out of. She praises Alo's sexual ability in front of Franky. The meaning is clear. Last year I wanted you Franky but that was wrong. Fulfillment in life for a woman can only come through being with one man and accepting motherhood. Everything else is child's play particularly sapphic desires.

We are given the Alo/Mini kiss of kisses in a scene that would make reparative therapists across the world happy. Mini was already cured but this is the biggest declaration. In an episode purposefully called "Mini and Franky" (teasing a certain audience), that kiss acts as a final statement. In an episode named after two women where one wanted the other last year, the same woman is all woman in the eyes of the show. She is now free of all those pesky hangups. Even if she loses the baby, she was ready to be a Mom and she knows her place is serving Alo. Franky's place is not as sure. Franky now needs to grow up. By wishing to run off with Mini, she attempted, in a nonsexual manner, to usurp Alo's place. She is the momentary villain here separating Alo from Mini (how dare she). Matty will cure her of course. While not a shipper, I always thought Manny and Franky would be sweet together. Now I realize that the intriguing romance of last year has been replaced by paint by the numbers make up time. How insulting.

The episode is hateful, offensive, reactionary, and spiteful. It is a poisoned letter to many fans and in a way the ultimate statement of how one's hostility, no matter how right, can come back to bite them when it questions the wild ego (one which has shown an odd, twisted belief in what lesbians are - all fascinated by sleeping with men). At the same time it is a love letter to how boys should always get the cute girl. That is what romance should be according the series.

So again the question is was it for ratings or was it for revenge? If it was the latter, all it served was proving BE's critics right all along.

Idealist

well said Inesal, always admire ur posts here. s6 has been way too hateful and offensive. sorry to say, but i dont get how some people can like this series.

mix of both probably. they have been really pissing all over minky which makes me feel that its mainly for revenge.

lemur

I actually feel like I understood MOST of the characters this episode.

I don't feel that Mini's place is to serve Alo. If that were the case, I don't think she would have run off after he said he didn't want a baby. She came to feel that she wanted this baby and that is her right just as much as it would to get an abortion. She is in no way ready for a baby, but she has a realistic attachment to her and would regret giving her up for the rest of her life. No one told Mini what to do, not even Franky.

Franky has bothered me all season for obvious reasons, but with this episode I understood her. I don't think Franky understands what happiness is. She's overcome so much and has the world in her hands but still doesn't feel... right. I think she is so damaged by her upbringing that it's been a process for her to find her place. As soon as someone tell her what to do, how to dress, who to date, etc. she changes her mind and isn't happy with any decision she makes. She is so full of anger that she keeps on ****ing things up. Although I still don't like where her character went this season, it sorta is making sense to me as this season is wrapping up.

Minky would have been an awesome couple and I still wish they would have went there. However, just because I didn't get what I wanted with character development doesn't mean I can't get where the plot did go. Just because Mini didn't like sex with men at first, doesn't mean she has to be a lesbian. I hated sex at first and I think most girls (at least that I know) do as well. On top of that, she felt pressured into it. If that isn't a mood kill, I don't know what else is. As a straight girl I've had girl crushes. Mini was obsessed with Franky but watching the season I thought it could have been a platonic obsession. She's never had a friend like Franky who has put her in her place and kept a sense of independance in who she is. Franky also accepts Mini while doing so. I now know that the writers of season 5 were planning on making her a lesbian. I'm not angry they didn't though. Their friendship felt real and the way they grew as individuals is starting to make sense for me.

The only thing I didn't understand this episode is Nick. He's plot this season has literally revolved around Franky and I still can't place way. :/

Rich was perfection as always so I don't need to say anything else.

Anyway, I know I'm one of the few who actually liked this episode but it's okay with me to disagree. I just wanted to explain why I did.

Inesal

I agree. While I think it is a mixture, I think the one plays a bigger role than the other just as you do. The concern when the things happened at Skins US was how would it effect Mini if BE came back. Well we found out.

What is sad is that he knows he can get away with it with a significant portion of the audience. The defenses are so built in that such a radical change in character is more easily accepted in this case. For example, Mini did not say she was a lesbian out loud and it can be claimed as an innocent crush. That Mini was repulsed by sex with Nick, that Mini had shown attraction to other women (revealed by Liv), and that Mini was looking at Franky as if she was the hottest person ever are automatically given less weight because of her gender and the gender of the person who she is attracted to. Because of the lack of respect given to lesbianism, BE will get a pass with a sizeable audience.

Every lesbian at some point has heard the it is just a crush, it is just a phase, you just need to meet the right man, you are just scared of sex, you are just frigid, etc. It is the calling cards designed to trivialize woman to woman sexual attraction. The primary function is stating that one is immature, a child, afraid of growing up. Don't worry it is platonic and one will get over it. The childish woman is confused and they just need a man to cure them. Skins is more than aware of such excusemaking and how it makes the retcon easier to get away with. In series 5, it was never their intent to trivialize Mini's attraction to Franky just as Franky's adrogyny never had the intent to display itself as something bad. Autostraddle had a nice piece which showed how the intent when it came to Franky's adrogyny changed. The same goes for Mini. No show builds a person's attraction to another person over the last several episodes of a series to come back in the opening of the next series and say presto - all that is gone. To get away with such a change would seem unfathomable. Luckily for BE there are such nasty tropes about lesbians (it is just a girlcrush, it is innocent, she was just afraid of sex with men) that it does not come under scrutiny and the change is defended in a way such abrupt changes wouldn't be if it was a straight situation. If Effy came back in series 4 with no interest in Freddy or Cook and head over heels in love with JJ, all audiences would go what the hell. When Mini makes a change almost as abrupt, there are viewers (predominantly queer women) going what the Hell while many other viewers accept that last year was just a phase. Those viewers should ask why did Skins series 5 spend so much time establishing a "phase". Obviously, the original intent was not as a setup to make sure Alo had a girlfriend. In Skins history, there has never been remotely any romance that came out of nowhere as Alo and Mini did just as there has never been any romantic attraction so out of nowhere dumped as Mini's for Franky. To not take leadership of the show into consideration is something I would not do here.

Series 6 seems all about growing up but in ways that treat the characters in a condescending manner. Just as Mini wanting to keep the baby shows she accepts her role as a mature woman, once Alo is no longer Peter Pan she will now serve him. Wendy and Peter Pan have grown up and put away childish things (just as Franky will next week). Among those childish things - a woman wanting a woman (which is mocked and ridiculed tonight). The truly childish aspect is treating same sex attraction as a phase or using lazy Peter Pan symbolism to tell a story about growing up.

Franky of course makes no sense because Franky is not Franky. Franky of last year has been replaced with a Franky whose unhappiness is a constant. While Franky did have a fear of sex (unlike Mini who was repulsed by sex with a man), now Franky is shown to be unhappy because she has not accepted her role (Matty desires her and just as with Alo and Mini, Franky must realize she can only be fulfilled by giving herself to the man who is finally ready to be with her). As for her adrogyny and change towards sex, again the retcon worked for some because cliches concerning adrogyny are applied. Just as those daytime tv shows have their makeovers where the tomboy wears women's clothing and everything is solved (on the show of course - goodness knows the damage to the child), Skins counted on people applying the same feelings (definitely not the intent last year where what she wore was a sign of strength). The comical depiction of Franky as being unable to be fulfilled craps on the Franky of last year. This is psychology 101 from 1938. This is such utter junk it is insulting (as is much of series 6).

The show, this year, has been virulently misogynistic but it has also pandered. It has played to cliches and to trivialization of lesbianism and adrogyny. Just as the retcon of Franky works because backwards cliches are easily applicable, the retcon of Mini works in the same regard.

I can recall a show that was as heterosexist and misogynistic. It was Skins US. In both cases, the show creator is relying on the belief of old tropes by many to get across his backwards views of women. In the former case of Skins US it seemed a case of bad writing (that someone would think lesbians sleeping with men is cutting edge in the US is funny though) more than direct intent. With Skins series 6, it feels purposefully heterosexist and misogynistic. There is something very disturbing in the way that BE views women and lesbians in particular. What is apparent is ego may be playing a big case. Sometimes a person has to listen to the criticism and realize they may not know it all.

A few years ago, at the height of the Emily/JJ controversy, I had a friend, who knew nothing of Skins, watch Skins series 3. I asked if they could tell the difference. Their immediate response was a young woman wrote the Naomi episode, an old man wrote the JJ episode. I got that same friend to watch Skins series 5 and the episodes of Skins series 6. At the end, I asked the difference. The person said, a man, said two things. To paraphrase "The two series had to be under the control of two different people and whoever did the second one really did not like what was happening in the first one. It's like Woody Allen being replaced by Brett Ratner".