IceTear1

I found this whole racial thing same as Tank/Bay. Important issues, but they have done those so forced that it feels odd and not what was happening.

Bay/Tank it wasn´t really rape just drunk sex.

And this racial thing starting with costume which wasn´t about race but character?

ollibear

In both instances, I think the writers chose to "ease into" the topic by being "less sensational." But, their method makes the storyline more controversial than if Tank had sex with an incoherent Bay, or Mingo had purposefully tried to bully his fellow classmates of color, by mocking them.

Perhaps that's what the writers want. Controversy.

I suppose the writers believe they are presenting both sides of the issue in this way. I don't feel as though they do, though.

~AnastasiaGrey~

I just couldnt connect to this episode I dont know hy

teaholic

That's a good point, Amy, and I didn't realize that about the writers not knowing until too late that the season would be cut short. That makes sense.

Still, as you say, even the episodes we've had so far (even imagining a 20-episode arc) haven't featured the same depth we had in seasons 1 and 2, or even close to it, as far as the core characters are concerned.

Wow, Amy, that's quite outrageous! I can't believe a writer could write a particular story for a character, all the while thinking, "Man, I hope that a**hole fails miserably!" What a strange mindset to have while writing for a character whom we've come to know so well and have watched through some serious personal struggles. Normally, even for antiheroes, the audience starts to feel sympathetic toward them from knowing their personal story, and Emmett is hardly an antihero. He hasn't done anything worse than being a confused teenager who made some blunders.

I'm kind of glad I don't follow the writers or showrunner on social media, or I think I would be quite bitter reading things like that!

Yeah, maybe that's it... I find it so sad to have the main characters reduced to these husks or caricatures of who they used to be, and the actors having to work with this crappy material and make the best of it.

I feel the same way. The issues don't feel as though they arise organically, but more like there's a flashing neon sign at the start of the episode: "We're going to deal with cultural appropriation now!!!!", "We're going to address campus rape now!!!"

And I did find myself wondering why the event in each case triggered such outrage and the labels of "rape" and "racism", respectively... in both cases, my opinion is that they weren't.

I think you're right that it would have been too black-and-white to have Tank be a sexual predator or for Mingo to be a KKK-type white supremacist. This way, the story has more nuance, but I feel they went too far in the other direction, in that it makes the black students (or in the Bay/Tank story, the school administration) seem like they're overreacting.

I don't follow the show on social media, but I get the impression from comments on this board that they do quite a lot of promotion at the start of each season about their big "controversial" storylines. Is that correct? Do you guys think it's effective in attracting viewers? I just feel like it makes it worse, because it becomes obvious that these social issue stories are a ploy to draw attention, and there is nothing really organic about them...

~AnastasiaGrey~

Wow great discussions you guys

ollibear

I agree. This season feels off to me. I almost wonder if Freeform sensed that, too, and that's why they pulled the plug near the end of filming the first 10 episodes.

The showrunner has this air of condescension about her towards fans. When she speaks to an individual fan on Twitter, she is incredibly kind and generous. But when she addresses fans at large, it is as if she holds this great disdain for us. It's weird.

The worst moment ever was when Bay and Emmett finally made love. As that scene played out on screen, Lizzy Weiss tweeted something to the effect of "There you go. Are you satisfied now?" Those were not her exact words (and I do not have time to search for her actual tweet right now), but that was definitely her message.

I am sorry if she felt pestered by fans who care about Bay & Emmett, but for her to tweet something that was filled with disgust tainted what was a special moment on screen.

That is the perfect way to describe it. In Seasons 1 and 2, I connected with characters who felt real and alive.

Now, they are just husks or caricatures of their former selves, and it is not the actors' fault. They are doing excellent work, with what they have been given.

I agree. And through Tweets, that is pretty much what the showrunner is doing.

For me, I felt as though it triggered such outrage, because we have people on this planet right now that are outraged by such events. I see the writers as mimicking what is going on in the real world. I am glad they opened my eyes to it, because the tide needs to turn.

Yes, it does. And I suppose that is counterproductive to what these writers wanted. At least, it seems to be, by following their personal politics online, too.

But I am glad that the writers exposed the absurdity of someone calling what happened to Bay rape or calling what Mingo did racism. People in the real world are doing that, and it is taking things too far.

In the situation with racism, Mingo's costume was followed up by incidents of racism, and so I feel as though the writers did a better job of following through with their story. In the situation with Bay, the writers did not follow up by showing us any perpetrators of rape, so I feel as though their message was lost.

Yes, they do.

I feel exactly as you do. It makes it worse. It's like a neon flashing sign of "We have a very special episode to show to you." It's gratuitous and gross. The writers need to write a good story and let the work speak for itself. This sort of promotion cheapens what they are doing and makes it obvious that they have completely abandoned their characters which are the heart of EVERY story.