1x06 - Parentsite - Episode Discussion
 

Copy paste from Campaign thread :)



I liked the episode, overall, it was full of stuff and we saw more about the characters - Aki especially! I couldn't wait to see his parents and well, I loved him already but now even more. He's such a beautiful soul, he's the one of all Menzies sons who truly loves his father and he really, really supports everyone even when they don't deserve it. I adored the scene with his mum, he's her boy and she's there for him (offering to go with him to say goodbye to his dad surely because she thought what if he say something homophobic to him?). For me she's the Akimax ship captain, too :D even more than Gideon. Anyway this scene made me think of what I remember was said in an interview with a Rise actor, Ted Sutherland. He played a closeted and catholic gay teen and once he said that often mothers know things about their children that they, the kids, aren't even aware of. In a Rise episode in fact his character's mum, while fighting with her husband about their son, accuses him to hide behind religion to prevent Simon (the son) to be who he really was. And Simon had never talked with them or her about his feelings. I can see a similar thing with Aki and his mum here.

His dad is :mad: but how cool is that they had Malcolm McDowell playing him! I wonder what secret he meant about Julien :eek:

The fact that he was outed many times in this episode was terrible. And the only one who apologised (even though I feel his was the least hurtful one, I didn't even perceived it as outing since they were talking just the two of them) was Max, who even promised to not tell anyone. You know these are the tiny moments that make me ship them even more, it's in the details, I feel there's more attention for them than the other combination of the throuple.

Audrey was ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sorry I can't stand her and now everutime I see her I'm like SHUT THE F UP, BLONDIE. I have zero sympathy for her, at this point I wonder really if that's an acting problem, because her situation should make me feel sorry for her and be like oh, but she's living a tough situation, but NO, I can only see her being mean and absolutely unbearable towards everybody. She outed Aki in front of his parents and a minute later she was like oh but it wasn't my fault, I didn't even want to come here. WTF. She has always that "I'm a terrible person" coming out of her mouth, but at this point I think it's more a pose than anything. Safran defends her saying that she's going through a lot, but I don't care. That's not an excuse to act like she does, she apologize but it always sounds fake imho. And even all the Emily, Evan and also Safran talking about how supportive she is and how much she loves Aki and how beautiful their relationship is and how Aki is lucky to have her, I wonder if they're aware that it doesn't show in the episodes. Everytime I read or hear such stuff I'm like am I watching a different show from what Emily and Evan doing? Aki would be really lucky if he got rid of her, honestly. He's better off alone or with anyone else, even a random girl or guy.
The only moment I liked her in six episodes is when she takes Aki's hand, when he's clearly unease at listening to his father homophobic opinions.

Max really fired guns at Rafa, didn't he?? Rafa is disgusting as usual, sneaky as the devil. I liked Thomas saying that people should be worried for Rafa and not Max the sex tape, oh well! Even though yes, Rafa deleted it, but Max still has it on his phone, so? You can't imagine how I loved the way Max talked to him, saying he'd rather ******* nobody than ******* him and that he'll make sure no other senior falls in his trap. I'm still thinking at what Safran said about this, that it's interesting that for Max it wasn't a problem until he thought it was just him, doing that with Rafa, but when he found out there had been others as well, it wasn't that okay anymore. This surely tells us something about him.
Despite me not liking the throuple, it was nice to see him helping Audrey.

The threesome thing. Honestly I don't know what to think of it. I mean it was hot for sure, but I think that maybe they shouldn't have spoilered to us before the show even premiered. It took the "fun" away. I wonder if they really had sex, though, it seems we'll find out in episode 7? I'm an Akimax shipper, so I was more focused on them :D and it was true what Safran said, that you can really see each character acting the way they feel about this, in that moment. They did an amazing job. You could see Aki's reaction was different from Audrey's. I absolutely love the way Max always grabs his head when he kisses him. He does it with Audrey too, here, but it's less noticeable and short.

The Zobie thing ugh, it's kinda boring. It's a classic triangle, but he's really annoying! I'd like to know what kind of girl he exactly like, since it seems he's never happy with the one he has. Maybe he would have liked a throuple with Zoya and Julien. I'm not surprised he kissed Julien again, it was pretty clear that he still had feelings for her (same for Julien).

Kate and Nick, what about NO. The other teacher made a fair point at saying that if you want to play God, then you'll have to take the consequences of that and i think it's an interesting thing to see in the show. Although probably the last one the target audience of this show is interested into :lol: I admit that this episode was kinda slow with the adults stuff, except for the Menzies/Bergmann one. I usually like the teachers, but this episode I was like give me the teens!

And now we have to wait until November for the 1b! Hopefully they'll keep us updated with social media stuff and such.

Wow that's a tease if this was the half way point of the episodes.

Ugh this episode was a mess. It was good but also bad or showing characters in bad lights. As I expected they can't just let Julien & Zoya be sisters. Stupid love triangles & Obie just no. They both should just go find someone else as right now he's cheating on his girlfriend with his ex. & they are sisters. Julien is also bad for kissing her sister's boyfriend too. This is not going to get anyone into a good place.

Audrey I don't know. I am on the fence with her. Worrying about a love one can make you do crazy things. However abusing hospital staff is a no for me. They are, at least here anyway, already overworked & underpaid so I have no respect for anyone behaving like that towards them. I don't care how worried you are about your mother. But I did love her showing that she can actually care about someone other than herself so maybe she isn't completely selfish. Doubtful, but maybe. Outing Aki though, ugh, again fence. I agree with you Ilaria, but I also can see that she had a lot on her mind & slipped up. Accidents happen. But then what she was saying in the bathroom to Zoya, it is hard to accept it. Add in that she's not brave enough to just admit what she did to Aki. Then worse instead of apologising & telling him, she instead sets up a threesome. What, does that make what she did ok? That her actions led to his father outing him (wrongly) publicly & using it to make himself look better too, are somehow justifiable? However - also as you said - she held his hand in support against what his father was saying :love:. A rare time to actually see that she does care about him & see something between them.

Now Max you are adorable trying to fight for yourself, protect your parents, & being there for Audrey. All brilliantly done. I can't say more than what has already been said.

The teachers are annoying but I did like how they have balanced everything GG related out between them all now. Kate & Nick were cute, but it was better they weren't involved. It would only get messy. Then I still don't know if I like her character. I don't like the male teacher (so much that I block out his name :P), & his actions towards her were petty. He may have been right but he was mainly doing it out of jealousy & hurt that she turned him down in the previous episode.

Now this threesome I don't know. It can be true, but it can also give bisexuals a bad name. The way it is done makes me feel like Audrey was giving Aki a man to sleep with to make up for her actions. As if he needed a man to make it all better or she couldn't do it on her own. That isn't necessarily their intention with it, it may just be their way of starting up their throuple storyline but that's how it came across for me.

Then the parents are a bit of a mess. Probably for the best they're not in their children's lives all that much. Loved seeing Julien's father supporting her. Then Aki's mother :love: bless her going about things the right way. She doesn't straight out ask him, but is there for him if he wants to tell her the truth. She'll support him & wait for him to be ready to come to her even if she already knows.

Midseason finales are always a mess :lol: and we had to wait more than three months for the next episode! I wasn't surprised about Julien and Obie, it was clear that the feelings were still there. That being said, they've been wrong at cheating on Zoya, the only thing that they made right was Obie stopping before sleeping with her. It would have been so so bad. In this episode I started to ship Jobie, anyway :D

Also the way she replied to Zoya when she was just trying to be nice (and Zoya also lost her mother). Abusing people is a no for me too.

As I was saying in the ep 5 thread, Audrey makes one step forward and two steps back everytime. I just can't. They way she blamed Aki for being outed because she didn't even wanted to go to that dinner, I was fuming. She'll never apologise for that, byt the way, not even in later episodes and personally I found that unrealistic, since it must be clear to Aki that she was the one outing him.
The hand thing was the only thing I've ever liked of her in an entire season, so :lol:


Max is so loving, I like that of him.


You don't like Jordan?? I find him hilarious :lol: True, he acted out of jealousy, but in the end he was right and made her think that you can't play God only with the kids, that you're in this as well. Surely these teachers have a lot of grey zones, which I like, because it would have been not so realistic otherwise.


I read other people, back then, saying that she set up a threesome for him, but I never had that impression, honestly. She fantasizes about having sex with both since the pilot. She needed to think at Max to reach climax while having sex with Aki, she knew Aki liked him too so it all was born from that. I always thought she was thinking of her own excitement, more than Aki's. After all she almost never apologised to Aki for the way she treated him, so why she would set up a threesome for him? You'll see in ep 7, together with flashbacks of this, that she'll feel awkward for liking the threesome (same for Aki). I don't think it made bisexual look bad, why are you saying that? As far as I know usually threesomes are bad for women, because they're always represented as greedy and nymphos.



Jodie is :love: I need more of them, Aki is even cuter when he's with his mum. Anyway except for her, yeah, parents are a mess in this reboot too :lol: Roger is :mad: (fun fact: Malcolm hung out with Evan and Eli while he was on set, like they even went out for his birtthday. Evan loves him and is so inspired by him, he feels so lucky he's playing his father! He's a cinema icon!)
About Davis...I liked him until this episode, but then :look:

I don't know. Jordan feels sleazy to me :shrug: just rubs me the wrong way with some of his actions. Sometimes he's nice though. It was mainly these two eps that I really didn't like him

tbh she probably saw her actions as an apology so didn't feel the need to do one verbally :rolleyes:



I can see that side of it too, but just within the context of the episode since she did seem to start to beat around the bush on admitting what she had done, then she set this up? Could've been a selfish move on her part. Could've been an apology. Could've been both.


I didn't mean that this exact moment necessarily made bisexuals look bad. I meant that threesomes in general can. Because bisexuals supposedly are greedy, can't pick, need both, cheat, like threesomes, ect. :rolleyes: Some people just can't seem to wrap their head around the fact that anyone can want & enjoy a threesome, it has nothing to do with sexuality. So in having a bi & pan character involved in a threesome could be seen as playing into that myth that bisexuals/pansexuals want threesomes. However for some that is what they like so it is also good that side of things is represented. It all depends on how you look at it. You could also look at it & see there's three different sexualities involved in it & see that it had to do with the people & not their sexualities (one would hope)
I've had at least one person who new my sexuality ask me if I've had a threesome & if I'd want one. I highly doubt they go around asking that question to everyone, it was only asked because of my bisexuality.

He's as sleazy as the other teachers, I think :shrug: I don't know, I liked him from the start, he's funny even if he's horrible as the other teachers (but trust me, you'll soon see teachers way worse than him!)


No idea, I never felt the threesome as a way of apologising, in episode 5 the fact that Aki liked Max was her last thought and she prepared the dinner for both of them. I saw that more as a selfish move :lol: which was liked by both guys, though, so :lol: Aki agreed immediately to that.
The Akimax kisses are like :thud: they're just another level for me.


Oh, I see your point. I guess that's why they introduced this since the beginning as an idea and it took six episodes to happen, so it could not give that impression. Max is immediately introduced as a teen pansexual who has a lot of casual sex (and he's not new to orgies as well you'll see), I was more worried about, but even in this case, it seems to me that thet wrote the whole thing properly, regarding this aspect. Did you feel differently?

Ugh, I'm sorry you experienced that.

He's definitely not the worse. Far from it. I just didn't like him, mostly in these two episodes. I can't put my finger on the right word for him, sleazy was just a guess. I wouldn't call the others that personally. At least not at this stage. Except for Rafa

The whole dinner/threesome could've been an apology & a thank you. Or just a twisted way for her to get what she wanted. Who knows...

I can't comment on one scene. They've written both characters well so far. I like what they've done. Unfortunately there is always going to be one person, regardless of how they write it, who will go 'of course they're doing that, they're bi/pan'. Disregarding the fact that there's a straight woman involved in the mix & that polygamy & threesomes have nothing to do with sexuality.

Thankfully I've seen enough stories of myths & experiences of others to expect some of the stupid questions but seriously some people :rolleyes:

Rafa is the worst :mad: Jordan has his moments, but I still appreciates him :D he surely often convices Kate to post things she maybe would not, but he has a soul, you'll see.


I vote for the latter :lol: but still I think it was somehow "improvised", like she wanted to, but she hadn't planned it, she just took the chance, sure Aki would have agreed.

Oh well, that's for sure. But as far as I've seen, I didn't catch such comments, so far, so maybe there's hope?

My old thoughts after watching the first 6 eps back when it aired:

(apologies for the rant that is to come lmao)


The reboot was a complete MESS!

Firstly, the characters are not likable at all. With the OG we had Dan and Jenny who some people felt they could relate to and were "outsiders". We had Chuck, who was just highly entertaining. We had Nate, who was an idiot but at least he was sweet and hot lol. Blair was a bitch but she had cool moments too and was fun to watch. Serena was sweet and rootable as well. Even the parents were likable.

The characters here are absolutely terrible. No one is likable. And the friend group is a bunch of jerks?! Like, why the hell would we want to root for them?

Max is the most entertaining and Julian/Zoya are decent but the rest are either dull AF or annoying. The friends of Julian and the blonde? ANNOYING. The blonde teacher? Annoying! The other parents, dull. Aki, DULL! Obi is insufferable imo. He dated sisters, which is disgusting, one of which is 15. And he just judges everyone, yet he's in that friend group??? Like Zoya can do so much better. The sister feud was grating too. All over a lose guy? I was so over it. Honestly, Zoya done messed up by dating him. But, both can do so much better than that loser. It just feels very outdated in terms of like, storyline? Can we not come up with better more advanced plots?

Second, the couples are horrible. Aki and the blonde are so crappy together. Max and the teacher were gross. Obi/Zoya were horrid! Like, literally, they need some way better options!

Third, the show was BORING! For an HBO show we didn't really get any racey scenes except maybe 2. (Rafa/Max in the classroom and the Aki/blonde scene) but that was really it. Overall there were just so many boring scenes where characters were just talking. IDK, nothing all that interesting happened IMO. And compared to the original it just wasn’t as juicy or fun. There are so many boring conversation scenes.

They could start by getting rid of the teachers. They really suck honestly. I can't believe they are doing this to the kids, they are such losers. I hope someone takes over for GG so we don't have to see them. Kate especially is so grating.




The good things:
-The diversity/representation and discussion about sexuality and black rights etc.
-Max.

And that is really it lol.



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Sorry my initial comments were so harsh. I do plan to finish the series but please tell me the last 6 eps get a bit better? lol.

It's okay :lol: I was pretty harsh about it after S2 ended.

I think though that you should judge after finishing the first season and then also watching the second. There's a change in 1b in terms of pace and stuff happening and especially in S2, when it gets more like the OG in terms of schemes, storylines, catfights. There's the Cotillion mess, a Met Gala, a trip to Rome, GG gets caught, Georgina Sparks creating drama, more references to the OG GG. Storylines gets more connected and complex. A lot of people who didn't like S1 for some of the same reasons as yours, loved S2 and said it had more OG vibes.

PERSONALLY I prefer 1a - the first six episodes - shipping wise, but the rest of the show for everything else. As you can see I ship Akimax and they got treated terribly since 1b, not to mention in S2 (and also in S3, if it had been renmewed, looking at how they wrote them in the episodes we got). I can't stand the throuple or any other combination of it, so.

I rooted for the characters of the reboot, honestly. Especially Julien and also Luna. Sure, they could have been written better, but I cared about Aki, Max and Julien (they are my favorite). Also Luna. The big problem is that they weren't really written as a group of childhood friends, we are just keeping told that they're bff, but it doesn't show much.

Agree about not being the best thing dating both, but remember that Obie is 16 :lol: They're all 16 except for Max who's 17 and Zoya who's 15.


I wish they went with the mlm that was Akimax + wlw (with Monet and a girl - she's lesbian, as you probably know already). For me Akimax with a proper writing and buld up could have been amazing and very, very interesting. They surely had potential. Safran loved the throuple and he always said it was going to be the endgame (not that he wrote it better, anyway, you'll see). I like also Jobie, honestly.


I loved them in S2 even, sorry :lmao:



I don't know, I didn't find the characters as bad as you, not all of them anyway :lol: but as I said, check the rest of the season AND the S2 to see if it gets better for you. Reding your comments, I think you may like the show better, going on, especially in S2. I don't think shipping wise, seeing that you didn't like any and the only one that gets a better developement is Jobie, imho.

That's good to hear!

Even though I was super harsh I still find myself thinking about the series and want to continue watching. It IS very fun to watch, I will say that and I love dumb drama like this. :lol:

That is super disappointing to hear. Of all the pairings I thought Aki/Max had the best potential. I wasnt totally on board with the throuple but i thought if it gave us A/M stuff I could get behind it. Thats a bummer it didn't seem to get better for those two.

Okay, thats a bit better. I didnt know he was only 16, I assumed he was 17/18 like the others.

I think Julien/Obi were better than Obi/Zoya, but I still didnt like either one. I felt like both girls could do better.

Some even say that it got canceled right when it had found its pace and direction. I liked the idea of making it less soapy, though, just maybe that wasn't something that suited the GG idea people had. Safran said it was always planned, this change, but who knows. He was so proud when he said, before S1 premiered, that this GG was different, no catfights, no **** shaming and so on. I didn't mind S1, but S2 was surely more juicy. Too bad I hated the shipping part! But at least the rest of the stories were fun.

That's the GG effect, I fear :lol:

I thought the same, I was like okay, if they have enough good scenes just the two of them, at least I can ignore the throuple more easily. But no, my fear of the three of them always having scenes together became real and not only that, Akimax got the ones with less alone time of all combinations of the relationship. I was so pissed, because 1a, as you saw, is very different and makes you believe they're going to be something, even inside that throuple. But no.

I understand, because everyone looks kinda old :lol: but no, except for Zoya and Max, everyone is 16 in S1, in 1x12 when they're at a bar outside NY someone even say that they can get alcohol there only because Aki's father ir Roger Menzies. Max having the same classes of the others was never addressed, but I guess he just started school a year later.

Sure, but personally even if I wasn't a big fan of Obie in general (he gets a little better in S2), I liked that first love thing and how they always looked for each other. The thing is we never saw the "good times" of Jobie, it was something pre pilot. I liked their chemistry, though.