Skin

This episode felt so boring to me. I remember last year when the leaks happened and how I could barely contain myself in trying to watch them all, and now I have such zero passion about this show. HBO isn't shaping up for a great year. Girls was meh, this seems directionless. Holding out hope for the Looking movie.

It's ironic to me that everyone in the article is championing the writer for giving choices, when he so obviously didn't make one the entire time he wrote this story. He's pretty much been the proponent of everyone has their truth, and it's all equally real to that person's reality, but from a story making component, he really didn't make one choice at all during the finale. He purposely chose not to make a choice, and not to go into detail about what happened to these individuals. He didn't give the audience a proper ending, and him saying "make up your own", serves as a cope out here.

 

The tone of the ending was not hopeful at all to me, but maybe the issue here is that we shouldn't be emotionally involved in the story telling, and believe that there will be accountability for the actions of people, because so many of these characters did not get retribution for their actions in the situation. It's telling to real life, and I guess that's the purpose of his show. I know that I will probably not want to watch next season, if this is the template going forward.

 

I also kind of hate the fact that he doesn't let his actors know the course of their story, that seems profoundly unprofessional, and may end up leading to uneven performances, that could be more measured by comparison. From what I've always understood and saw, actors should know what's happening to their characters, so that they can evolve their performances accordingly. That's pretty much what all films, theatre and most television series work off of.

Yeah it was one of the more enjoyable low key returns I've seen in recent memory.

 

It feels more and more like this show is looking to wrap itself up next season. Pretty much every single one of these characters looks like they are making a left stage exit.  

That's the least rewarding reunion if true. Sansa never cared for Jon in the first place. Now if it were Arya, I'd see your point.

 

Taylor was never going to get justice, so I pretty much wanted as much of a scorched earth as possible and that didn't really end up happening. So much was left unresolved, and it just made me angry. I felt that Eric, Leslie and Kevin and his parents all more or less got off scott free, which was ridiculously unsatisfying.

I didn't care for anything in the trailer. I'm finding it harder and harder to care about anything that happens in the capital, as all of them are so incredibly inefficient and incompetent (Does anyone care about Cersei to even actively dislike her at this point? Jamie is a limp dog since he got his hand sliced off. Margery was always weak sauce, Tommenen a straw man king if there ever was one). All I get is apathy from these individuals.

 

Jon and Dany are further and further away from their needed places. I don't care about Arya being blind or Tyrion ruling Mareen. Drogon disappears again. It feels like they don't know where they're going.

I hate everything they've done in the last few episodes. No one is going to care about the rape now that Taylor shot another kid, so he just ends up becoming a monster in the eyes of the public. So there will never be any justice for the rape. No one cares about that anymore.

 

I'm so genuinely disgusted by Leslie, I don't even know what to do about it. Watch her run off into the sunset with a noble peace prize at the end of this.

It's not a spoiler. (I have no inside information) It's my own personal opinion, but it seems the obvious conclusion. I never believed he was going to stay dead even after I saw the season finale.

I thought it was most likely because of their snafu last season where they leaked 4 episodes with their HBO GO launch.

 

I think by now everyone knows that Jon Snow isn't dead (or at least he isn't going to stay that way).

Is it bad that I don't care that the kid was shot? I have all the sympathy in the world for Taylor, but this narrative of whitewashing the kid that beat him up is obnoxious.

 

I still hate Leslie so much, and I want her to die.

I actually credit April and Jackson with the reinvigoration of this show, at least to a point. There was definitely a while in Grey's Anatomy's history where the show was quite boring, and where it felt as if it had lost all of it's luster. It took awhile but April and Jackson's courtship really turned things around in the show at around season 8. Granted they aren't the sole reason, but they are part of it. Now unfortunately it feels and seems as if they are going the way of Callie/Arizona. But April/Jackson are one of those magic couples on Grey's that it needs. I would say the same once applied to Lexie/Mark and Alex/Izzie . They really help with show morale.

Is Noel filming a different project? Is this why Mickey has been stuck on the sidelines this season? I'm trying to figure out why he is not here. I mean it is good for Ian, but at the same time it just seems kind of odd to drop him in such a way.

 

Nothing about this show is compelling, and that's the issue.

Well he failed to give a compelling reason why Sansa had to be raped, which is what makes me feel this way. I felt that it was a gratuitous choice in the first place, and it always seemed like another tool for them to utilize to flagellate Theon further, and to emasculate him more as a cowardly figure. But we are all entitled to our own opinions.

I'm not buying into their apologies or sadness either really. They revel in their own filth whenever they write for the Ramsay storyline. The writers themselves have even said that they like writing storylines in which Theon suffers. Sansa was a tool for them to utilize to torture the fan base, and was another trophy for Ramsey to "win." Nothing they say will rid me of that belief. He can take his tears and sprinkle them over his food for seasoning, as far as I am concerned.

This ignorance belies the issue, and the point obviously escapes you.

 

I guess it doesn't bother you that we live in a culture where after a person is sexually assaulted the first thing out of an investigators mouth are the following:

• What were you wearing?
• What were you doing?
• Did you do anything wrong?
• Were you on drugs?
• Were you drinking?

Do any of these factors excuse the assault? Does any of this change the fact that someone's body was used as a playground for someone else's benefit with no say so from the other person? Why is it so much more important to you to dismiss and discredit the victim rather than acknowledge that this happened without his consent?

 

Consent is not a  grey area. If you don't feel confident that you have secured a yes from someone, that means consent was not clearly given.

 

This is how rape culture persists, and victim blaming ensues.

How is it rape if Eric didn't even know the guy was drugged? And what was Eric supposed to do? Stop everything in the heat of the moment and ask the guy to clearly state "I want to have sex"? I mean to me that sound ludicrous. I don't see how Eric is at fault for anything aside from thinking Taylor was probably tipsy
 

 

 

You clearly don't understand consent laws, if this is such a difficult concept.

 

Eric clearly stated in his report to the police that he was of sound judgment and of (relatively) clear mind that night - he wasn't drunk. Taylor indicated he was not cognizant of what had happened to him that night, and he has the GHB stained clothing as direct evidence of that, showing that his judgment was impaired, along with all the pictures on social media. Taylor cannot consent given the fact that he was drugged with GHB, anyone who touched him after the drugs were ingested into his system is a rapist, according to the very concept of consent. It's rape. Whenever anyone cannot provide consent it's rape.

 

It doesn't matter if Eric doesn't think that it was rape, or if Eric thought Taylor was really into it. He still raped Taylor because Taylor could not consent to the sex due to the fact that he was drugged. What are people missing here? I can understand Eric not understanding consent, he is a teenage boy who doesn't understand much of anything. Seems like there are tons of people who don't understand the concept. But if any of the above happened he is still a rapist. The law does not protect the ignorant. He is still culpable of his crime.

 

It doesn't matter if Eric didn't know Taylor was drugged. The sex could not be consented to because Taylor was drugged. That's what makes it rape. Taylor is right to say that Eric violated him because he couldn't consent.

It is rape if it is proven that at any point in time before the penetrative act occurred that the individual was not in the place where they could consent legally. Point blank. It doesn't matter if the other person didn't know they were drugged. It's still considered rape, under the legal definition. Taylor cannot consent, means that any penetration is not consensual, equates to rape. It doesn't matter if the other person thinks the individual consented, when they didn't/couldn't. It's still a date rape.

 

The others boys would be an accessory to the crime, and they would be charged with drugging Taylor.

 

It's sad, I actually like both Eric and Taylor, but I think it's clear that Eric is a rapist. Even if he doesn't understand how that can be the case. Even if Taylor did ask for Eric to be rough, even if Taylor went there to have sex with him, that does not give Eric cart blanche access to Taylor's body. That's not how consent works. It's clear that a lot of people in America don't really understand much about consent and engagement (it's clear as day, that the in-show police officials and investigators don't) but this case is not an exercise in consent.  

I don't think Kevin's biggest issue is his misogyny.

 

Kevin can't understand basic principals to keep himself out of trouble and is continuously shown to be unintelligent. These actions include but are not limited to spending thousands of dollars on jewelry for a girl he barely knows, and not understanding that he is lawfully accountable for his actions as an 18 year old man, and he needs to showcase responsibility and restraint for his actions. He is over privileged because of his class, but he fails to understand the weaknesses of his privilege as a black man.

 

In short, he is not cognizant of the world around him. I would consider that to be his greatest flaw.    

If Eric penetrated Taylor after he was drugged, that would be rape, as Taylor already expressed he could not consent to Eric, and if he was drugged there would be now way to consent to Eric for the sex to be consensual.

 

These kids are idiots who have no concept of right and wrong, and they are running around unchecked because their parents are so uninvolved in their lives and they let their kids do whatever they want. Kevin is two brain cells away from being brain dead.

Leslie is very smart. She is well educated. She has a keen insight into everyone's motivations, which is why she knew that the mother wouldn't settle. She needs to make the school accountable for their actions, and the only way that truly happens is for her case to go in front of a court. Her education, and professional acumen is what makes her so dangerous, and loathsome. Especially in comparison to the other administrators, who seem to genuinely want to help their districts. Leslie doesn't give a real damn about any of these kids. She just wants a legacy to put her name next to.   

It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, Game Of Thrones is pretty much the only thing fueling HBO subscriptions at this point. It would make no sense to lose it this quickly.

 

I don't care at all for that promo. I would rather they not release anything, than provide a promo with no information about the upcoming season.

 

In regards to the adaptation dispute, I don't understand why HBO couldn't have taken a slower pace to the series. There is probably plenty of material to adapt, as I imagine. So I don't see why they couldn't have done a book per season approach, or why they couldn't do a book to multi-season approach. Just my two cents, I don't read the books, but I think it might have helped GRMM more had they done that.

You know the show is bad when Carl has the most emotionally investing story of the ensemble.

 

A lot of these characters are going through real growing pains, which I like. Debbie, Ian, Fiona and Carl are all trying to adapt to moving forward in their lives and I think that is in essence a good thing. I think Fiona might have been the enabler here, which is hard to see in this context because she has been the sole guardian of these kids, and their sole provider to surviving Southside. But they all need to grow up, and find out who they are, and what they are going to do with their lives. I'm actually find with Debbie playing sister wives with this chemo woman. I still don't give a damn about her character though, as she is a major disappointment, but this might provide some growth and development for who she is, and might flesh her out a bit more into a recognizable character.

 

I really hope that Carl sees that this life of crime isn't for him. This would be a great moment for an epiphany to see where crime could get him.

 

I love that Ian is seeing how abusive his relationship with Mickey was, and that he is seeing that love doesn't have to be this way. I know Mickey loves Ian, but their relationship has many aspects of it, that are dysfunctional, and it's good for Ian to know that, what happened to him in seasons 2 and 3 concerning Mickey was not ok. Maybe it is time he looked at his relationship with a more skeptical eye. I am not sold on them as a couple, like at all, yet. But it is an interesting development that should be exercised.

 

Lip, he is on his way to losing everything. I'm not sure what this is supposed to accomplish. This Helene thing, is so odd. Lip also loved Karen like this, and it was pretty volatile and unhealthy. Maybe he will come out of this learning more about himself. But it just looks like he is imploding because he got his heart broken. Is he being punished? Or is he being relieved of his duties because the school believe he has been sexually abused? So confused. It seems that while everyone else is growing, changing and gaining insight into themselves, Lip is cracking.

 

What does Gus want? He's such an odd and confusing character. Is he still in love with Fiona? What is the point of them staying married to one another. Why doesn't he just let her go?

Are you talking about Sammi's mother?

 

I thought it was the other way around. It seems as if Frank was really gone for her, and he seemed really happy to see her from this most recent episode. Unless you are talking about the cancer patients. They are oddly gullible. But I think we are supposed to see this as Frank's great charming capabilities.

The album with Tony Bennett didn't do much of anything either, Gaga pretty much treated it like a side project. We can agree to disagree but I think the watershed moment was her Golden Globe win. The Sound Of Music tribute performance was just that a performance. It didn't really sow the seeds of a comeback. I don't think it did much of anything for her since she has more or less been on radio silence until the GG's.

After this past episode, I've pretty much lost interest in this show. I don't know what it is, maybe I am just so exhausted from how horrible all of these characters are, but I can't even find it in myself to muster up any kind of energy or excitement in this show to further invest. It's well written, but not a satisfying watch at all.