#i liked jo's storyline just not as part of bilals season

[lucidpantone]

In the defense of Shirley, I'm pretty sure they came out and said the channel (whoever she technically works for) requested AFTER they had written the season and whatnot, to add a plotline about HIV/AIDS (maybe there's more of a stigma against it in France, I don't know) and so they basically had to scrap part of their og idea, or legit condense so much of it JUST to fit the HIV plotline. And we know if it was David Baguette that was asked to do this, he would have added an unnecessary trauma for Bilal to some how get it and then people would have been upset that the homeless guy got it and stereotyped it and whatnot. So in all fairness, I'd cut them some slack on S8. But that's just me, feel free to agree or disagree

So I understand Shirley's decision behind not giving bilal the hiv storyline because its like he is arab, brown, poor and also is attached to the HIV epidemic. Like it would feel like a pile on. I always wondered if it would have been a cool storyline to attach it to his father's death. Like maybe he had hiv and during covid he died because he was compromised. So it could also inform audiences that vulnerable groups were heavily effected during covid but then I also think its important to inform the public that hiv can be contracted via any type of carrier no matter their gender. I have said I think as two mini 5ep seasons Bilal and Jo's season are ok. The issue is they are incomplete because they are only 5 episodes each and so it does neither story justice. Also khalil is a way better actor then Louise I felt like she struggled alot with some of her more in-depth scenes. She has great comedic timing but isnt my fav concerning delivering dramatic moments. I felt like khalil had to carry alot of that season via the acting and he didnt even get to show his whole story so it really sucks for him.I know he did land a Netflix film after this so I am happy he got some recognition but yea it just sucks overall and I am not so sure that Shirley is gonna give his storyline much more time in this season because Khalil was filming his movie during s9 and s10.

So we will see.... I also think HIV is still largely judged in most of the developed world. People think well protection is basically free in most western developed nations why not just use it? However I think people forget that most queer youth which is a large portion of the HIV population in the developed western world has had little to no sexual education. Most schools won't even acknowledge queer sex as a form of sex that also needs sexual prevention. I live in NYC which is like the gayest place ever and I would say only in the last 15 years is queer sexual education being pushed hard. Like pride week has teen day (I think teen day has only been around 10yrs or so) where its alot of queer sexual education and where you can get information on prep, non-latex condoms and protection for wlw intercourse and how to get any sexual health related advice and treatment without needing parental sign off and this is NYC. Also my neighborhood where I live all the sex shops which there is alot since I live in a gaybourhood will give any teen who asks free condoms and lube and an hiv test if they have some. But also you can get a free hiv test at any health center and there is a lot in NYC and all that stuff is free. But once again this is NYC most places preach abstinence or they dont even acknowledge sexual intercourse between queer youth. Also I do agree people put a alot of importance on not getting pregnant for women but just because you can't get pregnant doesnt mean you can't catch a bunch of other shit so kiddos need to be safe out there. Be a hoe if you want. I say this being a retired thotty(in my youth I was a wild one) but dont be dumb. I also say this as someone who was dumb but was lucky enough to catch something that wasn't life altering. Be responsible you only get one body!

[hellswolfie]

Ok so Skam France season 9 ended and i guess this is my opinion on it.

WARNING : this is a salty opinion and while I'm open for discussions if you did like the season (honestly that's very great for you), please respect the fact that some things the writing team did was hurtful for a lot of people. I saw too many people invalidating people's legitimate anger because they themselves liked the season, please stop that.

I want to start with the good bits, because they were there, no matter how shitty the rest was, and they deserve to be aknowledged. I really liked seeing Maya's relationship with each member of Lamiff (except Jo but that's only because I hate her). It was great to see how she interacted with the different characters and that it also gave them some depth too. That was a thing that was missing in season 8 since all the characters, including Bilal, were forgotten in favor of Jo, so I'm glad they didn't make the same bad choices here. I also liked how Maya's character was for the most part pretty coherent with what we knew of her. Skam France always had a problem with that too, especially with Tiff, and I have to say this season is one of the best in terms of character continuity. Moreover, in the last two seasons, the new team seemed to struggle with linking the love story with the main theme of the story like all the other seasons were (because you know it's called basic storytelling sorry I'm still salty), which always kind of made me wonder why would they spend so much time on the love story if it didn't (or almost didn't) service neither the plot nor the character growth of the main. That's something they fixed here, and it was again a cool improvement (altho apparently they can't find any other way than to make the love story the main theme but it still is an improvement so they still deserve a brownie point). Again in terms of the good things of the seasons, the general idea of Maya having to stop runing away from her problems, feelings and past, was a good idea to explore her character. Some plotthreads (her reuininting with her grandmother, her relationship with Mr. Valles,...) were pretty sweet and did have potential to be good. And of course, the visuals, lighting, etc, was really really well done and I can only applaud the team responsable for that because you could definitely see they put a lot of work into it. And a big shout out to the actors (especially Ayumi obvioulsy) because they were all amazing!

Now...The things I didn't like.

First and foremost, making the story about the Mayla relationship. I'm going to come back to how it was handled later, but just the idea of it, focusing so much on it, was a bad one. We only knew Maya from her relationship with Lola at that point (except for the one clip where she talks to Tiff in season 7 I guess), her season could have been a great way to finally explore her character OUTSIDE of this relationship, especially when the "main have to realise break up is for the best" storyline was already the theme of season 1, and that there were so much other things to explore about Maya. But no, they apparently couldn't see it, which is one of Skam France's greatest flaws : having so much potential and gold character and storylines, but not doing anything with it. Hell, she is even officially the skam france main who has the least episodes in her pov (and her season in general was pretty short especially compared to the last two seasons), not to mention all the times the clips suddently decided to focus on other character's POV even when it was completely useless (yes I'm partly talking about Jo being the most annoying person in the universe sue me). Maya deserved to have a story focused on her.

One thing that the old team did right, no matter their faults, is that they actually EXPLORED what they were talking about. I mean say what you want about season 5, but you can't tell me they didn't do their job and research in actually talking about deafness and the deaf community. That is something that, again, the new team struggles with. And it was even more blatant in this season. The tatso busko? Only mentionned once and that's it, we don't even see Maya doing any research on it which makes no sense seeing as how much it affected her at the time -something that was promptly altogether forgotten btw-. Her reuniting with her grandman? Only got like 5 clips with her (one not even in her pov), and there is no follow-up or talk about what her grandma said about her father even when it obviously really perturbed Maya, the evolution of that storyline is so rushed because there is so little time focusing on it even though it is what represents Maya running away and is obvioulsy a crucial part of her arc. Her trauma about her accident and having an alcoholic father? Who cares the writers even forgot about her tatoo even tho it held so much meaning to her. Her growing up as an orphan and in abusive foster families, having to run away because of her foster parents' homophobia, maybe a talk about the social system in France? Lol not even mentionned. Her getting depressed to the point of having suicidal thoughts??? We don't even know exactly what triggered it, it was never explained nor explored and she is suddenly all ok again after a two minutes convo with Lola (but remember kids, this season is REALISTIC). The difficulties and emotional turmol to get a job at such a young age while giving up on studies so that she can survive ? Again, barely talked about. It does lead to her decision to pass her BAC, which could have been a real satisfying conclusion for her, except we never saw anything about that before she suddenly anounced it in the last episode. Apparently her happy ending is about being with her friends, that they're always there for her and whatnot. Something that was always the case since we knew her and that we never saw her seriously doubt. So no evolution there either. She didn't really learn to open up better with them, as we never saw her actually telling them the story about her grandma so either they disovered via insta or she did open to them about that but if it was so important why not show it to us? And she didn't tell them about her "leaving" either, it was Max who found out. Yes it's great that she decides not to leave for bad reasons but that's litteraly all we have. So again, no evolution there. Not to say they couldn't have done something with it, i think it could have been interesting to see her inecurities regarding her friend group who all have families to come back to while they are her only family apart from her estranged grandma, or maybe more about her always having to be Strong and the Mom Friend. But that was never (or barely) brough up.

All that to say, all the cinematically pretty, emotional clips, all the still on Maya Being Sad And That's It, will not save the quality of the season if you don't put some damn substance to back it up or if you don't actually plan to follow through. I honestly don't feel like I actually got to really know Maya with how the writers constantly to refuse to actually explore the topics surrounding her.

Having a season where each episode was super depressing with next to no balance, where Maya had a breadown every few seconds, ending it with her having to accept her hurt of not being with Lola, her evolution being that she had "learned her lesson" with no pay off (except her grandma but like i said if it was her Happy Ending it should have had way more screentime), for a character who has suffered so much already, it is honestly pretty cruel, especially when the new team gave their other two main their Big Happy Ending Where Everything Turns Around Right even when it was very unrealistic.

And so now with the Big Talk. You know the one.

MAYLA

The Big Theme of the season was her relationship with Lola, and the conclusion of the theme of the season is that Maya has to accept the breakup and that Lola suddenly doesn't love her anymore. Why tho? Emma and Yann's break up at the end of season 1 was seen as a satisying conclusion because it showed that she learned her worth, that she wasn't alone anymore and that she realised her mystakes and was ready to face them. Arthur ending up alone at the end of season was, for one, honeslty the most repectful way they could end the shitty love triangle, but also showed him not having to choose between two worlds. Maya's accepting to not be with Lola did not bring anything to her character appart from sadness and hurt. Sure it made her realise things...that she already knew. Because there were the same things that apparently closed her off to Lola and made her leave for five days. The logical conclusion would thus be that she was ready to face those problems and try to fix them instead of ignoring them, ready to actually talk to Lola about them but no. Actually it was made even worse. At the begining of the season, she was runing away from this relationship partly because she was afraid to open up, which led her to having to learn to open up and face her feelings and past, letting Lola in, only for Lola to dump her again but this time saying she didn't even love her anymore like wtf is this morale? That Maya should never have opened up in the first place because it only led her to hurt and be rejected? Her "letting go" Lola was thus just a going back to square one. Not to mention how badly it reflected on Lola to treat Maya that way (no hate to Lola tho I love her with all my heart it's not her fault the writers seem to hate her so bad). And even though it was the Big Theme, it never had a Big Conclusion. It would have made sense to at least made Maya and Lola have a real honest long talk about their relationship but...no. Again, the writers struggle with actually getting into the topics instead of just brushing them superficially.

Honestly this break up did not make sense for so many reasons. 1- like i said, the first fifth episodes were about Maya learning to open up and face her trauma, but then it turned into her realising it was meaningless because Lola did not want her anyway like what. 2- the fifth episode with foreshadowings "the moon is beautiful tonight", Eliott's talk with Lola which was about having a real discussion with her about their relationship that they never had, all that led to nothing, 3- Lola saying she did miss Maya, sleeping with her (which lbr was defintely queerbait to get views), being all lovey-dovey at the party to then out of nowhere turn back and say "well actually i'm not in love anymore looooool" made absolutely no sense.

Like what the fuck was the morale in this breakup? That Lola was right in saying that she only loved Maya because she wasn't ok but now that she was fine she didn't have any feelings for her? That, like i said, Maya should never have opened up in the first place? That Maya was right when she said that different people couldn't stay together, especially when after that June, who was shown as similar to Maya, is the one to make her believe in love again? What were the writers so intent on shitting on such a beloved amazing couple, I will never understand.

And there is the issue of the representation. Because yes, representation does matter. Look, the writers had two whole seasons to add other lgbt characters, other gay couples, but they didn't. The only lgbt characters are the ones who were already lgbt before they took over. They 're the ones who decided to not add any. Even the new recurring characters, at least i assume they will be (sasha, hugo, clement, even Anais) are instantly portrayed as straight just in case we foolishly thought they would have enough decency into at least adding some representation; altho i would love to be proven wrong. So, in a matter of fact, they are the only gay couple left, the only sapphic couple in general in Skam France, the only non-straight characters, and what did the writers decide to do with them? Break them up, and show their relationship as "toxic". And yes, it was hinted that their relationship could become toxic, but it was also hinted they could work on themselves to not make it toxic (Lola going to rehab, admitting in season 7 that she "used her relationship as a bottle" and that she was going to work on it, the first episodes of season 9, again all of that lead to nothing for their relationship) so no it was not necessarily more "realistic" to turn their relationship like that. And seriously if "realistic" is an excuse, then no couples of the new gens should have gotten together in the first place. Max apparently had instantly a crush on Tiff even though the only thing he knew about her was that she was a shallow cruel bitch (as in exposing and mocking poor people, telling to a depressive person that they should kts because no one cared about them, like no, writers, you can't just wave that off!) when he himself was always about being fuck society and being true to himself, and he knew how Tiff treated his friend like shit only a couple of weeks said-friend's mom die (and one of his principal trait in season 6 was his protectiveness over his friend but let's forget about that i guess) but it is apparently realistic that he would be attracted to that with no reserve whatsoever. Their relationship is "resolved", after the problem came from him having deep insecurities, when Tiff buys him a dildo even though he always had expressed great discomfort regarding sex but it apparently fixes all his insecurities, and that's it. And Jolal, probably the worst Skam France couple after Marles, spent the whole season fighting, Jo being bitchy to Bilal for no reason and stomping her foot everytime they tried to have an actual conversation, they never were on the same page, and they get back together without even any dialogue whatsoever when the last time they talked she was extremely cold and cruel towards him. You call THAT realistic but two girls managing to work on themselves and make their couple work despite their issues and trauma is not? And honestly I'm tired of the "realistic" excuse because strangely, it is very often the gay couple who has to be "realistic" so they break up or one of them die. Mayla was one of the very rare sapphic couple that I knew that had a happy ending, who were a couple of two human beings in love with eachother who could be together like a straight couple is allowed to in medias, without Big Drama, just happy and together sometimes witheir ups and owns. But no, they can't have a happy ending either. And to make it better, they end the season, the final clip, with Maya and Lola deciding with a big smile that them breaking up is "better this way" while showing us all the straight couples around them making out and being happy together. That was so blatantly cruel and offensive like seriously what the fuck were they thinking?

Anyway, all that to say that this was the last straw for me. I'm done with Skam France for good. After turning a bully into a girlboss that everyone kisses the ass off, after treating Bilal (the first man of colour who ever had a season on skamverse) and his story like they didn't matter by focusing all on fucking Jo, now the new writers decide to break up their only gay couple they have left, the only saphic couple they ever had for bullshit reasons. I really thought they could never be stupid nor sadistic enough to not make them endgame at the end of the season, knowing that so much of the audience came for them craving for some heartwarming representation and genually loving them as people and as a couple, but apparently I was wrong. Skam France will honestly always manage to astound me with all the terrible choice they make. And i honestly do not care If they get back together off screen in season 10, that would be way too little too late, and in the background like they always were in season 7 and 8. And the next season will very probably be about a character no one cares about who has a straight romance which of course ends well, so like yeah no fuck that.

[under-druck]

the love interest going missing and the main finding them to apologize isn't new though? we're just finding it annoying because of how much (too much) screentime jo's getting. there's no trope change, since the last 2 french mains also screwed up then found the ghosting or distant love interest to apologize to them in episode 9. this isn't really any different, they just don't know to balance the main and their love interest's stories (or write lol), and as always, everything is rushed.

Hmmmmm. You're right in that it's common for the LI to "ghost" the main. But I don't think it's similar to those times, really, except for s3 of Druck, which was also odd. I think the difference mainly lies in how every other character reacted. In OG for example, Even disappearing wasn't something that effected every other sideplot, it only effected Isak's mental state and thus his reactions. More importantly isak was the most relevant character this development affected. On the other hand, when Isak acted out towards his friends, it effected every part of the story and effected every side character.

Does that make sense? The storyline and subsequent reactions of other characters orbited around Isak, even though it was Even that did the "ghosting." Even during and after the manic episode. When Isak did the same thing, it warranted more focus and more importance, because he's the main character.

This isn't the case for Bilal and Jo. The story orbits Jo and her reactions. Example: an entire scene dedicated to every character being effected by her disappearance. Right now if Bilal were to do the same thing, it would only really effect maybe redoune and maybe jo.

This isn't like the last 2 seasons, because Jo's "ghosting" is not a reaction to Bilal himself, and it isn't something that directly effects him: it effects him same as all the other side characters. I wouldn't even say it's rushed. They've taken a lot of time to focus on this storyline, that's kind of the whole problem.

[nolabballgirl]

Hello😊 can you share your opinion on this season of skam fr so far pls? ive seen so many diff post reporting on how good it is and ofc I've seen the "wow skam fr is druck" ones, which piqued my interest. My background: I think OG is mostly incredible, ive enjoyed some seasons of eskam and Druck (I'm undecided about the current season). But ive never watched a full season of skam fr bc I didn't enjoy writing and tone, tho I did like some of the acting...Might watch skamfr based on your opinion

Hi, Anon! Thanks for your ask! Anon, your watching tastes are close to my own, so hope this is helpful. Anyway, you have to keep in mind that at the end of the day, Skam France is still Skam France 😄 It’s true that there is a new writing team this season, but they have already made serious missteps and writing choices that make me question how much has really changed, especially in relation to POC characters and redemption arcs.

Now we are about to start episode 5, so this is only based on 4 episodes so far. Let’s break this down a little more.

What Skam France has done well this season so far:

Pacing and number of clips - we have had clips almost every day and usually multiple clips per day. and it’s been a decent mix of fluff and more serious clips. episodes have all been above 20 min so far with the last episode approaching 30 min.

Using more Parisian sets/locations - i do feel like the city itself is playing a bigger role in the season compared to most, if not all, of the previous seasons, and there are some very pretty shooting locations.

Cute kids! - la mif members jo and bilal have super cute lil sweet angel siblings. 😇 i do hope we get more scenes showcasing these cuties!

Max’s official gender change - while i’m annoyed that this is almost exclusively being shown through social media, it’s still such an important storyline to cover. and hopefully helps guide others watching who need help navigating this system!

Avoiding tiff being transphobic (so far!) - max is clearly the main love interest for tiff this season, and it looks like we might avoid the tiff being transphobic storyline.

Finally, lucie and flavie (tiff and lola) make some nice acting choices.

What Skam France has NOT done well this season so far:

The underlying premise of tiff as main - at the end of the day, the main is still a conventionally attractive, thin, cis, white straight girl who was a horrible bully to last season’s main, lola. given skam france’s historically bad representation choices, especially of POC/Muslim characters, the fact that the new writers loved this character so much to make her the main when so many other choices existed says a lot.

No apology from tiff to lola - earlier this season we had lola call out tiff for her bullying, and other characters have mentioned it to tiff as well, and yet we have had no acknowledgment by tiff that what she did to lola was wrong or even show any personal responsibility for it. rather, when confronted by lola, tiff pointed to her own problems, and referenced her pregnancy. cue all the la mif members, including MAYA!, coddling tiff and subsequently tiff and lola becoming besties. talk about poor writing choices! for an analogy, imagine if the druck s7 main was constantin who all of a sudden became besties with ava after telling her some sob story about his life. it’s just hard to sympathize with a main who has made no effort in earning her redemption arc and righting her wrongs, and we are almost halfway through the season.

Treatment of black characters - the depiction of the two main black characters this season, aurélien and judith, has been horrible. they are often shown in dark, confined spaces (like bathrooms) with dramatic/menacing music overlayed over the scene. and as for conduct, aurélien has not only ghosted tiff but also physically pushes her in a scene. judith is also shown as an antagonist to tiff and confronts her in one bathroom scene that could be straight out of a horror film (the music! yikes!)

Sidelining of other MOC characters - the other MOC characters this season, bilal and redouane, are currently acting out the trope of POC characters being part of the comic relief for a season. there is a rumor that bilal may be the s8 main, but we’ll have to see.

And one last point - honestly, a lot of people just watch skam for the cute ships, and there is always a ton of angst and criticism whenever a skam remake separates or breaks up a ship. given that there are a fair number of scenes with tiff/max and it’s all cute and low drama, i think that has fed into the commentary surrounding this season too, so there you go.

[sotorubio]

Can you elaborate on "the li's development would be smth ordinary for once"? That sounded pretentious of me sorry lol, but I don't see whats not ordinary about it rn? I want the focus to be on Bilals life but if her mystery sadness is connected to her ex, that works with her being LI (both of them are still inexperienced tbh unless you count 1 short ex = experienced; they'll probs awkwardly explore dating together), and if its her fam, they'll bond over that. What would you consider ordinary? 👀

post-answer addition: this got SO long for absolutely no real reason i'm so sorry smfjdkjdd

oh yeah that's a good question i should've probably phrased it better! by ordinary here i meant that it would've been nice to see smth so common as a first ever relationship (at least for jo) like when they get together that would be the "obstacle" they have to tackle by communicating & exploring their feelings

jo being sad abt her ex or having trouble w family ofc wouldn't be too outlandish or dramatic or anything & u have good points abt it fitting bilal's storyline as well! so that's not out of the ordinary as a concept but i was thinking how they always bring in these Issues & Struggles™️ for the LIs even tho the main character already has plenty to go around n i wish we could have an LI who's actually in a good place bc w a show like skam u only have 10 weeks to go through everything n u can't do time jumps etc so to me personally it's getting a bit tiring to see how these not-main-characters have problems that would be worth exploring in an entire season (tho smth like being upset over an ex ofc wouldn't require 10 weeks to go through) it's not always bad but it's getting repetitive imo

i guess for me it boils down to the fact that we've known jo for 2 seasons now even longer than bilal n even tho we've gotten Some information abt her family & life outside of lamifex there's rly never been much indication of her going through Rough Times. AND that alone ofc isn't bad like ofc the side characters should also have a life n it would be boring if we never knew anything abt their personal struggles just bc they're side characters n for example the ex thing couldn't have come up before s8 anyway but the fact that this mysterious side of jo is brought up Now n never before kinda comes off as them wanting the LI to have development other than the relationship. which obviously is great bc they should be more than just an LI n not just exist there (cough s6 maya cough) but it doesn't seem like this is smth they felt the need to write bc they care abt Jo specifically. it's just that she's the LI n therefore she needs Plot.

n that's kinda what my issue is n what i was thinking w the "ordinary" part like jo never having dated before + bilal apparently being a casanova smfjd it'd be an interesting/easy/naturally written conflict that would develop jo's character (learning to trust, being vulnerable which she almost never is, earnestly talking abt her feelings instead of just making jokes etc) without having to come up w some family drama for no reason. also it would've served as continuity from s7 if they had brought up her inexperience then n it had been "resolved" in s8

but that's rly just my opinion like if there's gonna be smth super dramatic happening in jo's life i'll be annoyed but if it's just her ex or smth minor i'm not gonna claim it's bad writing or anything! i just personally find it irritating that whatever jo's going through is treated as this sort of mystery/smth to anticipate when tbh i couldn't care less no offense to jo at all it's just that we're first watching bilal n his brother become homeless children n suddenly we're like hmm why is jo crying tune in next week to find out skfjslfj so by ordinary i mean that sometimes if the li has go have smth noteworthy going on in their life it'd just be smth they come forth with so we could get to the part where it actually develops the characters. now it's like. even if it IS smth as mundane as her being sad abt her ex they're still turning it into some secret we have to find out along the way which to Me is unnecessary but that's more of a personal stance (also probably isn't As much of an issue for ppl not following in real time)

also yeah u have a good point abt them both being inexperienced they're still teens after all just bc that one girl is pining after bilal doesn't mean he's like actually knowledgeable abt serious dating or anything so it's not like we won't see any normal awkward teenage romance! i just wish that theme could've been more central since so many ppl were happy abt jo representing them as a teenager who doesn't have Any dating experience despite most of her peers being in relationships

[hellswolfie]

Ok so Skam France season 9 ended and i guess this is my opinion on it.

WARNING : this is a salty opinion and while I'm open for discussions if you did like the season (honestly that's very great for you), please respect the fact that some things the writing team did was hurtful for a lot of people. I saw too many people invalidating people's legitimate anger because they themselves liked the season, please stop that.

I want to start with the good bits, because they were there, no matter how shitty the rest was, and they deserve to be aknowledged. I really liked seeing Maya's relationship with each member of Lamiff (except Jo but that's only because I hate her). It was great to see how she interacted with the different characters and that it also gave them some depth too. That was a thing that was missing in season 8 since all the characters, including Bilal, were forgotten in favor of Jo, so I'm glad they didn't make the same bad choices here. I also liked how Maya's character was for the most part pretty coherent with what we knew of her. Skam France always had a problem with that too, especially with Tiff, and I have to say this season is one of the best in terms of character continuity. Moreover, in the last two seasons, the new team seemed to struggle with linking the love story with the main theme of the story like all the other seasons were (because you know it's called basic storytelling sorry I'm still salty), which always kind of made me wonder why would they spend so much time on the love story if it didn't (or almost didn't) service neither the plot nor the character growth of the main. That's something they fixed here, and it was again a cool improvement (altho apparently they can't find any other way than to make the love story the main theme but it still is an improvement so they still deserve a brownie point). Again in terms of the good things of the seasons, the general idea of Maya having to stop runing away from her problems, feelings and past, was a good idea to explore her character. Some plotthreads (her reuininting with her grandmother, her relationship with Mr. Valles,...) were pretty sweet and did have potential to be good. And of course, the visuals, lighting, etc, was really really well done and I can only applaud the team responsable for that because you could definitely see they put a lot of work into it. And a big shout out to the actors (especially Ayumi obvioulsy) because they were all amazing!

Now...The things I didn't like.

First and foremost, making the story about the Mayla relationship. I'm going to come back to how it was handled later, but just the idea of it, focusing so much on it, was a bad one. We only knew Maya from her relationship with Lola at that point (except for the one clip where she talks to Tiff in season 7 I guess), her season could have been a great way to finally explore her character OUTSIDE of this relationship, especially when the "main have to realise break up is for the best" storyline was already the theme of season 1, and that there were so much other things to explore about Maya. But no, they apparently couldn't see it, which is one of Skam France's greatest flaws : having so much potential and gold character and storylines, but not doing anything with it. Hell, she is even officially the skam france main who has the least episodes in her pov (and her season in general was pretty short especially compared to the last two seasons), not to mention all the times the clips suddently decided to focus on other character's POV even when it was completely useless (yes I'm partly talking about Jo being the most annoying person in the universe sue me). Maya deserved to have a story focused on her.

One thing that the old team did right, no matter their faults, is that they actually EXPLORED what they were talking about. I mean say what you want about season 5, but you can't tell me they didn't do their job and research in actually talking about deafness and the deaf community. That is something that, again, the new team struggles with. And it was even more blatant in this season. The tatso busko? Only mentionned once and that's it, we don't even see Maya doing any research on it which makes no sense seeing as how much it affected her at the time -something that was promptly altogether forgotten btw-. Her reuniting with her grandman? Only got like 5 clips with her (one not even in her pov), and there is no follow-up or talk about what her grandma said about her father even when it obviously really perturbed Maya, the evolution of that storyline is so rushed because there is so little time focusing on it even though it is what represents Maya running away and is obvioulsy a crucial part of her arc. Her trauma about her accident and having an alcoholic father? Who cares the writers even forgot about her tatoo even tho it held so much meaning to her. Her growing up as an orphan and in abusive foster families, having to run away because of her foster parents' homophobia, maybe a talk about the social system in France? Lol not even mentionned. Her getting depressed to the point of having suicidal thoughts??? We don't even know exactly what triggered it, it was never explained nor explored and she is suddenly all ok again after a two minutes convo with Lola (but remember kids, this season is REALISTIC). The difficulties and emotional turmol to get a job at such a young age while giving up on studies so that she can survive ? Again, barely talked about. It does lead to her decision to pass her BAC, which could have been a real satisfying conclusion for her, except we never saw anything about that before she suddenly anounced it in the last episode. Apparently her happy ending is about being with her friends, that they're always there for her and whatnot. Something that was always the case since we knew her and that we never saw her seriously doubt. So no evolution there either. She didn't really learn to open up better with them, as we never saw her actually telling them the story about her grandma so either they disovered via insta or she did open to them about that but if it was so important why not show it to us? And she didn't tell them about her "leaving" either, it was Max who found out. Yes it's great that she decides not to leave for bad reasons but that's litteraly all we have. So again, no evolution there. Not to say they couldn't have done something with it, i think it could have been interesting to see her inecurities regarding her friend group who all have families to come back to while they are her only family apart from her estranged grandma, or maybe more about her always having to be Strong and the Mom Friend. But that was never (or barely) brough up.

All that to say, all the cinematically pretty, emotional clips, all the still on Maya Being Sad And That's It, will not save the quality of the season if you don't put some damn substance to back it up or if you don't actually plan to follow through. I honestly don't feel like I actually got to really know Maya with how the writers constantly to refuse to actually explore the topics surrounding her.

Having a season where each episode was super depressing with next to no balance, where Maya had a breadown every few seconds, ending it with her having to accept her hurt of not being with Lola, her evolution being that she had "learned her lesson" with no pay off (except her grandma but like i said if it was her Happy Ending it should have had way more screentime), for a character who has suffered so much already, it is honestly pretty cruel, especially when the new team gave their other two main their Big Happy Ending Where Everything Turns Around Right even when it was very unrealistic.

And so now with the Big Talk. You know the one.

MAYLA

The Big Theme of the season was her relationship with Lola, and the conclusion of the theme of the season is that Maya has to accept the breakup and that Lola suddenly doesn't love her anymore. Why tho? Emma and Yann's break up at the end of season 1 was seen as a satisying conclusion because it showed that she learned her worth, that she wasn't alone anymore and that she realised her mystakes and was ready to face them. Arthur ending up alone at the end of season was, for one, honeslty the most repectful way they could end the shitty love triangle, but also showed him not having to choose between two worlds. Maya's accepting to not be with Lola did not bring anything to her character appart from sadness and hurt. Sure it made her realise things...that she already knew. Because there were the same things that apparently closed her off to Lola and made her leave for five days. The logical conclusion would thus be that she was ready to face those problems and try to fix them instead of ignoring them, ready to actually talk to Lola about them but no. Actually it was made even worse. At the begining of the season, she was runing away from this relationship partly because she was afraid to open up, which led her to having to learn to open up and face her feelings and past, letting Lola in, only for Lola to dump her again but this time saying she didn't even love her anymore like wtf is this morale? That Maya should never have opened up in the first place because it only led her to hurt and be rejected? Her "letting go" Lola was thus just a going back to square one. Not to mention how badly it reflected on Lola to treat Maya that way (no hate to Lola tho I love her with all my heart it's not her fault the writers seem to hate her so bad). And even though it was the Big Theme, it never had a Big Conclusion. It would have made sense to at least made Maya and Lola have a real honest long talk about their relationship but...no. Again, the writers struggle with actually getting into the topics instead of just brushing them superficially.

Honestly this break up did not make sense for so many reasons. 1- like i said, the first fifth episodes were about Maya learning to open up and face her trauma, but then it turned into her realising it was meaningless because Lola did not want her anyway like what. 2- the fifth episode with foreshadowings "the moon is beautiful tonight", Eliott's talk with Lola which was about having a real discussion with her about their relationship that they never had, all that led to nothing, 3- Lola saying she did miss Maya, sleeping with her (which lbr was defintely queerbait to get views), being all lovey-dovey at the party to then out of nowhere turn back and say "well actually i'm not in love anymore looooool" made absolutely no sense.

Like what the fuck was the morale in this breakup? That Lola was right in saying that she only loved Maya because she wasn't ok but now that she was fine she didn't have any feelings for her? That, like i said, Maya should never have opened up in the first place? That Maya was right when she said that different people couldn't stay together, especially when after that June, who was shown as similar to Maya, is the one to make her believe in love again? What were the writers so intent on shitting on such a beloved amazing couple, I will never understand.

And there is the issue of the representation. Because yes, representation does matter. Look, the writers had two whole seasons to add other lgbt characters, other gay couples, but they didn't. The only lgbt characters are the ones who were already lgbt before they took over. They 're the ones who decided to not add any. Even the new recurring characters, at least i assume they will be (sasha, hugo, clement, even Anais) are instantly portrayed as straight just in case we foolishly thought they would have enough decency into at least adding some representation; altho i would love to be proven wrong. So, in a matter of fact, they are the only gay couple left, the only sapphic couple in general in Skam France, the only non-straight characters, and what did the writers decide to do with them? Break them up, and show their relationship as "toxic". And yes, it was hinted that their relationship could become toxic, but it was also hinted they could work on themselves to not make it toxic (Lola going to rehab, admitting in season 7 that she "used her relationship as a bottle" and that she was going to work on it, the first episodes of season 9, again all of that lead to nothing for their relationship) so no it was not necessarily more "realistic" to turn their relationship like that. And seriously if "realistic" is an excuse, then no couples of the new gens should have gotten together in the first place. Max apparently had instantly a crush on Tiff even though the only thing he knew about her was that she was a shallow cruel bitch (as in exposing and mocking poor people, telling to a depressive person that they should kts because no one cared about them, like no, writers, you can't just wave that off!) when he himself was always about being fuck society and being true to himself, and he knew how Tiff treated his friend like shit only a couple of weeks said-friend's mom die (and one of his principal trait in season 6 was his protectiveness over his friend but let's forget about that i guess) but it is apparently realistic that he would be attracted to that with no reserve whatsoever. Their relationship is "resolved", after the problem came from him having deep insecurities, when Tiff buys him a dildo even though he always had expressed great discomfort regarding sex but it apparently fixes all his insecurities, and that's it. And Jolal, probably the worst Skam France couple after Marles, spent the whole season fighting, Jo being bitchy to Bilal for no reason and stomping her foot everytime they tried to have an actual conversation, they never were on the same page, and they get back together without even any dialogue whatsoever when the last time they talked she was extremely cold and cruel towards him. You call THAT realistic but two girls managing to work on themselves and make their couple work despite their issues and trauma is not? And honestly I'm tired of the "realistic" excuse because strangely, it is very often the gay couple who has to be "realistic" so they break up or one of them die. Mayla was one of the very rare sapphic couple that I knew that had a happy ending, who were a couple of two human beings in love with eachother who could be together like a straight couple is allowed to in medias, without Big Drama, just happy and together sometimes witheir ups and owns. But no, they can't have a happy ending either. And to make it better, they end the season, the final clip, with Maya and Lola deciding with a big smile that them breaking up is "better this way" while showing us all the straight couples around them making out and being happy together. That was so blatantly cruel and offensive like seriously what the fuck were they thinking?

Anyway, all that to say that this was the last straw for me. I'm done with Skam France for good. After turning a bully into a girlboss that everyone kisses the ass off, after treating Bilal (the first man of colour who ever had a season on skamverse) and his story like they didn't matter by focusing all on fucking Jo, now the new writers decide to break up their only gay couple they have left, the only saphic couple they ever had for bullshit reasons. I really thought they could never be stupid nor sadistic enough to not make them endgame at the end of the season, knowing that so much of the audience came for them craving for some heartwarming representation and genually loving them as people and as a couple, but apparently I was wrong. Skam France will honestly always manage to astound me with all the terrible choice they make. And i honestly do not care If they get back together off screen in season 10, that would be way too little too late, and in the background like they always were in season 7 and 8. And the next season will very probably be about a character no one cares about who has a straight romance which of course ends well, so like yeah no fuck that.