#i need to get over s5 fatou but do i want to? no

[bbelovas]

"do you like girls? Absolutely"

[nolabballgirl]

Im a white girl and im just learning here so forgive me if im slow on this. But i don't understand why druck is put on a pedestal with regards to how they've tackled race/developed their characters of color. Druck also tends to dismiss race entirely (Sam, David, Fatou and Abdi) or make the trauma of characher their whole character (Ava and David) or underdevelop characters when they've had space to do more (Amira, Sam & fam). So why is druck deemed better than other remakes in this area?

hi, Anon! thanks for your ask. okay, so for me to answer your questions, you have to accept two premises:

neither skam nor any of its remakes (including druck) are perfect.

when a remake acknowledges audience pain and admits that it has made mistakes, hires writers of color, and then greatly improves upon its mistakes, that has to be commended.

so, let's break down race and representation for the remakes. and as you will see below, the remakes are so egregiously bad when it comes to race and representation, that when you compare druck after jünglinge took over, it's on a separate level altogether and that's why i believe druck is deemed to be better when it comes to race and representation. (also, i'm skipping skam nl and skam austin from this analysis because who knows how those two would have ended up...and begoña owes me a heart to heart after she ruined by beloved skam españa, but let's be real, eskam had a long way to go too.)

druck -

well, from the list in your ask and from the hard work that skamofcolor put in, druck is a remake with one of the most racially diverse main cast members in both the old and new gens as well as the most characters of colors in side characters as well, so that's an improvement compared to the other remakes. but you're right, there were a lot of missed storylines they could have tackled with the old gen.

druck's sana season (amira mahmood) does not put their sana through weeks of torture or ruin the girl squad in the process. (and as a muslim, i will say their handling of islam was the best among the remakes but i digress...) however, amira did not get her full 10 weeks of screen time and the show missed a huge opportunity diving into shared microaggressions and racism that sam, abdi, etc. also faced. and druck was ripped for it! for cutting amira's time and playing it way too safe and not giving sam her fair due, among others.

now, here's where druck does something that no other remake has done and honestly, this is where i think most of the praise stems from. they listened to the criticism! wait, showrunners and writers can do that?! do you mean we are not just yelling into the avoid? not only have the writers said the ways in which they could have improved (even after s6 they discussed audience perceptions and overestimating how ava/mailin would be received, etc.) but they also hired JÜNGLINGE to bring the new gen to life. if you are unfamiliar, this is how they describe themselves:

JÜNGLINGE is a film collective of mid-twenties raised in the hybrid cultures of post-migrant Germany. We believe that young, European film needs to tell queer, diverse and most of all – specific – stories about growing up and living together in our societies.

so looking at that progress over time from druck s1 to druck s6, i can't help but give them them props for such a marked improvement. in fact, i don't think ANY single skam season covers race and ethnicity as well as s5 and s6 did. sure, they were not perfect (see point 1 above), but my god, the strides that these two seasons made. so much so that in s6, we had a non-white interracial couple as main, who were both unapologetic about their ethnicities and upbringing and culture (Gambia and Vietnam). and having fatou/ava's friendship be so prominent, listening to them talk about black hair, and referencing nazis in germany - yes to all of this!

and let's talk about ava! what an amazing character who was allowed to be angry, giggly, happy, sad, and express herself, without falling into tropes like imane from skam france, and so many people can relate to her struggles with white liberal mailin. there was a sensitivity there that's so rare in these remakes. and what druck couldn't do with amira/kiki, they were given room to explore here, and i really do feel that it was an important story to tell, especially in the age of whitesplaining, white feminist tears, and white liberals talking over women of color.

skam france -

eight seasons in and skam france is STILL mistreating its characters of colors and not given them their full due. now with bilal literally taking a back seat to jo (look at the YouTube header for crying out loud!) but ever since yann in s1, skam france has done such a horrible job with its depiction of POC, especially black characters. daphne is one of the most racist vildes and the treatment of imane (even beyond her season) has been vile and unfair.

and you would think that post s6 and after a new showrunner and writing team was hired on, that there would be improvements (similar to what druck did above), but no! look at how both aurélien and judith were treated in s7, and after a strong opening for s8, it looks like bilal is now taking a backseat to jo, and once again, skam france and its new team are prioritizing a white character over a character of color.

and has there been any acknowledgment by the skam france team of the criticism over the years? rather, david has often doubled down in the face of fan critiques - just an unwillingness to listen, and so we are left with this as a result.

skam italia -

say what you want about skam italia but when it comes to race?well, they certainly take the cake for the whitest remake, so much so that swaths of fans will refuse to watch this remake for the "wana" debacle, and rightfully so. (whitewashing of the sana casting) and remember how people tried to defend this casting decision? but don't forget that italy has a higher percentage of muslims living in the country than norway does! give me a break.

and how can i forget how hajar brown was dragged after she, as a woman of color, deemed to shade and criticize casting decisions for this remake?

wtfock -

do i even need to get into wtfock and its representation on race?! i mean s4 and s5 are arguably the two worst seasons of any skam remakes period. and the complete lack of acknowledgment from the showrunners after the torrent of criticism they received. the egregiously racist writing. i am a defense attorney by profession, and even i am struggling. there's seriously no defense for them here...

so given all this above, i hope this explains why i value the steps druck has taken, especially in s5 and s6, to tackle and improve their depiction of race and representation.

[lucidpantone]

The druck s8 situation do giving wtfock s4 like producers knew we wanted moyo to be the main, and we know how their spur of the moment, money-grabbing sponsorships season turned out. Druck’s decision however feels more deliberate because having the most diverse cast, no blocked characters, complete freedom and so many options ava, kieu my, finn, josh they went with the environmentalist! anti-racist! white girl like they have to be joking

Sorry answering this late but also fitting for what happened today. This Zoe video is............ 😬 and druck basically being like sorry asexuals better luck next time. I am not even watching the show in realtime but logged in and saw the zoe video and sorry I haven't had a wtfock mo like that since s5 wtfock with amber's fake only fans post on insta. First of all why are they writing Zoe like this its starting to annoy me. Zoe has always been flirty and sexy but like she is legit wearing a bra and a pulled up thong in her dance video. LIKE WHAT?!?!? Dude we dont need to write an adolescent girl like that. The same effect would be reached by having Zoe wearing what she the girls wear in one of the dance practice clips. Like they are over sexualizing her but to a point that its out of character because Zoe doesnt act that way. Like chillax your audience arent morons. We get the plot Mailin compares herself to the traditional pretty girl the guy she likes use to date. Like this isnt ground breaking next thing you know they will have zoe rolling around in a bathing suit or some dumb shit. I mean I still think you could do a gray ace storyline but who in the world trust druck to write something that complex. I think the tag is talking about demi sexuality which could also be a narrative but idk feels like a cope out to just committing to making mailin ace but whatever as long as they leave Zoe alone am about to sign up for her protection squad. Also why the girls all sudden like sex crazy its just weird. The whole kieu my and fatou text with the suggestive image had me lol-ing like of course i think they probably send sexy pics but it felt so like gotta keep banging on about the fact that everybody has sex but mailin. Questionable shit is def going on...... hopefully they curve it soon.

[kieu-tou]

why the friendship proposal clip was so important and arguably one of the best decisions druck made this season - a little thread because i love fatou and ava, and can’t stop thinking about it:

it perfectly ties into one of the most important themes of s5 and s6 being friendship, understanding and healing. after weeks of tensions and then conflict, and barely even seeing ava, we get to see this beautiful celebratory reconciliation that highlights how important ava and friendship in general is in fatou’a life, and how they now have better understanding of each other

big loving gestures for friends!!! appreciating your friends and showing it to them just as much as you do to romantic partners, if not more!!! i love that fatou and ava openly talk about how much they mean to each other, what they appreciate about their friendship, compliment each other, give reassurance. ava finally got to be celebrated the way that she deserves. sometimes people assume that we don’t need to do these things as much in friendships because ‘it’s just a given’, and this is a beautiful reminder that everyone needs and deserves reassurance

it shows how important opening up & sharing things is, and how conflict can often foster growth & connection, allowing for greater understanding and compassion. both ava and fatou were hurting & missing each other because of their conflict, and now they have both acknowledged what they can do in the future to be better friends to one another - ask questions and be more attentive, but also open up more. i love that ava finally opened up, and that fatou could be there for her. i do wish that fatou also got a chance to talk more about how she’s been hurting too and how she felt like no one was taking her seriously, or seeing what she was dealing with. but i get that this evening was meant to be mostly about ava & i’m hoping for more conversations like this, because i know ava wants to support fatou with her LD too, as much as she can

speaking from a strictly narrative point of view, i do think this was a great way to end this episode because fatou’s conflict with ava literally ties in to all the other happenings in her life - her LD & difficulties with attention & being overwhelmed, her relationship with kieu my, cashqueens, the inventory list mess... ava is such a central part of fatou’s life, that all the other things fatou had going on were specifically negatively affecting their relationship. through reconnection with nora, mailin and now finally with ava, we get to see that even though her problems haven’t disappeared, she’s all the more stronger & more capable to deal with them with her friends by her side - and it’s both a wonderful message, and a narrative decision that gives us a sense of closure in other subplots

it’s great to see fatou, a lesbian, freely giving & receiving so much affection from her female friends - many wlw can struggle with showing affection to female friends out of the fear of being perceived as predatory or making advances, or out of the fear of making the other person uncomfortable. it’s can be a big part of internalised homophobia/lesbophobia for many wlw. it’s really beautiful and healing to see all of the platonic affection between all of the cashqueens, and this clip takes it to the next level - with a traditionally romantic gesture being directed towards a close friend

and finally - it’s just amazing to see this beautiful, serious, strong, goofy, loving, accepting friendship between two black girls on tv. the way that they connect over music and sense of humour and so many other things - seeing fatou serenading ava was truly a highlight for me. the way that they both can hold each other accountable, but also readily forgive one another. the way that they are a safe space for each other. they have such a special connection and it’s amazing to see it on the screen, see how well they have both been developed, from their vine lingo to them opening up about their biggest struggles. they deserved this beautiful clip so much to highlight the importance of their connection.

[canonicallyanxious]

taking a moment to think about how good i think druck new gen has been so far at maintaining character continuity across seasons... i think with a format where the main character changes every season it’s quite difficult to keep characterizations/arcs consistent across seasons as all the characters change the roles that they occupy in the story but so far i’ve been really impressed with the growth/development of the cashqueens and how much was established in s5 that is now being explored and deconstructed in s6!

Just a few examples I can think of off the top of my head:

1. In s5 it was well-established that Fatou avoids conflict as much as she can and will avoid engaging with difficult situations rather than explicitly expressing anger or frustration. we could see this in the way that she was very often the first to give Nora the benefit of the doubt, as well as the way she fully withdrew - going so far as to not go to school - after Nora hurt her at the end of ep 8. in this season this is a major part of her character arc. we see her many times throughout the season say/do what she thinks other people want to hear or need from her, which has already resulted in her taking on too much multiple times and subsequently neglect her emotional needs and internalize the idea that she should be able to stay the chill friend who doesn’t need help or support with anything. in this clip the line “i just want to do right by everyone” really stands out to me bc that’s been her main motivation basically the whole time we’ve known her. she just wants to do right by everyone, but in the process no one knows just how much she’s dealing with which means she has no support in the times she can’t do everything that is being asked of her.

[worth noting, i think, that the times we’ve seen Fatou get properly upset this season are often in response to Kieu My. “crazy that I couldn’t see how fake you are” and “you’re just too much of a coward to tell me i’m not good enough for you” are what come to mind for me. i find that really interesting because i think it shows the way her story arc with Kieu My has already helped her grow this season. in the former scene, that’s an important step in her laying down the line and saying “i deserve better than how you’re treating me”; in the latter scene it’s one of the few times the whole season she’s really put her own insecurities into words. also crucial to note how Kieu My responds to Fatou every time - with understanding, compassion, the implicit acknowledgement that she does need to do better and the consistent follow-up with her attempts to do so. so fatou has the space to express her negative feelings, but also work through them and process them in a healthy way. imo it’s a compelling way of developing their romance and giving it nuance and depth!]

2. back in s5 it was clear from social media and Mailin’s actions in the show that she is very passionate about doing the right thing [her main motivation for stealing the money from the instas was that it wasn’t right for them to waste the class’s money, for example]. she has a strong moral compass that’s quite admirable for someone of her age! but we also saw in s5 that she could be impulsive and a little careless with how her actions impact others [e.g when she broke into the campground], and also prioritize her activism over the feelings of her friends [e.g in the discussion of Thanksgiving, bringing up the fact that Thanksgiving is emblematic of genocide and oppression of American indigenous peoples when Ava mostly just wanted to recognize that she enjoys the holiday for the feeling of communion and such]. 

so to see them build on that thread here into a fleshed-out storyline properly addressing her performative activism and the way it can impact her marginalized friends is imo a really important story to tell. i feel like often when racism is tackled in mainstream media it often runs the risk of either being overly exaggerated/caricaturized or just completely glossed over, so there is a balance to be struck here with holding Mailin accountable for her actions while giving her space to grow and learn from her mistakes - she’s not some cartoon villain, she’s a teenager who’s still trying to learn how to navigate the world - and [hopefully] providing a roadmap of learning how to be a better ally. so far though it seems clear that druck is making a concerted effort to navigate that line with how carefully they’ve put in the pieces from s5 and earlier in this season.

3. for Ava, we saw pretty early on in s5 that she deeply values friendship, loyalty, honesty, and trust. this was established through the way she stood up for Fatou in s5 ep 9, as well as how she was more open to Nora as soon as Nora was more open with her. this continues in this season as well with the conflict b/w ava and fatou. the conversation bw them at the beginning of s6 ep 5 remains one of my favorite clips of the season bc i feel like it captures Ava’s character and their friendship very well - "friends always come first”, and the way that she opened up with Fatou when she intuited that Fatou was genuinely opening up to her as well. this aspect of her character is highlighted in today’s clip with lines like “have you even asked me how i’m doing?” and how she doesn’t always want to be the mature and responsible one. we’ve seen ava multiple times in this season try to put aside her own feelings for the sake of friendship, to be the “mature��� one for the sake of keeping the peace, but she’s reached a point where she just can’t do that anymore. Reciprocity in friendship is very important to her in that she wants [and deserves!] the same support and energy from her relationships that she gives to them, but when characters like fatou and nora aren’t able to provide that reciprocity [for reasons that are of course extremely understandable from their point of view] that can cause a lot of hurt for Ava precisely because of the things that have already been established to be very important to her.

4. tbqh i don’t have as much to say about Nora as i do about the others but i will say that i think the way she reacts in this clip is understandable in the context of her character too, actually! we know from s5 that she’s another character who’s prone to glossing over her real feelings in an effort to keep the illusion that everything is okay. we also know that this is really the first time she’s been able to establish some independence for herself from her mother while also having a lot to deal with in terms of her mental illness and navigating a relationship with someone while coping with those things, which is probably a lot to adjust to and puts into context why she’s not been committing as much time to the cashqueens recently. like the other characters she has a lot to balance and reasons not to be totally open about what she’s going through, which complements the themes of her season and fatou’s season quite well.

mostly i just find it impressive how much work has been put into developing these characters’ arcs and making all their perspectives understandable to us in a clip like this. because their characterizations have been well-established and incorporated into their respective arcs, we are able to more deeply understand their feelings and why they’re reacting the way they do to a situation like this. it’s part of what makes conflict between them so difficult to watch, i think, but it’s also part of what makes their conflict feel so real, and i just think it’s really cool to see the writers of this show making a concerted effort to afford their characters compassion and empathy even in difficult times so that we can extend compassion and empathy to them as well.

[inmyarmswrappedin]

So, because Fatou’s season ends today and, as far as we know, Druck hasn’t been renewed yet, I want to go over the things I feel the team did well in this season and the things I hope they take with them when they sit down to write the next season (which I’m manifesting will be Ava’s).

I think that s5 and, perhaps to a bigger extent, s6, were the team’s attempt to address fan feedback for and criticisms of s3 and s4. So I have hopes that, after possibly the most scrutinized season of any Skams, they are still willing to read even more feedback and sit down once again to craft a couple more seasons (possibly even 3 or 4 more seasons!).

So, without further ado, things that were done well! (Do I have to add “in my opinion”? Do I??)

I liked that for both s5 and s6, the thorough-line for the season wasn’t made obvious or shared in a press release, but rather it was up to fans to connect the story threads for themselves.

I loved that the team sought to address one of the biggest criticisms of s3, that is, that Matteo was given so many symptoms of a mental illness, but it ultimately went unaddressed in the narrative. They did this by giving Nora a dissociative disorder, and Fatou dyscalculia. (Matteo has been headcanoned as being mentally ill and having a disability.) It allowed the teams to develop both fan theories into full-blown seasons and give each of them the importance they deserved.

I have said this already, but I really appreciate that the team chose misunderstood, misrepresented and underrepresented mental illnesses and disabilities. I feel like s5 and s6 will be referents for many years, because they really took the time to portray a dissociative disorder and dyscalculia in a down-to-earth, unhurried way that isn’t meant to shock and awe, but simply allow us to understand why and when Nora and Fatou will struggle. Druck got the viewers to anticipate when Nora and Fatou would struggle, and that’s the first step in being able to anticipate and accommodate the needs of the Noras and Fatous of the world. I really can’t overstate how important this is and what a difference it makes in a real, tangible way. These seasons aren’t meant to be enjoyed for voyeuristic reasons, but they will legitimately help people.

One of the biggest criticisms of s4 was that Amira and Sam didn’t connect as women of color. In fact, it seemed like in s4 Sam was treated as another white friend, when in s2 both she and Amira were the victims of Kiki’s racism. The team addressed this by giving us Ava and Fatou’s friendship, which I want to say might be the first friendship between main characters of color where their race is a substantial reason for their bond. (There are the Sanas with their Jamillas, but the Jamillas aren’t main characters, and then there are friendships like Jo and Megan and Zoya, or Imaan and Liv, or Luca and Yasmina, but iirc in every case their bond as women of color isn’t made explicit.)

Another criticism of s4 was the way Kiki turned into the world’s most understanding white friend offscreen. The team addressed this with the Ava and Mailin storyline, which I think was wonderfully and subtly set up in s5, then built on with the biology test leaked answers.

On the topic of race, I think a major criticism of s3 was that David’s ethnicity wasn’t acknowledged (to the point where a white actress was cast to play his sister gvhvhv). The team has made up for this with Josh (more in the s6 sm than in s5, but I still count it) and with Kieu My. Fatou and Kieu My bonded over being first/second gen children of immigrants, and in doing so, they acknowledged that these characters aren’t white and have different experiences than white Germans.  

The first 6 episodes of this season were some of the finest writing in the Skams. The storylines all connected and built on each other. The motifs were just so good and beautiful and fitting. The themes were all clearly defined and easy to follow.

The tortoise plot was one of the most fun and imaginative storylines in any Skams, it connected Fatou and Ismail in a believable way. And not to rave about a fucking tortoise, but animals can be really uncooperative and that tortoise delivered every fucking clip. Druck has a reputation for being one of the most depressive versions of Skam, but the Maike/Burger plot was just plain fun.

I feel like some of the old gen’s instas were a bit self-indulgent. I’m thinking specifically of Matteo’s memes and how they they weren’t necessarily the kind of memes a gay dude born in 2001 would pick, but someone a decade older. I think this is much better done with new gen. Fatou’s memes reflect her age and her sexuality, and not just that, but Ava, Mailin, Kieu My, Josh, etc. all pick memes and even focus on different aspects of recent news, based on their gender, race, personalities, interests, etc.

I appreciate that the team found a way to fit a sex scene between Fatou and Kieu My to add to the small catalogue of wlw sex scenes on Skams (I’m including the scene in lovleg or we’d only have two lol). While I understood the reasons eskam opted not to include one, I thought there were ways to feature a sex scene that didn’t sexualize the actresses and didn’t require nudity. Cases in point: the lovleg scene, and this scene in Druck.

And it also needs to be said. This is the first original season with a main of color, and the third season overall (after Liv and Imane) where 10 episodes are given to a character of color and no one else. Of the three, it’s certainly the season that loved and respected its main the most. The bar is so low it’s in hell, but Druck did clear that bar!

With all that said, let’s talk about the things I would really want the team to address in following seasons:

The thing I most want them to fix might be small or unimportant for a lot of people, but I think it’s at the core of why the season has been unenjoyable or certain plot points haven’t come across the way the team wanted, for many people. I am talking about the overly expositional nature of the writing.  It appears as if the team approached the writing of the clips with the intention of hitting each beat as noted in their agreed upon outline, and absolutely nothing else was to be added. This is an issue both in s5 and s6. It’s just less noticeable in s5, because s5 is setting up stuff for Fatou’s season, and possibly even seasons that haven’t been written yet. The fact that absolutely every second counts makes for a stressful watching experience for me, because the narrative tension is always heightened. Whereas with Skam, the narrative tension would build throughout the clip. Take the Pride scene in Skam, for instance. The clip allows for Isak and Eskild to get increasingly more agitated as they butt heads. I feel like if this Druck team had done the Pride scene in s5 or s6, the clip would’ve started with both Isak and Eskild already on edge, and cut much of the dialogue that got them there.

On the topic of naturalistic dialogue, this season doesn’t have it. Here is an example from ep 10 clip 2, Wieder vereint/Reunited 11:37.

Fatou: I’ll get a certificate too and bring it over to you. And I checked it, I only have to change one course and my schedule will work.

Teacher: Miss Jallow, you are not the first one to come to me with an epiphany. We could fill entire school weeks with the lessons you missed. In addition, Doctor Steinberg told me about your, well… activities. You don’t have a lot of arguments on your side. 

Fatou: But I’ve spoken to all of the teachers and they said they are okay with it. 

Teacher: You seem to have friends among the teaching staff. Mrs Pavlovic put in a word for you. Okay then, do it and go before I change my mind. [translated by @kieu-tou! Thank you!] 

Like. This is the bare bones version of a dialogue. This should be the first draft, not the final version. The coordinator goes from absolute no to yes, with just one line from Fatou. The coordinator gives reasons that would necessitate more than one sentence of counterargument, like Fatou’s absences and the Biology test leaked answers. The coordinator even says Fatou doesn’t have a lot of arguments on her side, and yet it takes Fatou one line to change her mind!

And of course we viewers don’t want or need a lot of time with the coordinator. And particularly at this point in the season, no one would enjoy a naturalistic dialogue with the coordinator of all people.  But my point is that this is an issue with the dialogue all this season (and last season as well, but this season has been more scrutinized), the reason I picked this example is because of how easy it is to see here.

Which brings us to the pacing of the clips, and specifically the Friday clips. Because the script goes straight to the information the team wants to convey to the viewers, skipping the build up to it, many Friday clips have fallen flat, felt abrupt, and have been, tbh, unsatisfying. Again, I had this issue in s5, but as that season went on, I felt like the team had a better grip on Friday clips. But then they did it again in the first Friday clip this season, and so I think this is something the writers really should work on. The first Friday clip in Isak’s season closes on Isak being sandwiched by Emma and Even on a bench, visually setting up the love triangle, or more accurately, the personifications of who Isak should want to hook up with and who he really wants. But in order to get there, we’re shown a good amount of info, from the way Vilde, Eva and Sana are handling Noora’s absence, to Chris and Kasper, Even hovering around Isak, Emma trying to impress Isak, Isak escaping and, like, draping himself on the walls because he’s so over it all. Isak playing a game on the bathroom to stall for time. The paper towel maneuver to immediately give us a sense of what a weirdo Even is. A conversation between Isak and Even that gives us some clues about Even’s shame, as well as establish interests in common (like weed), and this is all before Emma even joins them! Just think of all the stuff we learn about who Isak, Even, Emma, Eva, Vilde or Sana are as people, before we get to the point of the clip! Fatou’s season simply didn’t have that. Compare it with the first Friday clip of Fatou’s season where the cashqueens quickly talk about the leaked answers, one of the major storylines this season that only gets a couple lines, before Fatou says she doesn’t want to talk about school (Fatou’s struggles with school, another major storyline), and then we’re onto the point of the clip, which is that Kieu My likes girls too. AND FADE TO BLACK. When people say they want longer clips, what they mean isn’t artificially inflate the clip length or add more plot stuff. Just let us watch the characters interact with each other so that we get a feel for how they relate to each other. I know I wish we’d have gotten more of Ava and Fatou interacting with each other before things turned to shit, and Ava with the other girls, so that I know why they all like and value Ava so much. I wish we’d have gotten more of Kieu My talking to the cashqueens about, like, why she didn’t make use of the biology test answers, instead of getting it on a chat. Or food combos they don’t like. So it makes more sense that later on Kieu My actually thinks she and Fatou are friends.  And every line doesn’t have to count. In Skam España, the characters are constantly talking and not everything they ever talked about ended up being relevant. When one of the characters lied about her house undergoing renovations to hide the fact that she was poor, the characters joked about Italian marble and put on bad Italian accents and made that Italian hand gesture. None of this was important to the plot because those renovations weren’t real to begin with, but they made viewers feel like these were real friends joking around, instead of characters needing to hit every storyline beat in a clip.

I have this joke with my friends about Druck always going 🤪🤪 in the last third of every season, in which a season that was very tightly written and cohesive suddenly pulls something inexplicable and pretty much impossible to resolve in 1-3 episodes. Hanna’s season suddenly switching to Mia, Björn creeping on Mia in episode 9! of a total 10, David getting outed in episode 8 and then disappearing for a whole week, Amira’s season pivoting to Mia and Hanna. It has happened in every season except Nora’s, so I thought the team had learned its lesson, but then the forgotten date with Ava happened. To be clear. It really makes no sense that Nora would have hung out with Ava several times since Tuesday, and the topic of the cashqueens being officially introduced to Kieu My wouldn’t have come up. it’s just not realistic.gif I feel like at that point the writing for the rest of the reason became super contrived to keep Fatou miserable and apart from Kieu My and Ava to artificially delay the reunions until episode 9 and 10. Why add a cheating insinuation and the main checking her partner’s messages in episode 8 if you know you won’t be able to properly resolve it? Why make Kieu My mock Fatou’s “uhm” if it’s not going to be addressed in their reunion clip? Kieu My had taken the initiative for a lot of the relationship, so it’s okay for Fatou to take the initiative when it comes to making up. You don’t have to add things that can only be resolved through an expositional info dump. (Please no more exposition than it’s necessary! I think we’ve established that at this point lol.) In the case of Fatou’s season, this is even sadder because I feel like Kieu My’s intimacy issues could’ve been the reason to drive them apart for two weeks, rather than the Maya/uhm stuff. This could’ve also been resolved through Fatou and Kieu My explicitly negotiating their boundaries and how they want to be comforted and how they want to comfort each other, which I thought was the issue with Fatou rejecting Kieu My’s attempts to help while wanting physical touch, while Kieu My didn’t want to be touched but rather seen.  

There are going to be many thinkpieces on why a myriad of stuff didn’t work for people, so I’m going to keep this simple and address one last thing. I think that choosing to focus on Nora’s mental illness and Fatou’s disability is a great choice that doesn’t complicate the themes too much, but Druck (and all the Skams, but I’m invested only in Druck succeeding at this point) still struggles with being intersectional. This is the major reason why the Ava/Mailin storyline ended not with a bang, but a whimper. There just wasn’t enough work done to connect Fatou’s struggles not just to her disability, but also to her race (and even her sexuality). I think that if people really want (and lbr, it’ll be mostly poc who will put in that effort and work), they can see how Fatou’s race affected the way other people and especially adults reacted to her, but this wasn’t made explicit. If Ava and Mailin are going to argue about racism all season, why not connect that with Karin firing Fatou from Aquarius? As it stands, Karin fired Fatou because of a disability neither of them knew Fatou has, and that was the resolution to that storyline. Why not make it explicit that the Physics teacher had preconceived ideas about Fatou because Fatou is black? Why wasn’t Fatou’s disability addressed in the meeting with the coordinator? Why didn’t Fatou express to Mailin that Fatou, too, had issues with how Mailin was acting wrt racism? It felt like, with the way the season was putting so much emphasis on racism, all these threads were going to be connected. In the end though, it almost felt as if only Ava is affected by racism (aside from Mailin mentioning Fatou in the last episode). It’s not like talking about how racism affects Fatou is going to make the topic redundant for Ava’s or Ismail’s season. As a light-skinned black lesbian with a disability, Fatou’s life is going to be impacted by racism in a different way than Ava’s will, as a dark-skinned black fat straight cis girl, or Ismail’s, as a Turkish-German possibly Muslim possibly non binary person. All these experiences are specific enough, and different enough, that they can be touched upon in different seasons without becoming redundant. The fact that Fatou’s season almost seemed to forget at times that she is a black lesbian, doesn’t bode well for Ava’s and Ismail’s season to acknowledge all their struggles.

The bottom line is that this season really was great and did a lot of good, and I feel like the writing just needs to be tweaked a bit for further seasons to be even better and more enjoyable overall. I am very pleasantly surprised by how the team took s1-s4 fan feedback to heart and worked to implement suggestions, and so I really trust them and hope they keep working on the show. It’d be a shame if Druck wasn’t renewed, with this team at the helm.    

[joanatheskammer]

Ava’s anger towards Kieu My is justified she was a bystander while Constantin and Ismail were bullying her. Also the fact that Kieu My would want to be friends with some one like Constantin with what he did to Nora in S5 is questionable. Like sure being scared to speak up is one thing but this has been a continuous thing and she still hangs out with him.

hi anon. i don't think ava has anger towards kieu my, but is more wary of her and finds her (understandably) untrustworthy. with yesterday's clip, i think ava's focus was solely on fatou, so i don't think she's really thinking about kieu my right now. but it definitely has been set up for kieu my to apologize to her, so i'm interested in how they're going to show that from fatou's pov.

i don't like the way kieu my has been going about her friendship with cantstandhim but there is a lot to consider. i think high school friendships are complicated because you spend most of your time there and for a lot of people, it is their only social group for a long period of time. we've only seen nora and fatou's pov of const, who comes off as an a1 prick. he probably is just trash, but we might be missing something from the instas' perspective.

another thing to take into account is kieu my's upbringing. that chat between her and finn was very intentional in giving insight into how they go about social situations at home, which is probably similar to how they operate amongst friends. kieu my told finn he might need to get his head checked for talking back to his aunt. as a child of immigrant parents, i was inadvertently taught to keep my head down and mind my own business. in school, this meant i was going to blend in by not ruffling any feathers. i had to be a good representative of my family and my ethnicity, so i quickly learnt that i had to be agreeable and easy going with my peers. if i could turn back time, i would do a lot of things very differently but it was easier going with the flow. kieu my hopefully probably thinks the behavior that constantpain exhibits is problematic, but she may have been too worried about her place in the food chain to do anything. ava was just a classmate, but fatou means a lot more to her so this may be the first time she has actually considered speaking up.

i like this arc for kieu my. first, she has been confronted with the idea of vocalising what she wants - which is something a lot of immigrant kids are taught not to do. and now, she has to weigh in on whether she is willing to actively stand up for what she wants/what is right. i think kieu my's reaction in yesterday's clip was not only her being devastated over fatou, but also being frustrated over how conflicted she felt. these kinds of changes don't happen overnight, but i think that clip was the light bulb moment so we will probably see kieu my's growth over the next few episodes.

[lol-q]

I need someone to write an essay on how they changed the cashqueens characters and dynamics with each other because nothing makes sense anymore

ahh i love writing essays about skamverse :)

actually i dont think the dynamics really changed at all other than nora×fatou friendship, that's the only thing different in this season other than them everything was pretty much built up

let's talk about everyone

Mailin: i heard a lot of people say druck ruined her character, that is not true at all. Mailin was always like this, fans who are poc were literally freaking out over mailin's bio, we all were scared of noora2.0 which was proven wrong by druck in bradenburg, we saw ava talking about the naz*s and the girls privilege saying "we would be the one to die first" that happened right after mailin broke the rules with her privilege, pretty sure that was intentional and the stairs clip with her ignorant comment and ava brushing mailin off so we knew this was coming

Nora: i saw some ppl say they ruined her for saying fatou is unreliable but i honestly don't see it, i mean in s5 she had so much problem she wasn't even herself so we obviously wouldn't know her whole character without a different pov and without her problems getting solved plus saying your friend who is always late is unreliable isn't the most evil thing in the world and the other criticism she had was her not being involve with her friends like she used to, her not caring about the cashqueens? which that got pointed out by mailin too

in s5 we saw her getting sad over zoe inviting the instas over all the time, when that happened we justified zoe with her mother finally going to rehab and her finally becoming free and that's so important because the same thing is happening with nora rn she is free from not knowing what she has, she is free from her mother,she's going to therapy, she is enjoying life with josh which we saw mailin argue with her for it, she enjoys life with josh instead of hanging out with cashqueens who are having conflicts after conflicts no offense,

i just think that was a great direction for nora it's the same thing that happened to zoe and even kiki, so she didn't change, she's finally becoming herself

Ava: honestly this is no secret, we saw multiple time ava being the mom friend, the s6 literally starts with the girls saying she's the mom and no one asking about her, you can argue and say none of them is asking about each other but i really think it's different with her. i feel like she always gives and never recives, i mean fatou does love her as she can but ava clearly doesn't know about her ld so its normal for her to think that girls don't value her enough because it's truee, for example the girls never asked her "how do you feel about inviting half of your bullies into YOUR friendsgiving party", ik the girls love her but still...

Fatou: i just wanted to talk about her LD or/and ADHD real quick because they show us from the start, fatou forgot to meet with ava in s5 too, she couldn't do certain clasess from the start she even asked help from mailin i just love the little hint they dropped about her

ahh overall i really love this gen, i love how every charcter was built up to the drama from the start, it didn't appear out of nowhere

and at first glance i can see how it makes no sense but for me it makes so much sense, i feel like writers are just some big brainers and they thought about everything from the start

i luv this season<3

[evakuality]

Druck s5, episode 3 - belated thoughts

I really like the dynamic of this first clip - it’s such a nice combination of awkward confessions and getting to know each other and also of the fact that they just accept each other.  Nora’s not sidelined at all for not enjoying drinking (which says a lot about her old ‘friends’ and how they must have treated her when she didn’t drink around them either), and Fatou is readily accepted when she says says she likes women.  Even Mailin’s confession that she didn’t want to seem clingy is just taken as it is.  It all sets a nice groundwork for this group.

Again, I know everyone’s said it before but it truly is fascinating just how much Nora is affected by how people perceive her.  We’ve seen it in previous episodes, but we’re also seeing it in the dance clip.  When people see and judge her, she feels awkward and ill at ease and messes stuff up.  But when she feels comfortable and accepted then things go better for her.  In this case, it’s Zoe who sets this off and I do think a lot of this is connected to family.  She hides a lot behind her facade to protect both herself and her mother from judgement.  She was quite taken aback in the first clip that no-one judged her, and it’s obvious that Zoe taking part in the antics of her friend group bothered her a lot.  There are obvious things there - Zoe getting drunk must bring up fears around if she’ll be like their mother, for example, but she really does try to hide anything about her that’s not perfect and her facade cracks in the moments when things don’t quite go right - when Constantin confronts her at Zoe’s party, when he pushes her over running, when she messes up the dance here.  She always recovers and kind of blusters her way through things or covers them up, but it’s interesting that these cracks start to appear.  I do wonder how much of her mental health stuff she has dealt with by brute forcing her way through the moments.  Even the cinematography here does the same thing - slightly out of focus as it has been in other moments and other times when things aren’t perfect.  The slight offsetting of her from perfect clarity is already happening even if she’s not aware of why.

I find the next clip quite.... hmmmm.  Zoe getting on Nora’s back about their mother seems really unkind and hypocritical when a) she herself drinks fairly heavily and often and b) has clearly made the decision to stay away and so she has no say at all in how Nora gets through her time.  That Zoe (and Kiki, apparently) has had enough with their mother and won’t give her another chance is fine.  But that she judges Nora for it is really harsh - Nora is still in the situation and she’s trying to get through it in any way she can.  But ‘why can’t you tell me the truth’ is really interesting because it shows however hard Nora works to pretend things are fine (and she does work very hard at it), things are starting to slip.  But also - how can she tell Zoe the truth, when the truth makes her angry and aggressive and unwilling to be back at the family home?  For Nora, who we already saw needing connection and contact, telling the truth makes Zoe leave and stay away.  Why would she willingly risk that?  You can see how much ‘we’re not a family’ hurts her, so it makes sense that she’d double down and try to paper over the cracks.  Family/connection/togetherness is important to her and here Zoe is trying to tear that all down.  The family know it’s important to her as well, witness how careful they were about how and when to tell her that Kiki was leaving.  So Zoe must know that what she’s saying is going to hurt Nora.  And again, it’s when she loses the connection she really wants that Nora starts to dissociate again.  

In many ways it feels like the clips with Nora and her new friends are a bit ‘filler’-esque, in that they don’t progress most of the plotlines much (this one is some discussion of the money raising, playing around with mystery guy stuff and that’s about it).  But that’s part of their charm - that we get to see this group of people coalesce into something effective.  It’s a nice way to introduce the dynamics between them (we do see their characters all sharpening as they get more comfortable with each other), and it’s like life where small moments are just as important as big ones.  Obviously it does serve a plot purpose (we do need to learn these new characters) but it’s an organic way of doing it.  Skam was always very good at the little moments which built character and I think it’s something Druck has managed to transfer effectively into their own world.  

It’s interesting that Nora is quite defensive when she comes to the roof in the next clip.  Before this we’ve seen her chase a random guy there without fear and she’s been back more than once without worry that he’s going to hurt her.  I guess the thought put into her head that this could be Constantin taking revenge has shaken her.  But it’s nice that as soon as she knows it’s Josh she goes back to being super chill about meeting someone she doesn’t really know that well.  She’s just really not afraid of much at all.  Part of me wonders how much of that is her personality and how much is that she’s already starting to slip and not feeling fear is a sign of all that stuff.  Still.  This little thing they have is really sweet, and what I find most interesting about this is how little we knew of him before this.  He’s been in a few scenes but Nora (and so by extension us) hasn’t really paid that much attention to him.  It’s nice that despite this, that she’s sort of immediately intrigued by him, but it was kind of inevitable considering that she wants connection and he’s been playing into that and offering something ongoing and stable through the stickers even before they met here.  And yet... here she still is with the lies again.  It’s second nature to pull on that face and protect herself and just like with everyone else it’s not a healthy long-term strategy.  

And yet again we see that she’s slightly out of focus for a lot of the end of this clip.  The amount of times that’s been happening, both deliberately (as in the end of the clip with Zoe and her mother) and more subtly like in the dancing scene or here when she’s rushing to help her mother, is getting more frequent and I really like that there’s a lot of stuff hinting at where this is all going.  None of the later stuff comes out of nowhere.

[lucidpantone]

If you were grading the original seasons of the remakes what would they be? Ill go first! Skam fr: S5 = D, S6 = C , S7 = D, S8 = F; Druck: S5 = A & S6 = C predicted grade for S7 = B/C ; Skam Italia: predicted grade for S5 = B/C finally, Wtfock S4 = U

Oh this is easy for me.

Skam fr:

S5 = C

I actually think if they cut the cheating plot out this season would rate higher and if david kept to decision to let Arthur decide that the best decision was to chose himself instead of one the girls it would have been way more profound. Because i think very little SKAMs depict the importance of sometimes being alone. Also Robin my GOD can that boy act.

S6 = C-/maybe a D in some episodes

Once again what doesn't make this scoring worse is the acting. The acting is always very good with the skam france cast but lola’s season was such a cold soup. I like the idea drug use in teens. Topic was good and the idea of broken families but it was just soooo aggressive. Hence why i said s5 could be better if we didn't get so hammy with it. David always does that he has a half decent idea but he throws everything and the kitchen sink and its very hard to digest. Also ovi Eliott was sorta of shoe horned into this season even tho i can't be mad because we got to see him get excited over a bunny which is still one of my fav moments and Basil grandad admitting sometimes guys experiment with each other. hahahahahaha. Also Maya is such a beautiful soul.

S7 = C

Ughhh the bully season.... it was fine. The actress was amazing(when aren't the france mains not amazing tho). But i didn't get certain decisions concerning baby daddy and girlfriend and why did basil come back?!?!? IDK what saved this season was the camera work, acting and and directing decisions. S8 = C+

So here is the issue with Bilal's season. If you just focus on his first 5 episodes before JO its actually very good. We didn't need Jo i get the network asked for it but bilal was super interesting on his own and Khalid was a fucking beast. Fantastic actor!! Poverty, prejudice, financial literacy, lost of business during covid. So many topics here and when they talk about them they were good. We didn't need Jo. Sexually transmitted diseases do need to be depicted but IDK i just felt like the jo storyline felt so forced.

Druck:

S5 = A

Its the best original season and on par with s3. It was just fantastic. The last scene where Nora feels again and she starts running to josh like when the Isak runs to their Evans but now it was in the reverse it was beautiful. Also all the context within the Machwitz family was so good. Dealing with parents who are addicts and how destructive that can all be. I will always love this season.

S6 = C

So much potential but we kinda of went no where. I like Kieu My and Fatou but they aren't enough story for me. We had so many moments like being displaced as a kid of immigrants i wanted to know more. The learning difficulties also i wanted more. Prejudice and confronting white privilege but Fatou was never the center of the story and I just wanted more of everything.

Wtfock

S4 = Burn that shit and just let me keep the clips of Moyo dancing and cut cactus out.

Predicted Grades:

Italia probably gonna be a B but they have such a huge budget.

Druck s7 probably if they read our issues with s6 it will be a solid b. I love exploring the dynamics of male friendships. We see it in Italia and SKam fr but we never really see what happens when the friendship is just plain toxic but both friends really love one another. Like Robbe was treated like shit by his friends but I don't think Robbe had the kind of love Ismail and Constantine have for one another. Its clear they ride and die for one another and I just think the whole thing will collapse. Like I said before I feel like Druck s7 is basically gonna be the prequel storyline to all the Eva seasons like we see Eva after the collapse Ismail's season will show us how a friendship completely goes nuclear.

[canonicallyanxious]

it’s almost 2 am where i am and what better time to rewatch druck s5 ep5 and word vomit some overanalysis onto my blog?? there is none i tell u

unorganized rambles as follows:

1. first thing i wanna say right out the gate - absolutely love the thread of Ava and Fatou’s friendship holding this episode together, really I think it’s one of my favorite parts of this season and I love how complex and nuanced but also how full of warmth and support their dynamic is. it’s so unbelievably nice, like it really made it hit home for me that we don’t... get a lot of friendships between people of color in the skamverse, let alone between black girls. and when we do i feel like they don’t really dig into the dynamic like this, in terms of how they relate to each other and how they relate to their white peers. so it’s really, really lovely to see this relationship come to the forefront this season! One thing I always really liked about the Sana seasons was how it portrayed that feeling of somehow feeling alienated from your white friends without them even realizing [and without being able to explain yourself without causing a Scene] because i found it kind of a similar feeling to how i felt in high school among a group of predominantly white friends [though disclaimer i am a non-black non-Muslim poc so my experiences are not the same as these characters’], but it always bummed me out that the Sanas never really got a strong robust support system from her friends so I’m very very glad Ava and Fatou get to have that this season.

And just like, the care and build-up that’s been put into this relationship. In s5 we saw them hanging out a lot together on social media, and during that camping trip episode there were those small and subtle hints of solidarity they shared with each other [for example the meaningful glance when the campsite guy called Berlin “multicultural”], and all that’s being expanded into a central storyline this season which i think is really cool. also they’re just so much fun to watch together! they’re both such warm and compassionate characters, they play off of each other really well, and really the first clip of this episode is one of my favorites of the season so far because I love the vulnerability and the honesty they’re able to reach with one another despite how difficult things have been lately. and the way they give each other space to acknowledge and talk about their feelings, and support each other without talking over each other - absolutely chef’s kiss! i hope we get more one on one scenes of them later in the season, like i would absolutely love to see it

2. I really liked the emphasis on Fatou’s agency in this episode. Her choice to block Kieu My on tinder, for example - when she said maybe she would block her Ava didn’t tell her what to do, she came to that decision on her own. Her choice to directly confront Kieu My after they partner up for the physics project instead of letting Kieu My dance around the issue. the way she expresses that she wants to take her Abi, actually. and of course her going to Kieu My to kiss her at the end of the episode [and really sort of going against all the advice she received in the previous clip to do what she felt was the right way to address the situation].

because i think that creates some interesting conflict with the nonconfrontational, people-pleasing part of her personality, right? she doesn’t often seem to have much conflict over acting on her wants; what she tends to have more conflict about is communicating about those wants to the people she cares about. She lets herself feel what she feels, she won’t repress those feelings, but when it comes to actually sharing those feelings, she struggles to do it if she feels that expressing her feelings isn’t what other people want or need to hear. so i think something I would really like to see her learn is that actually the people she cares about would rather she be honest about how she’s feeling over anything else, and that it’s okay to prioritize her feelings in any given relationship. we see that even in this episode - Ava is very open to her the moment she senses that Fatou is being honest with her - so i hope that trajectory continues throughout the season.

3. one thing i found interesting about the clip with her parents was the juxtaposition of the texts Ava sent her with the actual confrontation. To me in both cases it seems like instances where the people who care about her are trying to be supportive but not quite giving her the kind of support she wants. So for example the texts from Ava read to me like someone who wants to support her heartbroken friend in the “you’re better off without her” kind of way [it made me think of this tiktok skdnfskjdnf], and then her parents want to communicate to her that it’s okay for her to be struggling with school and that they understand and support her, they just want her to talk to them about it. But in the former case, talking about Kieu My isn’t something Fatou wants to do - as has been established in season 5, often she would rather just forget the whole thing happened - and in the latter she doesn’t want to hear that it’s okay for her not to do her Abi - she wants to hear that her parents believe in her ability to do her Abi. Which sort of feels in line with the theme of her struggling to express what she wants, i think.

another thing about that clip is that lingering shot on the pictures of her and Ilai. It seems like she might feel overshadowed by her brother, and i hope they get more into that dynamic later in the season and really break it down. i don’t think Ilai would want her to compare herself to him, and i would appreciate them getting the chance to really talk it out [and maybe have him express that he doesn’t always feel like the Golden Child, and there are things that he looks up to her for as well - although that’s getting into wishful thinking territory probably lol].

4. this is just a quick note but on my rewatch of the episode i noticed Nora saying “Mailin...” after Mailin asks Ava why can’t you just explain it to me?! which i think gives some much-appreciated continuity to the off screen texts of Nora trying to help Mailin understand the issue with Nora recognizing on screen that Mailin is out of line here. like there is on-screen context for those exchanges which i always appreciate!

5. i have Thoughts about Kieu My in this episode, but I think i’m going to hold off on writing extensively about her until we know more about her side to the story. i do want to mention her bringing her mother’s banh xeo though because it’s such a small detail but it really made me lose my mind skfjgnfkjgn. like i already feel like sharing homecooked food with someone can be so intimate - idk like food is about communion! sharing in something together! and then the added layer of something being crafted from scratch specifically to nourish someone you care about! you know?? - but sharing your family’s cooking? Bringing a piece of your home into someone else’s home?? Using it as a peace offering, and the peace offering being so steeped in something that is probably so comforting to you [like seriously what is more comforting than your family’s cooking, i can’t think of it]??? no one asked me to think that deeply about this [david voice: it’s just a vietnamese crepe] but it still makes me irrationally tender and that’s just how it’s going to be!!

[of course i do think Kieu My has a lot of character growth still left to undergo, like I would really like to see her step up beyond bringing some food to her crush’s house and acknowledging her actions were shitty but not even really explicitly apologizing for it, but also my queer monkey brain is very easily moved so like what can you do]

[and just for me personally banh xeo actually is one of my top viet comfort foods like i shit you not literally the first thing I asked my mom to make for me when I came home for the holidays two weeks ago was banh xeo sknfkjfnsdkn but i digress]

[canonicallyanxious]

it’s funny that i thought i was going to stop making these dumb posts after the first episode but the thing is i just have so many thoughts about druck s5 always and like they have to go somewhere, okay??? so here is where they will go for now

random and unorganized thoughts about druck s5 ep 4 as follows:

1. i don’t know how qualified i am to talk about ~film shit~ but i will say that while i feel like druck’s cinematography has a baseline quality of pretty damn good, the cinematography choices in this episode really stuck out to me for some reason. the editing, the framing of the shots, the coloring all are AMAZING visual storytelling cues for conveying how nora feels. i like a lot of other people really felt immersed in her pov in this episode and i think the cinematography choices really helped! for example - in the clip where she’s sleeping and her mom wakes her up, the shots go from longer with fewer cuts and slower camera movements - sort of simulating how slow waking up in the morning can feel - and then become more rapidly cut with fast and sharp camera movements in a way that really highlights how nora feels waking up and slowly realizing something is wrong with the way she's waking up. as well the spinning of the camera later in that scene right before she gets burned to highlight how disorienting and frightening that scene was for nora. 

and then for me the way that last scene of the episode with josh is colored just puts this lump in my throat. under normal circumstances we should feel excited that the protagonist is going on a date with her love interest, but the cool dullness of the colors - juxtaposed with the sunlight in her room, as well as the bright colors she’s wearing right now - kind of fill me with dread, like it just doesn’t feel right, it goes against what we know we would usually be feeling about a scene like this which is jarring. a really good tone to set for the tension you feel as the scene goes on and things start to fall apart. i think so far this season has been really, really good at setting tone, like again the visual storytelling in the show so far is just. chef’s kiss. there is so much we are able to understand about nora’s headspace and the narrative without it ever having to be spelled out to us in dialogue which is always super satisfying to watch!

2. themes of going after what you want and what you feel is good for you - valuing your own well-being and agency, basically - seem pretty important this season, and it’s interesting to see the various ways they’re underscored in the writing. So for example in the first clip, Kiki asking Nora how SHE feels about moving out [since before, she was mostly focusing on what impact it would have on their mother]. or in the clip with ca$hqueens, fatou essentially has them do an exercise in trusting your gut instincts and trying to envision what you want and nora can only see white noise. and then in the end when josh asks, “may I?” and nora nods yes - he doesn’t approach her or push her to let him in until she lets him. so in this episode we can see that nora has a lot of conflict over these questions and a lot of it is clouded by her complicated relationship with her mom, and we can also see the people who are likely going to help her overcome that conflict - her family, her friends, and josh. we can see the beginnings of those threads, and potentially how they will all help her and i am really looking forward to seeing how they develop later in the story!

3. so interesting to me how readily lies come to nora even in times where she doesn’t need to lie that drastically. like she could have said she accidentally burned herself while cooking, but she said she pinched herself. or she could have said she had to pick up some things for her mom, it’s an emergency, her friends probably would have understood, but instead she made up an excuse about handymen at her apartment. and she says them so casually and easily, like if we the audience didn’t know the truth it would probably be impossible to tell something was off from her facial expressions and how she carries herself. again it reinforces the idea that this lying has become such a habit bc she’s had to do it so much, and juxtaposed with her mother’s obvious lies and zoe’s “you sound just like her” in the intervention clip... that shit hurted

4. i know nora hasn’t fully opened up to josh yet but i do think it’s interesting that she actually came close more than once in this episode. Once while texting him, of course, and also at the end when she says “my mom is...” and there’s a long pause before she says they had a fight. which kind of sticks out to me when again we see that in other times she has been very ready to cover up the truth. like i don’t think it’s a small thing that she’s visibly tried to be careful with her words around him. as he is careful with his words around her!

5. some misc things i found interesting about the ca$hqueens clip - 

a. nora’s worry that things with josh will turn out like they did with constantin, which is kind of a hint to the audience that he definitely will not be. also the girls immediately interpreting that to mean the shitty way he’s treated her which of course i think is an element of it but i’m also wondering if part of it is how she ended up having to distance herself from him [likely bc of her relationship with her mom] - like maybe on some level she thinks it would be better to avoid that risk [juxtaposed with josh hugging her at the end of the episode and physically, literally being there for her even when she still clearly has her walls up - man hold on a second JUST HOLD ON A SECOND]. 

b. when the girls asked her what happened with constantin, and she kind of deflected a little. i could be wrong but it does make me feel like we don’t know the full story there yet. not that i think she did anything to justify the atrocious way he’s behaved toward her, or that i think it’s not possible that we already basically know what we need to know [aka that she eventually had to distance herself from him because of her relationship with her mother], like there’s nothing she could have done to justify how he’s treated her [plus from how she checked up on him after the break up and actually tried to talk it out with him until he became a total ass to her to me it feels like she was probably handling it in a very mature way] and it’s very possible we already know everything there is to know! but idk. i do wonder. at the least i wonder if we’ll find out more about how they actually got together, or her relationship with the instas, like are either of those things significant to her wider arc??

c. how freely fatou feels to express her crush on kieu my! man i tell you as a queer kid who was firmly in the closet in high school it’s just... so so nice to see a lesbian express her attraction to girls to her friends. i can’t express how nice that is.

6. my last thought i have to share is the acting in this episode was fucking bomb. josh and kiki are standouts among the side characters to me, and then of course nora’s actor is CRAZY talented, like holy SHIT. i honestly have no words.

[inmyarmswrappedin]

Well your theory is messy as hell lmao i love it. Would be pretty sad if that was the case with finn. I definitely think ava was friendly with one of the instas before all this because she's too insecure when it comes to friendships there has to be something that triggered it hard. And i also believe ismail or constantin were huelk. Or both but one actually realised they like talking to her. I just want her season so bad.

Hi anon 🌺 I knowwww. 🤩 Which is why my friends absolutely hate it. 

I totally agree that there must’ve been a reason for Ava to be so insecure about friends abandoning her. Like I would say it’s one of the things that triggers her the hardest: when one of her friends seemingly takes the ganggang’s side over hers. It happened in s5 when it looked for a hot second like Nora was neglecting the cashqueens in order to party with Zoe and Kieu My, and it happened in s6 when Fatou kissed Kieu My on NYE and Ava didn’t even get to hear about it from Fatou herself. That’s why my brain went 2 + 2 = Finn was friendly with Ava!!!!!!!

It’s been a while, but when the first chat with _huelk dropped, people were super suspicious about _huelk’s intentions, myself included. It wasn’t until _huelk kept initiating conversation and being friendly that people started warming up to the idea of Ava/_huelk (which btw I don’t ship). It wasn’t that long ago that Ismail and Sporty were bullying the cashqueens on insta over the failed merch reveal, so for me it makes total sense that they also thought of fucking with Ava in this way, only for Ismail to come to like chatting with Ava. 

I think one interesting thing about Ismail is that he sees himself as Plankton or maybe Patrick, but definitely not Spongebob. Like, he sees himself as a villain or at least like he’s using a less smart friend. I could see Ismail thinking of himself that way if it had been Sporty’s idea initially to create the_huelk account, but he became distracted with something else (Spongebob-style) while Ismail kept at it. I also think if the writers want to give Ismail a chance to redeem himself in the audience’s eyes after catfishing Ava so thoughtlessly (I mean, the parts of the audience who don’t hate Ava for existing), he needs to be really regretful about it and really think of himself as deeply fucked up for doing so, i.e. Plankton. 

I think through Ava we’re going to come to find out about a lot of the less savory things the ganggang have done, after warming up to several of them during Fatou’s season. Finn deserting Ava for the ganggang, or Ismail and Sporty catfishing Ava as _huelk would both be really horrible things that would (hopefully) lead the audience to understand why Ava seemingly overreacts to things.

[evakuality]

Druck s5, episode 4 - belated thoughts

Well, that first clip descended into chaos really quickly, didn’t it?  I guess it really does show just how fragile the camaraderie between these sisters really is.  They make an effort and you can see just how much they do love and care for each other, but they all deal with things in such different ways that it’s tough for them to be what each needs.  Nora needs to feel like she’s in control and her family is still together and has each other’s backs.  Kiki needs to feel like she’s not abandoning the others to a terrible situation when she leaves.  Zoe needs to feel like she’s not an asshole for getting out of the family situation and leaving Nora behind.  Of course, these conflicting needs all rub against each other at times and it ends up messing with their relationship.  It’s sad to see, but it also rings true to who they all are and also to how siblings can be together.  

I find the second clip really interesting because all the ways Nora is trying to keep up the facade are cracking.  She’s obviously been lying even to herself (that their mother will somehow be good for full time work this day and everything will be fine etc etc) and of course now Josh is here and sees behind the face a bit.  What’s particularly interesting is that, while she is still someone who like and needs that connection with other people, she pulls back and closes off when things start to get difficult.  She left Kiki’s house when they started to hack away at her carefully constructed sense of how their family is, and now she’s pushing Josh away despite being intrigued by him because exposing the reality of who she is and what their family is like is a bit too threatening.  It seems to be setting her up for how she’s going to be when everything does go fully pear shaped on her.  The way it’s shot even serves to make her look small and vulnerable - Josh is so much taller and she’s backed into such a small part of the frame and surrounded by heavy shadows, and actually she’s often shown on this side of the frame, sometimes even looking towards the side which just makes her look trapped and closed in even if the space around her is wide and open.  There’s been a clear visual of what her life is doing to her throughout all the episodes.

Also, the easy lying appears to be something her mother does as well, so while Zoe learned to drink and try to block things out that way from their mother, Nora has learned to lie and hide the truth to make things appear normal and palatable.  It’s also really clear, as we see more of her mother, that things are really bad for this family and Nora trying to hold everything together is just hurting herself.  Literally in this clip but also figuratively.  The other girls are right that Nora would be better off out of the situation but she’s both convinced herself that it isn’t that bad and feels some sort of responsibility for her mother which is really sad.  It shouldn’t be this way, but even the way the mother reacts in this clip is very childish and so the girls have had to be more like the adults in the situation.  That must be hard to be trying to navigate.  

Then the immediate contrast between this scene which is inside and which serves to make Nora looked closed in and starting to feel trapped and the next one is really big.  Fatou is so easy and open, moving about the wide open space in a way that suggests she’s not hampered by all the same stuff.  So it’s easy to see why Nora is still trying to hide away the stuff that’s going on and why she’s still lying so easily to these girls about some things even while she’s quite open about others.  So she’s readily able to say she doesn’t want things to go the way they did with Constantin (which tbh, his ott reaction afterwards is good enough reason), but she can’t really give details on why and what happened and how her own actions affected that relationship.  And the seeds of the coming implosion are being sown here because Nora is still so desperate to keep all the bad stuff hidden that she doesn’t even try to come up with a plausible excuse for why she has to go - and in this case ‘my mother has a migraine and I need to get groceries’ is so innocuous really that she could have said it.  But it’s just such second nature for everything with her family to be hidden and kept away from others’ eyes that she has no sense of judgement anymore.

Another example of Nora being literally boxed in to this side of the frame, facing the edge and despite the whole vista of the city behind her there’s a definite sense that she’s still caught up and trapped in this situation.  I don’t know how deliberately the show makers did this, but it happens a LOT so intended or not it fits with how Nora is at this point.  This is a nice, light little clip all silly texting and she’s clearly happy to be having this conversation with Josh, but all that other stuff and the lies (that she even thinks about telling him again now) are still keeping her cooped up in this place with no real way to escape.  So this is all happy but there are still warning signs that things are off with Nora and her family situation.  And of course we go from this almost-escape (she’s outside and near to the wide vista of the freedom of the outside world) into the very tense and very awkward scene with the whole family.  It’s just always there, inescapable and ongoing.  So of course, again when she’s feeling like she’s losing her grip on her ideal facade of the family, Nora starts to dissociate again.  I’m still fascinated how much of it is tied to her family or other people she’s thought of as close (this was also tied to Constantin and Ismail for a while as well).  It really does seem to be that when she’s losing her connections to people and/or losing her sense of control over a situation that this starts to happen for Nora.

It’s also sad that we’ve seen that she’s quite focused on connections and contact and feeling like she belongs, and so the fact that she’s cutting herself off from all of that now is hard to see.  It must be quite devastating to watch as the thing you were trying to do, the mask you were trying to wear, is ripped off and the floor under you (her home life with her mother and the possibility that Zoe might come back home properly) falls away and it feels like there’s nothing left.  Then she puts on a whole different artificial face and goes to see Josh.  Which I don’t blame her for - she does want that connection and affection which he’s so clearly offering.  And she is clearly intrigued by and interested in him.  But this is the absolute worst time she could start another relationship.  She’s fragile and on edge and everything that went wrong with Constantin is still simmering not to mention the whole new set of things that literally just got dumped on her.  She’s starting to react recklessly in a way that’s a bit alarming.  He’s sensible enough to realise it now and to hold her off for a bit, but unfortunately he’s in too deep and doesn’t yet know her well enough to really pick up on all the cues here that things aren’t as they seem, and that she’s still hiding a lot from him.  He accepts her lies at face value.  I guess because there is some sincerity there - things aren’t good with her mother, who is the source of her sadness, and she is feeling like shit and she really does need that hug.  But starting a relationship while she’s in this state and lying about it - not a great idea!

[evakuality]

Druck s5, episode 1 - my belated thoughts.

So I got a bit behind and didn’t manage to watch past the first 3 episodes because work was so busy and then the themes when I came back weren’t ones I wanted to deal with while things were still a bit up in the air in the show so I put it off until I had some time and was less busy.  Which is now, so I thought hey why not watch it all (again for some bits) and make some notes of my thoughts.  I know none of this is new, and everyone has said everything there is to say about it already, but I still want a record for me, so you get it too. Which means here we are.  Episode one.  Better late than never, right?

I do like the sibling dynamic in the first clip.  Kiki as a big sister is weird, but it sort of fits as she’s grown up and moved out of her home and taken on some responsibility that isn’t dealing with her mother etc.  It makes sense that she’d be a more mellow Kiki by now.  And the way the other two act tells us a lot about each of them already.  Zoe’s already seems like the one who wants to be a bit more free and easy, living her life and not worrying too much about the big stuff, and Nora of course already comes across as the one who tries to make the others feel okay, with her diminishing of both her mother’s situation and the thing with Constantin.  It’s nice to see them work together as a threesome too.  

I know I never watched further into the season so some of this might be addressed, but honestly these guys’ obsession with their parties being cancelled two years out is so... it comes across as really stupid.  And I don’t know, maybe that was the intention and they’re supposed to seem really really immature and annoying and I’m supposed to be laughing at them.   Obviously, the tension being set up with Nora vs the others is all part of this (and that conversation with Ismail at the end suggests that’s where all this is going), and maybe it’s just because I’m too old to get so intense about something like this, but it just seems laughable that they could be taking it so seriously.   I mean, as Ava points out, they can make money in other ways; it doesn’t have to be parties all the time.  Get creative, children!

As the next clip shows, these idiots are really too focused on the one black and white idea.  There’s no nuance: if we can’t have our parties we’ll rebel.  But that’s a nice contrast with the others as we see later because they DO try to engage and think of other ways to do things.  So it’s a nice way to set up the dynamics of the two groups.  Even so, I’m already frustrated with these guys so the antics in the classroom make me roll my eyes.  Get a grip, Constantin.  You weren’t together for that long that you need to be this petty over the break up.  

There’s something really sad about the clip of Nora at home, wanting Zoe to come and be with her for the night but knowing she likely wouldn’t.  And trying hard to look after her mother even while she’s not there.  I know we see the mains in their own environments and they’re often not in a good space when they’re there (it’s a good way to show them when they don’t have their ‘face’ on and so of course it’s a space for them to be vulnerable), but in this case it feels more lonely than many of the others.  I don’t think Nora likes being on her own.  She reaches out to Fatou, to Zoe, to the group chat, and I’m sure she’d be reaching out to others if she could, and so the fact that she’s alone for a lot of this is quite sad, particularly because the ‘not alone’ parts are still alone.  Zoe isn’t there, and it’s already quite clear that she avoids home and so Nora is left like this a lot.  The cinematography really plays into this as well, with us being left with a picture of Nora squeezed into a corner of her home, pushed away and at a distance (and everything fuzzy behind that glass too, which is a nice visual image of how things are for her even though we, and maybe even she, don’t know it yet) and very clearly not happy about it.

That of course makes it all a lot worse when we see the messages that everyone just left the group chat.  Again, I know we’re supposed to not sympathise with the others, but they are all so damn petty.  This wasn’t some giant love for the ages, it was a short-lived teenage thing.  Nora doesn’t deserve this level of ostracism.  I do love that Nora isn’t a shrinking violet, though.  Like the way she talked back to Ismail earlier and now she’s willing to scale a building to chase down some jerk who broke her phone.  And she’s willing to try to keep up contact with him - because she’s pissed to start with, but here’s more of her wanting and needing to reach out and make connections.  And the times when we see her smiling (and have throughout if I recall correctly) are when she’s making contact with others in some way, from the time she notices the bag left behind to the message she gets from Kieu My to taking the photo of her sticker message.  She’s just happier when she’s connected.  Which, again, makes what is to come even harder for her.  Not being able to feel and have those connections must be really hard.

And the party, again, just makes me want to shake some sense into these people.  In one episode all this stuff almost feels like too much.  They’re annoying and irritating and entitled and I really really hope they wake up at some point.  Constantin is really over the top, both with his reactions to the break up and also with the things he says to Nora, and the fact that the others back him up without any thought?  Bleh.  I really wanted like Ismail, but it’s really hard.  I’d forgotten just how irritating all this behaviour was, but watching it again all at once it feels even worse.  Tbh, it’s already really obvious that Nora is better off without these people, even if her sister is part of their little tribe.  And then we see her deliberately putting on that face that she lost when she was at home.

All in all, an interesting episode and a nice introduction into Nora’s world with some interesting hints at what’s coming up for her.  I don’t like Zoe’s squad much at all, their antics really do seem a bit too ott, but most of the rest of it works well for me and I’m interested to see where we go from here.

[lucidpantone]

Druck is objectively better than all remakes at making a pointed effort to do better with their pic reps. They actually take in the feedback of their audience and try to execute a better product. There are problems with druck and 80% of it is the fandom. Ofc all remakes have issues tho, so ppl should chill. Druck fans unapologetically shit on other remakes while, wtfock fans and skam fr fans have the courtesy of slyly getting their digs in there. It's quite amusing to watch from the sidelines

this is super long but for you anon.

So I think we need to look at these three remakes as what I call the og period and the original period because they do change alot once they get more freedom some for the absolute worse. Ok so lets talk first about the OG periods. To be perfectly honest s1 in all these remakes are just ok. Jana & Jens are a bit unbearable but Jana as a whole is fine and am happy she doesnt end up with Jens. Same with Hanna and Jonas they aren’t unbearable per-say but I am also not gushing over them but I do like Jonas being a heart throb music man sometimes but once again they dont burn into my core but am happy they reunite. Love Emma and love Yann just not together its that simple. S2 is where we really start to see the difference. Charles is the devil so I hate skamfr s2 and like really Manon stays with him??? ughh why?? Daphne is right at almost bursting into laughter when he talks about doing philanthropy. Ok bruh....sure. Winterberg is fine I dont hate them and I dont love them they are just okay to me. S2 happens to be wtfock best season so its kinda hard to stack them up because this is the best they ever looked. All of the s3 for all these remakes are good. To say they aren’t would just be nonsense some are better then others but all are above average. Now S4....... well well well. What can we say the elusive goldstar Sana season is yet to be made (I will say the script for Italia s4 is fantastic, THE SCRIPT).

Skamfr s4 was a mess and ridiculous and Druck’s s4 was lazy and harbored accents of prejudice all over it.Both seasons undercut their woc and both miss the opportunity to write deep meaningful stories that explored the societal struggles of muslim women. Skamfr s4 just happened to really just shows us their colors but honestly am not shocked this is skam the micro racist decisions are all over the verse. TBD on yasmina season.

 NOW......this all changes when we talk about the original seasons because this is when we see the shows on their own and also we get to see if they have been listening and absorbing the fan commentary or not. So let’s get the obvious out of the way wtFOCK was an absolute mess and maybe the worse season ever created in the skamverse the only thing that made that season even slightly bearable was the Moyo arc which I hear it actually continues in s5 so in a weird way s4 is actually about Moyo since his story continues but we already know thats only because if the fans saw Kato on the screen for a matters of seconds the volcano of hate would explode. I despise how Noa has become the pseudo main of s4 but didnt get the credit. It kills me they did this to him. Maining Romi is the worse mistake ever made by any remake and thats just fact. Now do I want to see a newgen out of wtfock? hmmmm ask me after s5 but am leaning towards probably not but am on the fence. Now skamfr .....let me say this one thing skam fr is nothing without their cast. Talk about fucking talent. Those kids can act their ass off but their writing is atrocious. s5 could have been good they had all the ingredients but the writers bomb it. S6 once again flavie amazing the writing a shit show. S7 lucie was amazing the writing was better but still needs work I think it pretty obvious skam fr is going to step into the thunderdome and finally do what no skam has done before and main bilal but should I really applaud it taking 8 seasons and 35 plus skamverse seasons to get here??? Probably not, but since no one else is gonna pull the trigger I wish them well and at least skamfr listen and lamifex is super rich in diversity and they are honestly a fabulous newgen. They are such a ridiculous squad but god I love them and Jo is an angel. Please please skamfr please write a good story for a brown boy I beg of you!!! Now druck s5 all I can say is Bravo!! If skamfr is their cast then Druck is their writers. That s5 season is a fucking beast. Thats how you write an original skam season. They also listen the cast is super diverse. The girl squad feels natural and their age I actually like that the insta squad are problematic as fuck and happen to be queer. Like just cause your a gay baby doesnt mean you arent an ass. s6 for me personally was ok maybe its unfair of me but I expect amazing writing out of druck and s6 to me was not their best. It could have been amazing they touched so many topics but never deeply explored them and I wanted more for fatou. Also def got the vibes at the end they were panicking on who to main next season so everyone got a little plot thread but that also distracted me from fatou but I love the Mailin plot it was really smart and done well. I didnt hate her but boy did she bug the shit out me.That how you write modern day racism and white privilege. I just wish Ava’s plot was spread more onto fatou they were moments but i wanted more. So I guess I do think out of the original seasons druck s5 is the best. Nora being white didnt matter because she was written well but i do think Tiff being the main out of skamfr wasnt the best choice but then seeing Lucie act am like ok i get it but honestly I expect that from that cast they can all kill it so why not let someone else be the main and not tiff. BTW druck’s cast is good too I just dont think they are as good as the skamfr cast on the acting front but they are some members that are very very good. Like you said because Druck does listen I hope they listen to the honest criticism of s6. I know some people are like its the best ever but like its not....am sorry s5 was way better then s6 and that makes me sad because i want my black girl magic.... I do expect s7 to be good because when the writers for druck have the room to take their time they always kill it but I also feel like they are about to pull a Tiff on us and main Ismail(plus constantine as the side plot) but if I trust anyone with not fucking it up its them. Concerning the fandoms I live off tag and I do that for a reason. The fandom tags are alot but the druck one is almost hostile and honestly you would love the show more if you didnt interact with it. The skamfr tag is hilarious because they are no anti’s its just a bunch of arm chair critics making memes at how ridiculous the frenchies are but in away it makes the remake super fun because no one cares anymore. The wtfock tag has really high highs and really insane lows. When its low its really low so I have decided to live off tag. For those who haven’t..... god speed. Your brave souls!!