MTV's Faking It - Episode 1.01 Pilot
Two best friends are mistaken for a lesbian couple and soon find themselves more popular than they ever were before.
Faking It really is a different type of high school show. For decades now, the TV medium has typically had one take on this social environment. Faking It turns everything that TV thought it knew about high school and flips it on its head. The school at the center of the series is set in Austin, Texas and yet it rewards people for having the courage to be different. The outcasts are the ones with popularity.Karma is trying to stand out but all her different ploys of obtaining popularity never work for her - her blindness here only lasts a couple of seconds before she needs her eyes. She's best friends with Amy. It's clear pretty early on that Amy is always trying to make Karma happy but the feeling is never as reciprocal as she wants. That pining works. It makes their friendship seem real as well as adds intrigue to the twist of the pilot.
They are forced into running for Homecoming Royalty by their classmate, Shane - who is openly gay and also the most popular guy at school - because he assumes that they are a lesbian couple. Homecoming is the ultimate popularity contest. If they win this race, it will cement them as cool in the eyes of most of their peers. And yet, Homecoming is also a crutch that the show falls on. This set of characters could be interesting to watch from just the scope of high school. Homecoming gives them something big and important right away with every major character working towards. It's a plot basically. But I want the show to focus more on the characters and their interactions with one another.
This pilot sets up the different archetypes for each character. Shane is the gay popular guy. Liam is the straight player and artist with a caring side. Lauren is the bitch who wants this school to go back to what high school is suppose to be like. Karma and Amy are the only ones allowed to have different shades to them. The only way this general conceit would work for me is if one of them truly does think she may be a lesbian. Fortunately, that does happen. That grounds the story in a way that intrigues me rather than it being one twist too many in order to be a cool and hip comedy on MTV. So, I'll give the show another couple episodes to work out the kinks and make the characters more engaging. But this was a pretty decent opener.
Some more thoughts:
- "Pilot" was written by Carter Covington and directed by Jamie Travis.
- Do high school students run for Homecoming King and Queen as couples? Or is that just a fancy concept that TV looks to use a lot?
- Expanding on my desire for more meaningful character interactions - I want Karma and Amy's parents to become important people. They have importance in this universe and yet this episode treats them as comedic constructs.
- Now I've never watching a show on MTV before, so I was surprised when characters on my screeners said the F-word. Are those bleeped out in the televised airing? MTV is just basic cable.
