Welcome to the very last recap of Faking It ever! Yup, our favorite Fake Lesbian Buffet has been cancelled by MTV due to declining ratings. Carter Covington told The Hollywood Reporter:
“I think the show will have a strong life in the future, whether it’s on iTunes or made available on Hulu or Netflix for long periods of time. I think people, when they found our show, really loved it. Early on, perhaps people thought it as a show for LGBT fans and even though I’ve never seen it that way — I think the show appeals to a broad audience — I do think it might have gotten that impression and maybe people didn’t sample it who didn’t feel like they fell into that audience.”
I’m sure many will blame the show’s LGBT focus for its cancellation, but I think that’s short-sighted. LGBT fans are a passionate bunch! It’s true that statistically speaking, we’re an incredibly small slice of the population, but that’s changing, especially for the teens in MTV’s target demographic. It’s also true that because of online streaming and DVR, what qualifies as “good ratings” for a show is a much smaller number than it was ten years ago. These days, we are capable of sustaining a show all on our own.
But we’re also easily discouraged and disappointed, and a lot of queer women dropped off after Amy’s ret-conning, the intensified focus on Karma and Liam, the relentless conversation around Amy and Liam’s drunken romp, and everything wrong about Reagan’s character. This lowered buzz around the show in general. I definitely don’t hear the show come up in conversation nearly as much as it used to. So was the problem not enough straight people tuning in, or too many queer women tuning out? Because although queer women objectively understand the importance of the show maintaining Shane’s gay romances and adding a gay trans guy and a bisexual guy, it won’t make them actually tune in. As indicated in the graph I made you a few weeks ago, the readership for these recaps has dropped by over 60% since Season One. That’s mostly queer women, right there! Don’t mess with us. If you let us down, we will stop watching, and we’re a big chunk of viewers these days.
But look — I think this show did mostly good things. I really do, I’m glad it existed. The lead character was a queer woman. That literally never happens. I’ve mostly even enjoyed it! It’s funny!
NOW ONTO THE RECAP!
We open in Amy’s bedroom, where she’s exhibiting stalwart devotion to the lesbian art of post-breakup processing, even though her relationship with Sabrina lasted for literally three minutes. It’s apparently been two weeks but Amy’s still pondering theories about Sabrina’s hypothetical sociopathy and her ALLEGED dairy allergy, and Karma’s still obligated to sit there and hear her out.
Her boobs were like GIANT VODKA-FILLED WATERMELONS
Well, there is another option: Karma’s parents and their girlfriend Diane would love for the girls to join them for Diane’s Way Cathartic Year-End Cleansing Ritual! Although initially turned off by a Ritual involving Karma’s parents fawning physically over Diane (bc everybody knows Amy & Diane are MTB), the prospect of burning things appeals to these budding sadists.
C’mon, how can you say no to a face like this?
Did you tell your Mom that I have a thing for cougars
Amy burns Season Six of The L Word, which Sabrina apparently not only purchased on DVD but made Amy watch, which is the meanest thing any person can do to another person.
NOBODY KILLED JENNY!!!
Amy then burns a box of letters and pictures, which gives me major anxiety. Doesn’t anybody here keep everything from every ex forever to use as reference for the memoir you’re gonna write? No?
Oh but um, then somehow this situation sets Karma’s whole house on fire!
We didn’t start the fire, It was always burning, since the world’s been turning
No we didn’t light it. But we tried to fight it.
LAUREN & LIAM’S LAP DANCE PAD: LAUREN YOU HAVE TO STOP HASHTAGGING #BOOPER AND ACTING LIKE WE’RE BOYFRIEND GIRLFRIEND JUST FOR SOCIAL MEDIA, THAT’S NOT COOL.
One last pic before you drink your poison coffee!
I’m sorry, poison?
HEY LIAM I HAVE AN IDEA WHY DON’T YOU GO ALONG WITH IT AND MAKE KARMA JEALOUS HUH HOW ABOUT THAT WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT LIAM.
Thanks to the Great Fire Of 2016, Karma and Amy are now living every Karmy fan-fic writer’s dream scenario: Karma’s forced to move into Lauren’s old bedroom at Amy’s house! Farrah’s worried about potential drama or Emotions, but the ladies insist there’s no problemo there ’cause Amy just broke up with Sabrina and there’s still that thing with Felix!
WE FINALLY DID ANAL!!
Ladies, could you keep it down up here?
But Karma and I finally did anal!
“Sabrina turned out to be a whack job because I’m meant to spend New Year’s with Felix,” says Amy as I smash a carton of macaroni salad into my nasal cavities while listening to dubstep. Karma’s clearly got her heart in Felix’s sack of hearts herself, though, and it’s Farrah, not Karma, who encourages Amy to reach out to Felix and make New Year’s Eve plans!
Brew & Chew & Skip To My Lou: Shane’s stoked that his band with Noah and Karma landed a paid gig at a weird New Year’s Eve bash.
![Guess who just got two tickets for [THING]](https://develop.autostraddle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FI310-00065.jpg?resize=960%2C540)
Guess who’s got world’s most invisible string right here in their handsome hands
He knows about YOUR invisible string, right?
After Shane says his line, Noah busts that pop stand and Karma wants to know why everything between Shane and Noah has gone from hot-hot-hot to GOSH IT’S COLD so fast. Shane, unfortunately, cannot tell Karma anything nope not one thing! Also, Liam exists. Karma’s got no time for his silly man games, obviously Booper isn’t real, goodbye.
Whoah man stop trying to push your poison on other people
Prom Dress Shopping Set: Lauren can’t believe she’s helping Amy buy a dress for New Year’s! How wild! Amy explains that boys like dresses. Also, they don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses and if you want to go out on Saturday, don’t call before Wednesday. Also, the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but only if you have medical training.
MEET ANAL RAUDENFIELD!!!!
No. No that’s not what we’re going to call you.
Lauren, exhibiting genuine compassion, wants to know how she’s feeling about getting dumped like a hot potato by Sabrina the Teenaged Lesbian Witch. Amy insists she’s a-ok and besides doesn’t want advice from a member of #booper, a ship she refuses to believe exists for sailing purposes.
Karma’s super-duper happy for Felix and Amy having their big date and planning to kiss on New Year’s! She’s so happy she can hardly even look happy. “Might there be another reason I shouldn’t go out with Amy on New Year’s?” asks Felix, obviously hoping Karma will say I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU, TAKE ME TO CAT HEAVEN. Instead, she steals my joke as Sabrina walks past, calling her “Sabrina the Teenaged Bitch.”
Hey, I’m Felix and I’m really excited to be working with you today on Flip That House!
Well, Sabrina has gone bananas! She’s not been eating or sleeping or watching Season Six of The L Word (#2 source of bananas), she’s just been obsessively contacting Amy who refuses to hear her swan song.
Does Tasha go back to Alice at the end or does she stay with Jamie? You have to tell me!
Sabrina begs Karma to help her get Amy back, because she loves Amy and needs to be with Amy forever and everybody knows that Evan is yesterday’s fish fry. THE PLOT THICKENS.
BOOPERVILLE: GUESS WHAT LAUREN, KARMA ISN’T JEALOUS OF US SHE THINKS WE AREN’T THE REAL DEAL. THAT’S BONKERS, LIAM! WE NEED TO SHOW THEM HOW REAL WE ARE/AREN’T! THAT’S A REALLY GOOD WAY TO SPEND OUR BRIEF MOMENTS OF TIME ON THIS PLANET.
It’s not JUST a towel, Liam. It’s also a mini-skirt!
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Oh Riese. Thanks for three great seasons of your recaps. I’ve read every single one pretty much the night it came out. Can you recap another show?! I don’t even care what it is, I just love your recaps.
Also Carter Covington you had AMPLE TIME for that exploration.
Maybe he spent two years trying to work out how lesbians have sex and failed?
My feelings exactly!!
awww thank you so much!! i hope to jesus we get another show on the air that i want to recap, too! also you can read every recap i have ever written here if you ever wanna like, catch up on the real l word. who doesn’t, honestly.
I can’t help but wonder how the show would have done if they’d just done this back at the beginning or at least middle of this season. Oh well, at least I can finish the third season now without being QUITE as frustrated with it.
Dang! I didn’t know it was canceled. I haven’t seen any of the new season yet, but I kind of liked the show. Except for Liam aka Finn Hudson, pt. 2. And I know it had quite a few problems, but it was mostly fun and I was holding out hope that it might sort its shit out. I was looking forward to catching up on it, but I’m a little less excited to do so now that I know there’s only ten episodes left for me to watch.
Wow. It’s really over… I’ve never watched a single episode of this show, but I’ve read the recaps religiously because the commentary Riese has spun in and around the show’s actual content has been so engaging.
I feel like a bunch of Straddlers should go write alternate endings and/or continuations of this series that give it a chance to actually explore bi and lesbian lady relationships in progress, more or less for the sole purpose of a future Autostraddle Fan Fiction Friday roundup.
Yeah, I’m one of those queer women that loved the show initially and then stopped watching (somewhere in the middle of the second season) because the show focused too much on a bunch of dudes that didn’t interest me. And also that Brazil episode was racist and really unfunny. That Hollywood Reporter interview w/the showrunner kind of ticked me off though, specifically the part where he said:
“That will always be my sole regret: that I never got to explore Karma and Amy together. I never got to look inward at Karma and have her question her friendship and why it’s so intense and her affection for Amy. I’m sad that I won’t get chance to do that. I felt like fans really deserved that and I’m sad they won’t get that.”
Like, okay??? You had THREE SEASONS to explore this! You HAD the chance, you just didn’t do it! And like, that was kind of the whole premise (promise?) of the show! And you didn’t follow through. You have no one but yourself to blame.
That said, Lauren was consistently awesome and I am sad that television has now lost her character.
I think I’ve discovered the secret of why the show was axed- Riese’s recaps were loads better than the show itself. Reading about it was way more fun than watching. :-)
Petition for Autostraddle to have its own sitcom.
unicorn planit?
Isn’t that what “Steven Universe” is?
I’ve been ragging on this show a lot this season, especially because it’s up against Person of Interest on Tuesday nights and that comparison does Faking It no favours, but I’m sad to see it go. Faking It could have done great things, and if Karma and Amy had eventually gotten together, they could have gone on to be one of the great queer female tv couples. Alas, it won’t happen, but I’m not unhappy with the show ending with Amy ending up with Sabrina. At least she’s not with Felix, or UGHHHH Liam. Everyone happy and in love is the best way to end a series. I hope Rita Volk and Katie Stevens and Bailey De Young all go on to have brilliant careers.
Riese! Thank you so much for three seasons of amazing recaps. I am sad that this show has ended but I am sadder that your recaps of it have ended! I also really wish there had been a chance for Karma’s feelings for Amy to be explored. But it was a good show and hopefully it has opened the door for more queer lady led teen sitcoms and intersex characters!
I had a love/hate relationship with this show but now that is over I have to say that I’m really sad. I loved its humor most of all and I’m going to miss Amy a lot (?).
I’m sad that we are saying goodbye to the only intersex character on tv (and I hope to see Bailey in many other things ’cause she is really great!).
And I’m really going to miss your recaps! Watching the show without them wouldn’t have been the same thing. Thank you.
@ Carter Covington: you had ONE job and three seasons to do it, stop pretending that you were actually going to explore the Karmy relationship in the way we all wanted. Just, stop.
“@ Carter Covington: you had ONE job and three seasons to do it, stop pretending that you were actually going to explore the Karmy relationship in the way we all wanted. Just, stop.”
THAT.
nooooOOOOOOooooooooOOOOOoo it’s over :(
This episode made me actually laugh several times and also cringe because it’s just SO teenage and I’m close enough to being 15/16 that I remember all too well what it’s like for everything to be so g-ddamn dramatic. So I think that’s what I’ll miss about this show the most.
“It was always my intention to make “Karmy” happen during our final season.
…
How satisfying it would have been to finally see Karma and Amy as a true couple! There would have been lots of kisses, none of them dreams! But slowly it would have become clear that in becoming a couple, the two of them had lost something that made them … them. Eventually, they would both realize they’d have to sacrifice their relationship to save their friendship. The series would have ended with Karma and Amy’s life goals intact: roommates in college, houses next door to each other, best friends forever.”
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/faking-what-would-have-happened-894311
So, Carter…
From a writer’s perspective, I get WHY you’d do this ending and I can rationally respect the choice, even if it would have pained me. It makes sense! It’s realistic & bittersweet. We don’t always get our happy ending, especially with our straight best friends. Hell, sometimes, we don’t even get a happy beginning or middle. Sometimes, it just blows up and there’s no saving it. At least they’d have come out OK and been besties forever!
But stories are supposed to be a way for us to explore lives not lived, and a lot of times (in my opinion) the JOURNEY is more important than the DESTINATION. Yes, endings matter, but I personally am much more willing to forgive a tragic death or a bittersweet ending if the journey was incredible.
Because this is serialized TELEVISION. It is a unique, intimate medium where we invite characters into our homes week after week for years, and we get to know them. To live vicariously through them. To see ourselves in them and hope that things go better for them than they may have for us. And even if it doesn’t work out in the end, if the journey is interesting/engaging/moving, then it’s usually worth it.
But you waited & baited waaaaay too long, on screen and in the press, and people turned away in droves. Look, I get it. You don’t wanna burn all your plots too quickly, but when the *core* of a show is driven by the relationship of two very strong characters (ala Dawson’s Creek, etc) and when the plot of the series hinges on their relationship, exploring that HAS to be the priority, because THAT is what the audience is invested in. You can’t keep baiting for too long. It’s 2016. People, especially LGBT folk, are tired of being strung along.
Honestly, Karmy really should have at least been *ignited* at the end of season 2 & explored during season 3… And that being said, given how BAD lesbian representation is on TV right now, and given that you said, “Amy’s journey was my chance to relive all of (my teenage) feelings from the safety of a script. She could be brave enough to take the risks I never could. Amy could tell Karma she loved her, and I could rewrite my past.”… Just, wow. What a way to piss everyone off along the way, and also at what would have been the end… Despite losing the brilliant recaps (THANK YOU, RIESE!! ♡♡), and missing seeing this wonderful cast every week, maybe the cancellation is for the best. The ending we got is decent to moderately good, relatively speaking.
Soooo… I’m gonna go rewatch South of Nowhere(‘s best parts) for like… the milllllllionth time. And maybe re-read Annie On My Mind, too. And dream of one day having another great teen soap with two lesbian/bi/queer women as the lead characters…
These writers and show runners (I’m also looking at you “The 100”) don’t seem to realize that we, the ladies of the LQBT community have BUYING POWER (or should I say, watching power).
When “The 100” killed Lexa, ratings plummeted. When Amy’s story went from being interested in girls to sleeping with guys, ratings dropped. Why don’t these people see that we are a force to be reckoned with!?
We don’t have a lot of shows, so when those few shows do pop up, we all race over to watch it. When it disappoints, we say “oh well” and move on to something else. Maybe one day these people (guys) will get it.
That’s a very worthwhile regret, but — you created three series of a show with Shane and Liam and Regan and let’s be honest Karma in it and that’s yr *only* regret?
I mean, I think this was the most satisfying way it could have ended all around. If it wasn’t cancelled, it would have been great to see Karma deal with her feelings, but with only one episode left, a sudden realization would have felt really abrupt.
As frustrating as it was, I will always love this show for hitting me in some of the realest places of my high school coming out experience. There’s definitely a lot that could have been edited out for me—Reagan’s biphobia, the obsession with Amy/Liam hooking up…. And Amy definitely should have had a girlfriend for more than 5 minutes. But also, I appreciate that Amy with Karma or Amy with other girls wasn’t so easy, because that was really complicated for past-me too, and I think those complicated questions of identity and the line between friendship/romantic/sexual attraction are a lot more interesting.
Riese was very diplomatic about the showrunner’s comment at the start I feel. I mean yes, we queers are a smaller demographic numbers wise. This is mathematically true. But it still pisses me off because we are expected to watch hetero after hetero romance on TV and not complain, but straight people are just put off by queer romance, so too bad, no more shows that focus on the gay! I know this is the current cultural milieu but it is just frustrating and upsetting and I DIDN’T EVEN WATCH THIS SHOW but now I am sad it is cancelled ;_; thank you, Riese, for all the hard work recapping though.
This show has constantly gone back and forth from unicorn spring to train wreck and I’ll kinda miss it but not as much as the recaps. I’m sobbing extremely grossly that this is the last one because Riese dearest these are the bee’s knees.
Amy ended up with a girl, and Karma didn’t end up with Liam. It wasn’t the best ending I could’ve imagined when I started watching the show, but it certainly could’ve been a lot worse.
I wish I could like this comment more than once!
As much as I was annoyed at the lack of queer content, am I the only one who nefur really wanted Karmy to happen? I just think Karma is such a lacklustre character and I nefur really felt like they had great chemistry. But maybe that’s just bad writing / acting.
There was tons of queer content. Gay, trans, bi, questioning, intersex.
The only thing it really lacked was good lesbian content. It sucks that they turned the only lesbian who appeared for more than a few episodes (Reagan) into a biphobe. Before that happened I shipped Amy with her a lot more than I ever shipped Amy with Karma.
Sorry I meant satisfying queer content – as much as I was happy that they did have a lot of queer representation, much of it was eclipsed by boring / pointless storylines or lack of storylines and some of it felt like it was shoved in to distract from really bad lesbian representation / the show just never being what was promised. I was pleased though that I felt they handled the Noah plot a lot better than I expected.
I’m bi myself, really didn’t mean to claim other representation isn’t impawtant, but when I was reading the article about characters on the LGBTQIA rainbow I felt like this show was technicatly doing a LOT but was also really lacking in other ways. Apologies saying there wasn’t queer content!
I’m with ya. Amy deserves better. :p
You’re not the only one. I didn’t care if karma and Amy ever became lovers or not. I thought there was good story potential either way. My beef with the show was about the crap choices they made, which have been enumerated already, so I won’t list them again. But I would have been ok with not seeing Karma and Amy as lovers if not for all that other crappiness.
I am most sad about not being able to see Shane and Noah pan out in any way whatsoever :(
I’m not upset this show is over but I’m VERY sad your recaps are ending.
Riese was born to recap. She shouldn’t deprive the world of her talent. Please find something (anything!) else to recap. Even if it is just photos + captions.
Hmm. I feel like we’re starting to see some shows like this, which try to represent several flavors of LGBT+ experience, and some LBT-inclusive shows that are really focused on the women in their cast. And I feel like the latter are better at cultivating and keeping a queer female audience.
Faking It seems to have struggled both with tensions within the LGBT community (especially the historic tendency for gay men to have the power to create stories, and then do them badly for everyone but themselves), and with a need to attract a straight audience. (To be honest, I never watched it because as a bi woman I didn’t need to more biphobia on screen, and I felt like this was going to be yet another example of a bi woman whose dating life revolved around men, which I can’t identify with unless it’s really really well written.)
Whereas the female-focused shows (Jane the Virgin, Orphan Black, Orange Is the New Black, etc) tend to benefit from the fact that most women can and do relate to well-done female characters of any sexuality–I know I love all of those shows partly for straight characters. I also remember the data that showed how popular The L Word was with straight women who loved watching a show that was all about women (in contrast to the creators’ expectations that they would survive because of a straight male crossover audience looking for porn).
But if what I’m saying is true, and the gender divide (especially behind the camera–not a coincidence that the female-focused shows tend to have women creators) persists so strongly, what happens to the trans and intersex and asexual characters? We don’t have enough of any of them, and I haven’t yet seen a show that seems fully committed to them. (Maybe Transparent?)
I’m going to miss this show – it definitely made some mistakes but I think there was room for improvement. At least it ended fairly decently – Amy got a girlfriend, Karma moved past her possessiveness of Amy and nobody died. Thanks for all the great recaps Riese – I hope you actually enjoy the next show you recap!
I know this is all make believe, but I always knew there was something else going on with Sabrina. I mean, why else would someone act so thirsty for someone else during camp?
I admit I don’t know much about teenage girls anymore, didn’t know much when I was one;
But I thought she was a little extra for someone who supposedly just wanted a friend in Amy. Seemed a little too jealous of Karma.
I actually reserved judgement of Sabrina considering she seemed to have actual feelings for Amy instead of just using her to get popular…
I know what you mean. Although it was obvious that Sabrina was faking it at first, I always considered that it was possible that she wasn’t really faking it, she just thought that she was. And since faking it only to discover that it wasn’t really fake was pretty much the same thing Amy did in season one, I too refrained from judging her before all the facts were in.
“I admit I don’t know much about teenage girls anymore, didn’t know much when I was one”
That made my laugh so much. Totally relate.
oh for sure. i mean i think i recapped it that way, too, mostly? like it was obvious from the camp flashbacks that she was queer, i just wasn’t sure whether or not the show was gonna let her realize that or not
+1
Karma faked attraction to Amy so she could get closer to Liam. Sabrina faked attraction to Amy so she could get closer to… Amy.
If you only fake it at parties then maybe you just want some attention. When it dominates your social schedule, you’re only fooling yourself. How am I one of the 5 people who feel this way?
Did Carter Covington go to the CBS school of public statements. Too LGBT, really?
comment award.
Thank you Riese for the recaps, you are the best!
I hope Faking it opens the door for more representation on the media, specially for younger audiences, since homophobic people tend to call gay relationships “adult topics” -although at the same time I kind of fear that producers will claim that LGBT stories “don’t sell”, instead of realizing that If the rating falls it MAY be related to the writers not being consistent and respectful of their characters.
At least no lesbians were shot (maybe they would’ve 6 seasons from now)
Thanks for keeping up the recaps all this time! Even when the show started making me too uncomfortable, I still kept up with these.
I am kind of sad this show is over, but I haven’t watched this season yet though. But Riese all of those screencap captions are glorious and I hope you find a new show to recap very soon.
I am eyerolling even harder now that I’m hearing about how Karmy WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ENDGAME. They were supposed to date and break up. That was the Karmy he wanted to explore.
I AM SO BITTER RN
I always enjoyed reading the recaps and I’m definitely going to miss looking at Amy’s face.
Also, HOLY EFF I just looked up Sabrina’s actress’s IMDB page and girl is only 20 YEARS OLD!!! WTF