#but drucks social media was something else

[randomshyperson]

https://www.tumblr.com/randomshyperson/734896904001961984/httpswwwtumblrcomrandomshyperson734623074843?source=share

Hiii, ik it's been a while sorry about that pooks but I watched it, they're so cute, Bobbie is so pretty I'm gay lol, and honestly same I haven't watched all of them bc I mostly watch the wlw seasons sorry not sorry, but Evak season it's just so good also I love how the use social media I think that's one of my favorites things, abt the vilde/Nora season oml actually that was the only one I watched besides the gays, but I genuinely don't like the Nora and other guy relationship it's so icky I'm sorry, and vilde is so cute I'm sorry I forget the name in Spanish I'm so bad with names, also the special clips with Joana that last season ate fr, and I too have beef with skam France 😒 and about the new fic

Ok so maybe I'm a bit dumb, but are we dead on the WandaVision fics, bc most of the time, I like to believe we for some reason, situation, circumstance we just grew apart yk, bc it's too sad to imagine we're actually dead, unless the fic very specifically says so, but, I want to know what you say dear author

-🐜

Oh my god, I love talking about Skam so it's your fault I got carried away and this got long.

YES, Nell Cattrysse (Bobbie) is insanely beautiful, both girls are in fact but that's no surprise because Skam has a talent for finding these supermodels for their roles, I remember seeing the Norwegian version as a teenager and being speechless at how beautiful Noora was. But anyway, I'm glad you liked the seasons!! I love knowing that someone else liked it, because it's my favorite series ever and I don't have any friends who watch it to talk about it. I can't judge you for going for the gays seasons, I think you're absolutely right actually. Time is precious and we must always prioritize queers' narratives. In the Spanish version, I think it was the intention that the couple (Nora and the toxic guy whose I don't remember name) gave us the ick, she would only be with Alejandro (the William of this version) at the end, and I heard something about the directors having decided on the narrative of an abusive relationship for Nora precisely because Norway William was toxic and the relationship was not well worked on. It was a dig at the original, I would say. In the end, none of the straight couples really interest me in almost any version. For me, the best Vilde to date is from NL Skam, she was very sweet and I feel so bad that she never got her own season. Druck's Vilde (Kiki) has the most striking personality and was very shippable with Mia (Noora in this version). MY BABY JOANA I HAVE NOTHING BUT PRAISES ABOUT HER - I can hardly believe she had a happy ending that didn't ignore the difficulties of her illness. And she was so beautiful in the extra scenes, it was so special. And I think we all have problems with Skam France, right? I still can't believe that of all the couples, the sapphics were the ones they separated. It was really frustrating. Good thing fanfics exist.

NOW SPEAKING OF WANDA -

I didn't think of an exact plot for these rewritten scenes; they are just one-shots really. Reader replaces Vision in the story and that's it - In one of them I mention that Reader is on the other side of the world being stitched back together giving the idea that the original was really dead but I didn't really think about any plot. We can pretend that Y/N is a representation of Wanda's love and grief created by the stone as Vision was, it is really the choice of whoever is reading. If I'm ever going to do a series about Wandavison, I'll definitely start from scratch and ignore these ones haha

now this is too long so byee <3

#ask box #🐜 #🐜 anon

[hopeless-not-serious]

#druck #deb #druck experience bot #Not saying that Druck is better than Skam or other remakes #but drucks social media was something else

[evakuality]

Matteo - episode five

Social media - so I can’t let this episode go by without talking about one of my absolute favourite social media posts from this show ever.  Obviously that’s the ‘breathing under water’ one David posted after their little sojourn in the pool.  I just really love both how clever it is for David to do it this way and also how it ties into their in-joke thing.  If we ignore the fact that we viewers knew exactly what it all meant, in-world Matteo is the only one who would understand the significance.  It means something to David, shows how much he’s bursting over this whole thing and gives us a really good indication of his own feelings around the situation.  He needs to get it out, to share this experience, to acknowledge what's happened.  But to everyone else it’s just another example of his artsy, slightly angsty style.  I can see his friends dismissing it as just another pretentious arty post from David, without understanding just how ‘real’ the breathing under water is for him.  I also love how this is a way he and Matteo continue to communicate when they’re apart in some way - Matteo’s sandwich maker post later on reflects a similar approach - reason # 50,000,000 proving they’re so clearly equals and on the same page.

Clip one - This one is so bittersweet in so many ways.  It’s the last time (for a long time) when they can just be together, with no outside anything intruding.  Which I guess is something of a foreshadowing when Sara and Leonie contact them both.  It’s precarious, this thing they’re building and while they may be able to shut out the world for a while, it will always find its way in.  I also love the way this clip is such a great homage to the original, with some very obvious visual cues going back to that clip.  But there’s so much that has been shifted and changed to reflect the differences in these characters and their situations.  It’s just so beautifully done.  Matteo is so content in this one, in a way that he hasn’t often been in his season so far.  And we also learn a lot about David in a way we haven’t been able to before.  I’m still most fascinated by the way he sees ‘alone’ as ‘without family’ because Matteo doesn’t live alone, and yet David doesn’t see it that way.  It’s really sad that we can then infer that something has happened to or with his parents to mean they don’t live in the same place as Laura and David.  To someone who obviously values family in the way that he does, this is just really sad when coupled with the conversation back in episode one when he discusses how they’re not in his life anymore.  And we hear the way Matteo talks about his family and what happened with them - and this is a really interesting variation on the montage we’ve seen Druck do so effectively before.  In other montages, they show the pictures while a song plays and for the most part the two are in sync.  Whereas here, we see a very playful and fun time between them while there’s a voice over of the issues being dealt with.  It’s a fairly strong dichotomy between the two and really highlights a lot about who these two are together - they can indulge in the deeper conversations but they can also relax and have a lot of fun.  Another thing I love about this clip is how much touch already clearly means to them - they’re both so calm and happy when they’re touching each other, whether it be cuddling or running fingers along skin etc, they’re just alomost constantly in contact now that they know they can.

Clip two - David’s little picture is so sweet - both because he left something for Matteo, and because it shows that while David isn’t ready to take Matteo with him if/when he runs and hides, he is already thinking of needing to have some sort of memory of him/them.  I love so much the way this show seeds the character stuff throughout - by the time David does actually run and hide, leaving Matteo behind, we have been readied for it.  It’s entirely consistent with everything we know of his character.  Also, this clip is again really sad that to those outside of him, a happy Matteo is so unusual that it merits this sort of wonder and bemusement from his friends and roommates.  But also I guess this change in his mood is difficult for them to figure out simply because Sara is a thing and between her social media which makes it look like a happy relationship and Matteo’s deliberately using it for cover, they aren’t likely to be able to figure out why he’s so happy.  But the fact remains that for this to be so momentous, Matteo really just isn’t a happy person.  And then when we think back to the chat with David and his hope to be taken with him, and to fit in somewhere it’s even more heartbreaking.

Clip three - and now we start the real slide for Matteo.  He has to start facing up to the things he’s doing to others.  In this clip he hides from both Sara and Jonas - Sara literally and Jonas metaphorically.  Poor Sara is still so wound up in her fantasy that she genuinely keeps trying to make excuses for Matteo - she’s still putting words in his mouth and thoughts in his head, in this case even when he’s not there.  She wants so desperately for this to be a real relationship that she increasingly desperately tries to convince herself (and Leonie, who tbh doesn’t really buy it) that everything that’s happening can be explained and that Matteo is still a real boyfriend in the way that she wants.  Of course, this is really sad for her when he chooses to break up with her.  I mean, it’s good that he did it and made a clean break but the way he did it was shitty and of course he’d led her on for so long.  Plus she has consistently used her words to tell him what she wants and in return, his reward for that was a) to use it to reflect back at her what she wanted without genuinely wanting it as well and b) a break up text - she deserved at least a face to face conversation.  The saddest thing about all of this is that he genuinely does care about her, but not in the way she wants.  I’ve said before that they would be great as friends; he cares about her in a way that is actually really lovely except that it’s not what she wanted and thought she had so it effectively is a lie.  Then of course the thing with Jonas - Matteo uses his mother as a convenient excuse to deflect the issues, which isn’t helped at all by Jonas offering to talk about his mother or Sara.  Neither of those is the thing that’s occupying Matteo’s mind rn, and so this offer falls flat.  It’s a really good reflection of how far apart these two have slipped.  Again, it’s a very well done slide into the space where Matteo’s blow up at the boys makes a whole lot of sense.  They just aren’t as tight as they once were and none of them really knows what’s going on with him.  This is just enhanced by the social media, where Jonas is often with the other boys with Matteo nowhere in sight.

Clip four - A very short clip, but it allows Sara to have her say.  It makes very clear the consequences of how Matteo has been treating her - all her hurts and pains and excuses all come to a head here.  And yes, her assumption that he’s gay just because of all of this (she’s yelling at him; does she really expect he’s going to say anything - this silence is entirely in character and isn’t indicative of him being gay) is shitty, and a lot of the way she reacts after this is very over the top and ridiculous and even damaging, but here we see the reality of why she��s like this: a very unhappy, betrayed girl who has been badly used and is having to face up to the crashing down of everything she thought she had.  And we see Matteo having to face up to this at the end - he tried to avoid this by using a text but Sara as we have seen throughout the season is not one to be silent when she can speak her mind.  He’s been able to push aside her thoughts and feelings so far, but now he can’t anymore.  This is of course a precursor to the way he reacts when David asks about Sara and her feelings in the next clip.

Clip five - so painful to watch.   While they’re able to live in the fantasy unreal world, playing at table tennis or fencing or whatever, they’re able to be on the same page.  And again we can see exactly how well they get along when they can do this pretence, which makes it all that much harder to watch when Matteo tries to turn it into something real.  The hardest part to watch here is that Matteo doesn’t really notice it - he’s still so caught up in what he thinks they have to notice that David has started to pull back.  Again, Druck is very clever here - this is so similar to what Sara went through and it’s setting us up for Matteo’s realisation of how badly he treated her later; he’s literally built something up in his head and is so happy in it and so enmeshed in it that he can’t see what the reality is at this point in exactly the same way that Sara did.  The thing is, we tend to feel more for Matteo because we’re in his PoV; it’s easy to forgive him for how he treated Sara since we know why he did it and we can see how much the whole thing stifled him and it’s easy to be on his side when he’s dumped by David as well because we’re in it with him.  But that same thing can be seen if we look at both David and Sara - they also both have their own reasons for behaving the way they did when they’re in Matteo’s position and so actually we should extend the same compassion to them as well.  

Clip six - such a difficult clip to watch.  It starts really well, with Matteo chilling in his room listening to the same song he shared with David.  Of course it’s already difficult to watch because of how obviously out of sorts David was last time, but the thing is that (while we knew something was coming because of the og) we didn’t really know why or what was affecting David.  So again, seeing Matteo so happy is sad because we know it’s so fragile.  Then the conversation with Hans, which also starts very well but descends into something pretty awful.  Imo, the first half of the conversation works better here than the one with Eskild and Isak (and the second half doesn’t quite have the same impact) - it feels like a closer relationship and Hans has always seemed to understand Matteo and so there’s a genuine warmth and delight as they talk about it, which of course makes the follow up feel like a blow to Hans, particularly when viewed in the light of his own experiences with having to be fake for his parents.  Not that I think Matteo is trying to be an asshole at all, much like when he had the discussion about the guy with the dancing girls.  He’s still trying to work out how to be gay and what that looks like and how you can be like him and still gay.  But it comes out very badly as he tries to work his way through it.  It’s another example of Matteo not quite realising how his words and actions may affect other people.  Unfortunately there’s something in this part of the conversation that just doesn’t have the same impact - maybe if Eskild’s delivery hadn’t been so good this would have held the impact, but it just doesn’t for me.  Still, it’s all part of Matteo’s slow awakening to the place he has in the world and the impact he can have on others - and they on him.

Speaking of which, unlike Isak, Matteo goes to confront David about his text.  This is again consistent with his character and really shows up how assertive he is when he cares about something.  With so much of his life, Matteo is checked out but with David he’s fully involved.  For once in his life he wants something and he’s damn well going to get it.  Unfortunately, given David’s own personal issues at this time, this is the wrong move and he gets the ‘I’m not into you’ message back.  Ironically, for someone who broke up with someone else via text, he’s learning very quickly just how painful that is.  A very quick karmic return!  But jokes aside, this is such a difficult moment to watch and wondering how it could play out was so hard at the time.  Telling someone you’re not into them (even if it’s an obvious lie to outsiders) feels like quite a final thing.  The fact that there was a potential hiatus and that Matteo’s phone was now probably unavailable was really tough.  It was clear that we were entering the very difficult stages of this season!  And also, thus starts the 15 days without seeing David.  Our Matteo does a lot of growing and developing, but it was very painful to live through - I’m not looking forward to living it again!

#druck #og druck #sorry for the new format for the pictures #it was the only way I could get the breathing under water picture to show fully

[gedankenspaziergang]

Diversmagazin Interview  Translation

Diversmagazin released an interview with director Sarah Blaßkiewitz and Head-Writer Jasmina Wesolowski today. Read it here in German.

Jasmina (she/her), DRUCK writer since season four and head writer since season six together with Jonas Lindt. In a writers Room with Paulina Lorenz and Raquel Kishori Dukpa (Jünglinge)

Sarah (she/her) director of the last four episodes from season six

I’m leaving out the general introductory questions.

Alicia: Can you talk about the writing process? And what’s the most important thing for you while writing and telling stories?

Jasmina: We especially wanted the profound exchange with young adults who represent our protagonists. For season six we had the challenge that we wanted to tell the lovestory of a Gambian-German girl and a Vietnamese-German girl, perspectives that aren’t represented in the writer’s room. That’s why we talked a lot to research partners, to make up for our lack of knowledge/ experience, but we also talked to the actors and actresses.

Alicia: Why do different directors work on DRUCK?

Sarah: We try to produce as much in real-time as possible. And of course, we have to pre-produce but still have to work [overlappingly]. While one director is already in the editing phase, the next one already starts to shoot. Another reason is of course, that this way, also in the writer’s room, there’s more space for diversity.

 Alicia: It’s similar to the writer’s room. You’re also dividing the writing of scenes between different people. … Are you working together with racism and LGBTQIA+ experts?

Jasmina: I think we all have blind spots and that it’s absolutely impossible to end up with a perfect result. It was an important first step, that the Jünglinge collective joined. They are big advocates for queer BIPoc representation in German media. They were always present for feedback loops and made all of us, crew, actors and actresses, participate in an anti-racism workshop. We were lucky to have the brilliant author and anti-racism trainer Arpana Berndt, who advised us on these topics. On top of that, we did a lot of research on different topics. I think now it should be the only way to produce movies and shows this way, with an intensive research phase. This way you don’t appropriate the stories of others and also don’t tell inauthentic stories or, in the worst case, use hurtful clichés/stereotypes. It was helpful and needed that Black perspectives were present also behind the camera – Sara as a director, but also in the social media team, make-up department or costume design. But we are also aware that more can be done.

Sarah: It’s important to me to highlight the make-up and costume design department. When I, an afro-German person, joined this project and met other afro-German women in those departments, who can relate to me, the character of Fatou and Ava, I was really glad. I can say from many years of experience that that’s not a given.

 Alicia: How about experts on LGBTQIA+ issues?

Jasmina: To talk a bit about the process: We were set on Fatou being a lesbian pretty early on, and that was already discussed in the earlier writer’s room, where that perspective wasn’t present yet. In the beginning, those were loose ideas, and we had to implement them with the casting. The casting team Raquel Kishori Dupka, Melek Yaparak and Angelika Buschina worked closely with the directors and contacted different institutions and specifically asked for actors and actresses who could be queer. At this age this is of course a super sensitive topic. You don’t want to force young people to [define themselves/come out]. It’s a huge challenge to handle that with care and it was extremely important that the Jünglinge collective was part of the casting process.

But also, apart from the casting process, we profited a lot from the queer people in the writer’s room in the cast.

Sarah: For my part I asked the authors and queer people “What would you like? What is nice? What hurts? What’s important? Or what have I never seen before?” And then I put those different experiences into the different scenes. On top you of course need common sense (?) to portray something that you haven’t experienced yourself.

 Jasmin: I just thought of a small really beautiful example: How Fatou was given these rainbow socks as a Christmas present. You immediately notice, that was the idea of a queer person who knows what non-queer parents give to their kids as gifts. The fans notice: Queer people were in the writer’s room. Or “Ah, these actresses know, what they’re doing.“ And those are the small things that make a difference.

 Alicia: For sure! In DRUCK you notice that queer people were part of this in really subtle ways, and that [resulted] in really nice fan-moments. I can confirm that.

Right now, the community is discussing the conflict between Mailin and Ava a lot. What role does that conflict play for you and what does it teach us?

 Sarah: I’m editing the last episodes right now, so I really feel it, also because you already see the reactions online.

For me, the conflict is important because it shows over a long period of time, that not everything is always only good or only bad. That it takes a lot of time, patience and confrontation to understand all nuances of that kind of conflict.

That Ava could be prevented to outright say what’s bothering her, because we’re talking about a really serious trauma of exclusion. How do you even tell people really personal stuff when you were bullied for years? And now we have that conflict, that seemingly takes forever, and you’re always asking yourself: “Why aren’t they talking to each other?” But it’s only in real time that you realize how hurtful this conflict is. How hurtful it is what they experience. What racism means, and also what it means to [deal] with that topic as a white  German girl. And I think it’s really important that everyone is going through that with this season. That takes time and sometimes hurts. And you don’t always understand Ava and you don’t always understand Mailin. When we really [dedicate ourselves to understand this conflict] then I think, we can experience what for example a person like me experienced their whole adolescence. I’m not saying I was bullied my whole adolescence, and maybe it wasn’t because of the color of my skin, but because of something else. But that went on for half a year. After being bullied in school for half a year you’re not up for school and your classmates anymore. And you don’t talk to them anymore. And if people realize that because of this season then I’m glad. I think it’s really touching that this conflict takes up so much space.

 Jasmina: I found it really interesting what you said about the nuances, because it was a real process for me to learn how many facets this conflict has. And especially that us white people, who grow up in a society with structural racism, have a particular idea about what racism means. And that’s not a detailed and uncritical perspective of that topic: As soon as you call me racist, I feel attacked and start defending myself.

The role that this conflict played for us was to show how incredibly exhausting it is as a Person of Color, to always have to deal with these problems and that there’s a kind of fatigue, that you don’t want to talk (or should want to talk) about certain topics anymore, especially if you have other things going on in your life on top of it.

On the other hand, we have Mailin, who has a strong desire to understand. She’s not aware of her privileges as a white girl. We want to take this journey together, when she starts to realize things and when she goes through different stages; until she understands, what it is really about. We also have an arc there that isn’t finished. Because in real life, you have to deal with some topics over and over again. We think it’s especially important to show that it’s not the job of Black people to explain racism to their white  friends. By now, they have all the resources to educate themselves and to talk with other white people about this topic, to unburden Black people.

 Alicia: That’s really interesting! The lovestory of Kieu My and Fatou is an important part of season six, which many queer young adults love. How is the relationship between Fatou and Kieu My representative for a generation?

Sarah: I can actually also see it in an older generation. When I send the cuddle clip of Kieu My and Fatou to my grandpa, he says “Wow, how amazing that a Viet-German and a Afro-German girl are lying in bed together, talk in German and are in a relationship.” This generation hopefully isn’t alone anymore, for example in the sense of: being the only Afro-German person in a small city. That changed and now we see it in that second and third generation. And that’s why it shows me something very real and beautiful.

 Alicia: Which scene are you really proud of and why?

Sarah: My favorite scene, and one I’m really proud of and that was really important concerning the pressure of school, was with the main character Fatou. It’s about a path of finding yourself from Fatou and a [Reinigungsmoment] with her brother. Two people, who know each other from the moment of their birth, are sitting together. When I read that scene I thought yes, I can relate, I can feel that, and when we shot that, a world opened for me. And that was partly because of the music, which was decided before we shot this scene. Then we shot it and it was fucking cold, but we shot it again and again but every time we really felt it like the first time. And when I now watch that scene while editing, it really is the perfect moment. Every facial expression is perfect, every reaction. And that’s that kind of truthful (?) moment you’re looking for as an actor, actress, director or author. When everything fits.

 (There’s a script for every social media part, What’s App Chats and ideas for social media stories. )

 Alicia: When can we expect the next season and what will it be about?

Jasmina: For now, DRUCK is finished and we have to wait how it will continue. Fingers are crossed and of course we’re hoping for a new season.

[Note by me: We‘re not gonna spiral, Jünglinge looked for more writers, Black writers, on facebook a while ago. Nothing is safe but they probably don’t want to make any promises]

#druck #I hope it's understandabl vghghv #It was really cool to hear their thoughts on the mailin ava conflict and bullying storyline

[inmyarmswrappedin]

One of the choices Druck made in s2 that I’ve never really been particularly enamored with is having Jonas fall apart instead of Hanna. Like... Here’s the thing. In Skam, Eva fell apart and started drinking more heavily to give Noora a reason to go to all these parties she didn’t want to go to because William would be there. Eva’s substance abuse was a plot device for Noora’s plot. Once Noora and William kiss, Eva’s substance abuse goes away because Noora now attends these events willingly. That’s why Eva’s substance abuse in Skam sucks, because it’s not a part of a larger arc for Eva. (In fact, after s1, Eva doesn’t have arcs anymore, really.)

In Druck, Jonas’ substance abuse is 100% a part of Jonas’ larger arc. Yes, it is partly used as a plot device in that he gets drunk with Axel and Sara that one time and they vandalize the school -- but it’s also the reason why Jonas doesn’t notice Matteo becoming more withdrawn, and is then referenced throughout s3 as Jonas stops smoking weed, starts swimming, starts hooking up with girls (because without weed, his nether regions are performing better... apparently), and is part of the scene where Matteo comes out to Jonas. Jonas’ substance abuse informs his actions in s2, s3 and tangentially even the Abiball ep, as he became involved with Abi Chaker because of his substance abuse. 

Meanwhile, not only does Jonas’ substance abuse do nothing for Hanna’s character, but, much like Eva, Hanna never gets an arc after s1 either. Sure, she gets plenty of solo social media content, but like Sam (who also gets a ton), this content never materializes into an arc on the show proper. After s1, Hanna really only exists to react to Jonas’ actions, date someone else to make Jonas sad, and talk about boysssss. Even the anniversary of her mom’s death is about Jonas! And how Jonas is the only one who gets her. 

Compare with Skam Austin, which also had their Eva abuse alcohol. Iirc, Austin also used it as a plot device to get Grace to go places (or at least, I can’t remember why else Grace would’ve gone to Daniel’s party that time he serenaded her). But then, it didn’t go away once Grace and Daniel got together, and at that point it became part of Megan’s larger arc. It is still going on in the s2 finale clip, and so we have to assume this was a thread the writers intended on picking up.

And the thing is, this is part of a larger pattern with Druck, where they’ll take traits and plot points that were given to girls in Skam, give them to boys, and then make them more interesting than they were in Skam. It happens with Eva’s substance abuse (which was given to Jonas as aforementioned), Noora’s panic attack (given to Axel), and then the Sam/Abdi sideplot, where Abdi is the one who gets to have an arc and realize he doesn’t like sex with no strings attached, whereas Sam remains static as a character.

Personally, and specifically when it comes to the Skams, I’d rather storylines where girls may do things that make them look pathetic, embarrassing, awkward, etc. but which make them better rounded characters with their own arcs and character development, over having them be flawless and flat while the boys get to have all the character development and interesting scenes that involve lots of character work.

That’s one of the things I wasn’t super sold on with Druck’s gen 1, and tbh, for me it has to do with Alex Lindh (a dude) being the head writer for s1 and s2, as well as a consultant for s4. It just felt like overall he was interested in boys being dynamic characters, and girls not being ~pathetic~. 

However, this is something that I noticed almost right away has changed with Druck’s new gen. Like, with the new kids, the things that happen are pretty much always to service the girls’ storylines or characters, and not the boys’. Nora, Ava, Fatou, Zoe and Kieu My are all flawed characters with their own bigger or smaller character arcs. Mailin is less developed, but she’s still more developed than Josh or Finn, for instance. And when Mailin is used as a plot device, it’s in the service of Nora’s or Ava’s storyline, NOT a boy’s. When Sporty Spice does something mildly interesting (like talking to Nora on NYE, or resurfacing in the countryside for a social media detox), it’s not to develop his character or give him an arc, but rather to create conflict for Nora and Fatou. It’s for the GIRLS’ arcs. The only (so far) male-identified character who seems to have an ongoing arc is Ismail, and for all we know, he won’t remain male-identified for long. 

#druck #skam austin #(kinda) #I've been wanting to share my thoughts on druck 'fixing' the eva s2 stuff by giving it to jonas for so long lmao #this is also one of the things that makes me feel druck has become more like eskam in s5 and s6 #because eskam was really good at doing everything to service the girls first

[sotorubio]

something i always loved abt druck's attention to detail was how much continuity they had between the new seasons (and even s4 & s5 w the connection of kiki). they had so much foreshadowing for fatou's seasons in s5 but also kept nora's storyline consistent in s6 so it worked both ways

idk i just rly respect them for the way they had nora decline alcohol to keep it consistent yet never turned the conversation to that to make a whole deal abt nora who already had a season. they made it clear that she has trauma revolving around the topic & has reservations abt drinking/drunk ppl n they showed it's okay n justified to set boundaries in those situations, but they also showed that ultimately it's her personal issue she can't project onto other ppl n had her apologize when she overstepped, n even after that they continued to make a point by showing her drink the soda while everyone else had wine towards the very end of the season while her thing w josh was already so early on

all that in the background executed via social media n silent actions in the clips like she almost went through a whole arc that was v much needed even after her own season. she was neither a prop nor did it ever feel like she was overtaking fatou's plot they're just so smart

#druck #i wish we have at least one more season even just to see how well they tie into these previous ones

[ayellowcurtain]

Not gonna lie, I struggle a lot believing the girl squad friendship. That's why I'm extremely attached to Skam NL and Druck girlsquads because they are the only ones I think are solid, honest friendships that can last more than the high school years. The only ones I love the Vilde character.

All the other girlsquads I feel like it'll be more like a two girls stay friends (the Nooras x Evas, Cris x Sanas, Sanas x Nooras, Cris x Vildes, etc) and see the other girls through social media, saying the should meet sometime but never do.

And I know Vilde has a really heavy story that we often don't end up knowing much but my god, Amber is really...something else.

#wtfock

[imdisappeared]

I'd really like to have a look into Druck's finances.

Weird take I know but hear me out. It's the thought I have whenever I see people complain a lot about social media stuff and why we haven't seen this person in so long or why an opportunity to show sth cool or interesting via social media content was wasted. Because I get the frustration (in parts at least) but I also suspect there could  be a bigger problem at hand besides just 'not caring enough' or 'lazy writing' (although this might still be a part of it I am not denying that): Are there actually enough people there to properly do this work?

I myself work in a field that's not directly film and media production (so I don't wanna speak on it like I am an expert as I am surely not but if anyone has some insights please tell me I am curious) but my field is in many ways adjacent to it and I can say one thing for us: There are never enough people in place for the work that has to be done (I am currently doing a job on my own that could easily keep at least three people busy without being bored for a second) and any type of pr stuff is dramatically underfunded, the social media part of it being the worst of the worst. Social media is mostly treated as something you are supposed to be doing on the side of your actual work without any effort instead of the work it really is, the work that needs a well planned concept and proper execution. As I said I don't wanna project this directly onto Druck bc for one I don't have any established knowledge about that field and I also think media production is at least doing a bit better and actually having people employed for social media management (I do know it in cases of other channels in the funk network Druck is also a part of) but on the other hand the people who decide where the money goes often even in media have the mindset that social media is an add on and nothing else (especially in a public funding context like it is the case for Druck).

And 'a bit better' does not mean great conditions. I can still very easily imagine that there are not enough people in place for the amount of work that needs to be done. And that amount is huge in my humble opinion, especially if you wanna do it really well.

In an ideal scenario all the characters do have  a realistically frequented instagram presence (feed and stories plus even engaging with their friends on their posts if you wanna be 10/10) that fits their personalities, adds a little to the plot (without making people who don't follow social media content religiously miss out on essential things) and add interesting side infos and just fun.

If those people were real of course they would most likely post on a friday night. So just to illustrate let's do an example with yesterday's events to make it more realistic: 1. 'bonus material' for the clip that they in fact posted, illustrating what these three are up to like the stories of Lou and Constantin getting to Ismail's place, the nail polish choosing thing, Ismail posting the pictures at night plus they could've added even more of this like a selfie of Ismail and/or Lou getting ready on their own, some vague posting afterwards maybe 2. Finn and Josh hanging out outside posting some silly stories and being goofy 3. the cash queens having a girls' beauty night where they do treatments together being completely unhinged and Zoe joining in on it 4. Kieu My posting a flawless mirror selfie from her room and Zoe, Fatou and Isi all commenting on it in the first 15 mins how gorgeous she is (while all of them also text her if she is fine and not too stressed from studying) 5. Yara posting about the shitton she still has to do even on a friday, joke complaining about her asshole classmates leaving her with all the work, Ava and Nora reposting her story blessing her for her queen behaviour and promising they will be better in the future 6. Sascha posting a song to his stories.

Would I absolutely love if this was what the case? Obviously!!!

But imagine doing this amount of content at least once or twice every week (not necessarily having to cover everyone of course but still a lot of them), plus a smaller amount every day because it just makes sense, someone always posts something. That's WORK.

You have to very early plan this out, basically as soon as the script is done. You have to constantly be in touch with the writing and directing team to make sure the content you produce fits the story and its tone, you have to make sure to adjust if sth changes. Then you draft the stuff you want to do (What do you need to convey over texts? Which additional text messages make sense and add sth to your concept? Are there voice messages needed? Where do you post pictures, where story clips? Who interacts with whom, why and how?) you schedule when you need the actors (for which clips do you want social media material? Is there time to also do some stories and pictures when filming these clips? When do you need to call some actors in additionally for extra content?). If you really wanna make sure you get the type of content you need for your concept you better be there while that content is made and give directions where needed, you also need to be on set at times to get content you might need that's not directly actor related. If it's not (always) possible to be on set you have to give really good instructions beforehand and/or live with some things that aren't 100% how you needed them to somehow make them work. Then you create/collect the content you can do by yourself (pictures without people on them or direct relation to sets, spotify songs to post (I don't think they really do that but it would be great and their music is so good it would make so much sense), memes), you create the text messages, you select the pictures and videos that work the best from the massive amount of stuff you at this point, edit them and make sure everything fits the instagram format. Then when everything is done and you have the okay of various people you schedule posting. Which is an entirely different beast. I bet they have to use tools where you can schedule your accounts in advance but those need to be operated and supervised too and things can go wrong (posting too early, to late or not at all). Add running the youtube and now official druckaddicts accounts and add the huge amount of community management that comes with it. Voilà. Work. Lots of it.

Again: this is speculation. I don't say this is exactly how their process is (as I said I'm not in film production but I have done pr and been on some other types of productions so I at least don't pull this entirely out of my ass) but I wanted to shine a light on how complex such a process can be and how many problems therefore can occur. The more you want to include the more difficult it gets. And - to come back to why I even started this - the less people you have to do it the worse. And it is not hard for me to imagine that they don't have enough people to realistically do this bc not employing enough people is a sad standard under late stage capitalism. And by 'enough' I also mean people get payed decently and don't have to work abhorrent amounts of time. If you underpay it means you want something you actually can't afford and if people have to constantly work overtime it means there are not enough people there (even if your employees do a great job. It's not good for them). I often joke about 'The Druck intern has to do this or that again' and as funny as it is it is also fucking sad because it is like this in so many places. And interns are NOT there for shit like that. It's highly exploitative.

This is not me wanting to excuse that Druck often fucks up social media content. The format is so highly dependent on the social media aspect that it NEEDS to be done well for it to work. That is literally their job. I also don't think people who are not happy with the social media content are out of line. But I would find it really interesting to know where that mistake is made. Is it really just some people who don't know what they are doing or don't care enough? Or is it actually a problem of not having enough funds to adequately hire a team to do this in a really great way. Could be either could be a combination of both. So if someone wants to send me Druck's financial budget my inbox is open.

#druck #druck s7 #weird rambling #super intrigued what other people think about this #haha as if anybody even read this long ass thing #no clue how this got so long i am unhinged

[na-klar]

hi, do u think that there's a more deep rooted reason as to why Constantine is an asshole all the time? or do u think he's just genuinely an asshole just for the sake of being one? I'm really curious to see if maybe there's something else and if he could have his own season

first of all i hope we don't get a constantin season (and i believe it's pretty unlikely) because i can't stand him BUT i think he's a very interesting character. in season 5 he was just plain rude, especially to nora. he seemed like a guy who was an asshole just because he believed he was wronged once (when nora broke up with him) and thought that gave him the right to act and treat other people whatever way he wanted. his apology at the end of s5 that so many fans on youtube and instagram praised him for (which: ???) was super lackluster to me and didn't seem very genuine.

now with season 6 he was even less in the spotlight, it being fatou's season and all, but we got suspiciously lots of social media content from and about him. his weird videos in the middle of the night where he seemed drunk (or high?) out of his mind, ismail continuously worrying about him, the instas taking a whole weekend just to be there for him -- druck was obviously building up something there, and because i'm sure s7 will be ismail's, they'll probably go deeper into that there. tbh i really like that they've built his character in the background the past two seasons. it will be weird for people who don't follow the social media content though, since on screen he always was just an asshole without any real reason (calling nora and fatou names, pushing nora while she was running, making fun of her mental health, etc.).

there's been a few theories going around wondering if maybe they want to include a domestic violence/abuse storyline with constantin. tbh i don't know what to think of this and i don't know if i like the idea. i think i'd welcome constantin being an asshole just for the sake of it because i'm tired of this whole "mean kids are just mean because they have problems at home!!1!" plot. some kids are just assholes because they're assholes.

#druck #ask

[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]

#sarah.txt #druck #me yelling from the rooftops: banh xeo is something that can actually be so personal- #now it's almost 3 rip #druck meta #story meta

[flodaya]

What do you appreciate about Matteo?

unlike many others in this fandom it actually took me some time to really fall in love with matteo, i wasn’t his biggest fan from the moment he said “nicotine” in season 1 episode 1 clip 1. maybe because at that time I was still pretty hung up on isak as one of my favourite characters in the skam universe - which he still is btw - but at first I didn’t vibe with matteo’s stoner vibe as much. but the further I got to know him the more I came to love his soft spoken nature and his love for his friends, and by the time his season was about to start I was absolutely head over heels and I was so excited to follow him for 10 weeks

I appreciate so much about him. one of the things I appreciate the most is the representation of a shy introvert. you have no idea how hard it is to find a proper shy introverted main character in media. most shows often confuse introverted with awkward loner, but introverts can be social and charming and talkative if they are around the right people and in the right mood. and druck got that perfectly right with matteo, he is a very quiet talker, he often lets others - especially Jonas - talk for him in big social settings, he gains energy from being alone, yet - in his own words - he hates being alone meaning he is naturally a social person. I personally can relate a lot to that, I’m also a really social introvert, I get emotionally and physically drained from being in groups but I hate being alone for too long

another thing I love about matteo is how much love he has to give, he is so kind and welcoming. he must be one of the kindest characters in the skam universe, and not in the in-your-face goodie two-shoes way other characters are (who then call their love interest slurs but are still considered such kind characters…..), he is a little shit, we all know that, but an absolutely lovable one. he never wants to hurt anyone else’s feelings and when he does he regrets it afterwards and feels bad about it forever. most notably when he snaked on hanna in season 1, one whole year later he still felt bad about it, he missed having hanna as a friend but completely understood that she was still mad and he visibly felt awful, he apologized for it again and again, and I am glad that they were able to resolve their fight and become closer than ever

one thing I feel like a lot of people miss is how unbelievably funny matteo actually is. many things sadly get lost in translation because a lot of his humor is in how he says things rather than what he says, he has funny voices and impressions, he is rather sarcastic and quick-witted but in his very own quiet way. we all know and love the infamous “shhh your sister” but there are countless more examples of his humour. his jokes also often are very direct and dry, typical german humour, he is blunt and doesn’t sugar-coat the truth which often ends up being funny as hell

matteo can be very determined when he wants to be, if he puts his mind to something he will get it. in season 3 that “thing” was david obviously. I love how falling in love with david really woke up matteo from his passive life, he started really taking charge of his own life. and I loved watching the development from a quiet slacking stoner to a still quiet but now more present participant in his life

matteo is an incredibly layered character, there is so much more to him than what you think at first glance. of course michi’s portrayal adds another level of depth to him, the way he has managed to bring matteo to life is unbelievable and I am so thankful we got such a talented young actor to play matteo

this was the perfect way to kick off matteo appreciation week, I think I’ve put more effort into this than most of my essays for school. anyway, happy one year anniversary of matteo’s season!

#have fun reading my essay #druck #ask #matteo appreciation week #druck character appreciation weeks #my posts

[megfloresprotectionsquad]

Why do you think the skam format is a downfall?

skam got famous for tracking one person throughout a season where we only know what they know, see what they see, and feel what they feel in a clip by clip format. while i don't think the specific clip by clip thing is what brings it down—there are certainly problems created by this—the real problem lies in how narrowed in we are with the main character.

we see a consistent pattern of people wanting more mains. they want an even season, they want a chris season, they want a vilde season, they just want more understanding. but more mains equals more seasons, which in most cases is extremely unlikely and even then we are limited by what characters can have seasons, so it leaves a gaping large want in the audience.

skam doesn't allow for understanding in anyone except the main in most cases, and if the main doesn't understand a situstion or a person, the audience surely won't. there are opposite extremes to how well the rest of the world is established in a skam universe. i say austin is on the extreme of "it recognizes that stuff happens outside the main we arent privy to" and then lays france with it's "absolutely nothing happens outside of the main/previous seasons forgotten to the point it's bad social media and writing". in the middle i would say españa lays perfectly since it has a good social media presence enough to make you feel the other characters have lives, but doesn't make it as free flowy as austin".

how many times have you seen people want an even season or pov? a viri season? even now, a moyo season? it's not that we never see these characters and wish for them to have more screentime, but it lies in our wanting to have a more fleshed out story that we can understand. as much as skam is a tv show, it's a story, written on paper and formatted like any other book. to me, skam tries hard to be like a first person book where every clip is a chapter. but the difference is what the audience expects: no one reading a physical 1st person book will expect their narrator to know anything not told to them, but the writer is free to add in new povs to expand the audience's understanding. skam as a tv show will not do this. and when it does, it does it in a way that feels choppy and thrown in to satisfy things that weren't even being dwelled on. like how in OG we had those random series of clips in s4 to show small bits of characters lives but didn't feel satisfying cause it was a glimpse of what could have been explored beforehand, or in druck where they cast away amira's season so early for it. i would say only france has done it decently with s6 when they had daphne become the pov while searching for lola. because at least it was something that tied into the story that fit the situation. it read like a chapter book switching povs for a scene. that's okay.

i don't think skam remakes will ever change that because it's the point of their show. see, feel, and be the main for a season. but it does leave a lot to be desired by the audience who crave understanding of other characters stories and can sometimes cause loathing towards the story missing out or forgetting entirely to pad out the rest of the world outside of the main. like i said, it's skam's best and worst traits simultaneously: a story about one person. cause in all honesty, a story is never about one person unless said story takes place on a fucking deserted island or something where literally no one else is. we as humans can't help but want to understand other characters in relation to whoever the main is, especially since skam really likes to be like "everyone has a story you know nothing about", but in the case of a tv show it shouldn't be so literal all the time.

make your world move, make your social media presence buildable and active as best you can, and remind the audience about the other characters lives. españa did a good job of this considering the limitations to the format with the viri clips if i would have to name an example of story moving alongside the main without the main ever knowing, but giving the audience the understanding they crave.

#skam #skam españa #skam austin #skam france #druck #anon #ask

[lucidpantone]

Do you think wtfock will try and find a way to make amends for what little the have done to progress Moyo? It's not out of the question for them since they have repurposed characters on a few occasions.

similar anon: They took the piss out of Moyo. I hope Moyo and Robbe are assigned to a group project with Yasmina so Moyo can show peaks of another side of his personality in a way that can be enjoyed. Doing this won't take away from the original storyline, but it will give Moyo/Noa some respect on his name and if it's smartly done it will be a positive addition. Meanwhile Kato can be around, but, like luka, with even less screentime.

similar anon: Do you think wtfock will touch on the awful messaging presented in their resolve to the hit and run incident?

similar anon: What do we know about Moyo's life in cannon aside from his mom has bipolar, he has a younger brother, his father is absent? And he lives in the more humble side of town? Is there anything more substantial that was discussed or shown in a clip?

Disclaimer: This is super long its about Moyo but covers the grey remake characters. For wtfock to redeem Moyo they would have to write their ass off. Is it possible to write that subplot in the most muted tone to not overtake s5 big plots? Yes, but wtfock does not have the chops to execute that much depth they would need to leverage their social media similar to how we know Josh has pretty staunch abandonment issues in druck from the words he uses to express himself to Nora in text. We can see how his father absences has effected him profoundly and how he is pretty clingy and always jumps to Nora is breaking up with him as a 1st option. Wtfock would have to do something similar to that and they just dont have it in them.

From what I understand s4 was written by Bram and it was written not to long after s3. Remember when Bram had that weird good bye tweet or something like that for wtfock its was before corona that waste meant to be it for him and wtfock but ovi the world mind melted and he had a hand in s4 but he did not write the busy work I hear he only wrote large pivotal scene so probably the dance battle, the self harm scene and the crash scene but from what i get he didnt write the lead up to those scenes so when they happen they seem oddly place versus what brought us to that moment. Moyo is probably one of my fav grey characters in the skamverse up there with Arthur, Lola, Ismail and what I feel like Lucas in SkamNL would have been like. These characters can be unforgiving and vicious at times they have a pretty dark strike in them. They can railroad peoples feelings when they push the self destruct mode and they just typhoon. Anyone around them was just in their way in that moment it wasnt necessarily personal. Moyo does this a lot to Robbe and Aaron he is in a bad mood well watch out cuz he may use either one as a punching bag in that moment(all of them do this) and then later probably apologize because he gets it wasnt their fault. He is highly impulsive and emotional oh and his tongue forget about it (remind u of any1? Arthur maybe?). He’ll tell you to “fuck off”, “he doesn’t need you”, “your stupid” (who else does this? Lola and probably Ismail). Also all these characters give me survivor vibes meaning they well justify shitty actions to survive Moyo and the car scene he didnt care about the other person he cared about his Mother because I gather he is a deeply loyal person to people he loves anyone else they just exist and sometimes they are collateral damage (I think Lucas skamnl had these traits concerning his loyalty to Kes and Isa just being in the way) and Moyo has a temper but can also be a really loving person, funny, caring and empathetic towards causes he understands like Sander’s BP. Arthur and Lola are exactly the same. Fly off the handle one minute and then be insanely vulnerable the next (I suspect Ismail is going to have this trait too). I got a anon awhile back saying it would be powerful as fuck if the bench scene happened between yasmina and Moyo(or yasmina,moyo and robbe) and I was like I would be floored that would be so beautiful to me it would need to be something like that and like I said wtfock does not have the capacity to write something that deep and nuanced. All I can hope for is he dumps Kato and maybe dates Keisha hahah. I am keeping my expectations low. I know who am dealing with.

#lucidpantone anons #Lola~Arthur~Moyo~Ismail~Lucas NL #You arent meant to love these characters they are meant to challenge the concept of good and bad people

[inmyarmswrappedin]

as a lurker in most of the skams fandoms i’ve gathered that some remake stans accuse druck stans of having a superiority complex bc they feel that druck stans act like the good parts of druck can be separated from the flawed parts (as in the bad parts don’t define the entire show), but then accuse other remakes stans of not being critical enough of their fave if they do the same (as in the bad parts of the other remakes do define the entire show). so i think it’s mostly about hypocrisy?

Lmao anon. Is that so? Is all this actually about Druck stans being hypocrites?

(Btw, here's a post about how "Druck stans put Druck on a pedestal" is the same as "Remake stans put their fav remake's LGBTI rep on a pedestal", and here's the anon who complained about remake stans also accusing them of being hypocritical. You know, like you just did in your ask. Just to show that it's all the same 5 arguments.)

You can try to pin the absolutely atrocious writing that wtfock has featured since its first ever clip on Druck stans' pedestals, hypocrisy, superiority complex, David/Matteo's lack of shower/cyberboning scenes, Amira's 7 episodes, the pov switching to Mia, Victoria, or any number of things as much as you want, but lbr: what Wtfock stans are mad about is the fact that the writing team gave them absolutely NOTHING to cling to for s4 and s5. They aren't mad that Yasmina's season was a racist trainwreck, because everyone with two braincells to rub together knew after s4 that they couldn't expect this writing team to deliver a good Sana season. But they clung to the hopes that they'd get Robbe/Sander fanservice, they'd get Robbe/Sander moving together, they'd get Yasmina hacking into Robbe's mainframe for the chats, they'd get Robbe and Sander making out in a classroom or a street, they'd get Robbe's birthday video for Sander, or Yasmina attending Sander's birthday party. They'd get a plot in the back half of the season or they'd get a Sander POV clip. They'd get Robbe and Sander being Yasmina's supportive besties. They'd get Yasmina turning to Robbe when the girl squad and BA were being hopeless. They'd get Sander being Younes' roommate, or Badr's former boyfriend. They'd get Robbe and Sander agreeing with Yasmina that Britt is a monster.

If Wtfock stans had gotten even a handful of these things, I can guarantee that they'd give no fucks at all what "Druck stans" or anyone else thought about the season. Just like they didn't give two fucks when "Druck stans" thought the cyberboning plot was gross and simply said "Druck stans" were just jealous because David and Matteo didn't have such scenes. (Lmao... please.)

But instead, what they got was Robbe and Sander being trotted out specifically to make Yasmina's mom come across as a homophobe, VERY sparse social media content (with the content that was supposed to be Sander's birthday party, being something Yasmina just watched on her phone in ep 1), and finally, Robbe siding with Britt over Yasmina, being completely unsupportive, whitesplaining racism, and, out of all possible hoodies in the world, wearing one with a slur and a racist caricature emblazoned across the front.

No amount of Druck fans criticizing Druck's choices to ~prove~ that we aren't blind to their faults is going to change the fact that the wtfock writing team knew people have been defending Wtfock for this long only because of Robbe/Sander, Zoenne and the hope that they'd make Jens canonly bisexual... And yet they didn't just fail to deliver on all three fronts, but they actively made each of these fan favorite characters so unlikable, that there's simply nothing to defend and cling to. To the point where even Wtfock stans don't find anything salvageable about s4 and s5. The only difference is that I would extend that to s1-wtfockdown as well. But when it comes to affection and trying to see the good among the bad, there's virtually no difference between the way Wtfock stans write about s5 and esp s4, and the way I write about those two seasons.

So really, stop talking about Druck stans for two seconds, and start examining the way the Wtfock writers have portrayed Gen Z since the very first clip: sex-obsessed, slur-dropping, vicious, vapid, shallow, addicted to social media, disloyal. Start examining the number of times Wtfock used triggering moments for shock value and then did nothing about them. Start thinking about the way the Wtfock writers wrote Moyo as by far the most overtly homophobic s1-Elias in Jana's season, how they handled other characters of color. Start thinking about the way Milan was portrayed as jokingly making overtures towards teens not just once, but three times (moving to kiss Robbe at the end of s2, getting in Senne's bed ~as a joke~ and that Samsung #sponcon with Moyo). And you'll find this shitty writing was a thing before s4.

#ask #wtfock #Anonymous #sorry for not taking your bait #if you want to read my criticisms of druck eskam and every other skam #you can just go on my tumblr instead of generalizing an entire fandom #:)

[yououghtaknow]

5, 29 and 30? Also, I read all four seasons of Skam Brighton over quarantine and it was fantastic! The changed storylines were so refreshing and I’m so excited for season 5 💛

hi!!!!! thank you so much for asking and thank you so much for reading <3.

29. which version (og + adapts) does yours most closely resemble?

hmm. well i would say skam austin, definitely, as a western english speaking remake. also with the dance team/theatre club vibes and the music aspect. also skam españa, definitely, with the centring of the girls' stories and just the beautiful friendship tone of it all, which is what i really wanted to get across. also some druck in there, with the realism and fixing the trans wrongs they did. and alistair fletcher has the drama of skam france, just as a character. what do these remakes all have in common? canon wlw. which was the main thing i wanted to write in this remake. skambr has 11 canon named wlw characters who have all played major-to-minor roles in the plot of each season, with 5 of them being members of the girl squad and three of them being mains and having wildly different experiences with their attraction to women because you can’t sum up the lgbt experience with just one person.

30. free choice! just give us some fun facts about it!

fun fact: i have never physically been in brighton. i would like to be one day, but i will most likely not get there before the series finishes.

second fun fact: i was originally planning to write a skam remake set in derry, northern ireland before i wrote skam brighton. that idea has morphed into something else that i plan to write, but it is a fun fact!!

and now. the big one.

5. what are some iconic soundtrack moments?

here we go lads, seasons 3 and 4, like promised.

season three

tw for discussion of mental illness and suicide, drug abuse and violence throughout.

trailer

WE START OFF!!!! WITH A BANGER!!! "tainted love" by soft cell. it’s an iconic 80s banger that we all know and love, about a toxic relationship, and we see a type of favourite character that is niche to me (the guy with perfectionism/parental issues who did some fucked up stuff in a piece of media who not a lot of people like). it’s jake baby. it’s about him living his life and being like “i feel like i have to run away from all of this” (a sentiment which shall be echoed later on). and jake with all of his different masks…….. i was ahead of my time.

episode one

we open with “say amen (saturday night)” by panic! at the disco which is. kind of yikes now, but the song does have the vibes i desired for the opening scene. a party-esque banger. lyrics like “i pray for the wicked on the weekend / mama, can i get another amen?” for the catholic imagery and mommy issues. also panic! is known throughout history to be an lgbt band. 

then we get “get out of my head” by redlight”, just for the mental illness of it all. also it has been said that i do love a good party song with deeply depressing lyrics about the main playing in the background <3. 

and then we get me ripping off druck with “idontwannabeyouanymore” by the theorist playing because i just wanted to use a piano cover of the song because silence with just instrumental is just very dynamic and mentally ill. 

and then we meet eleanor with “insane” by sonny fodera and biscits, which is basically just the lyrics “girl you make me go insane” because. well. you hate to see it folks, but we gotta foreshadow the internalised ableism and the hating one woman as a treat.

and to close off a very music filled first clip, we got “drive” by halsey, a staple of tumblr culture back in the day because it is just like “all we do is think about the feelings that we hide”. literally when you are gay and alone and are just so desperate for someone to see you but also so deeply afraid of it because that means change coming <3 

AND THEN!!!! we meet the love of my life ms christine love as she hums “express yourself” by madonna as she cleans the house. i wanted to give christine a lot of 80s music in her scenes, to show that she’s living in the past in regards to jake’s dad. also it’s just a good song, “you gotta make him express how he feels” is me writing any of the characters having dialogue.

AND THEN BABY!!!!!!!!!!! we get a moment i love so deeply. “mama who bore me/reprise” by the sweet signatures. an all female acapella cover of the iconic spring awakening song. this song has everything - heavy metaphor about sex, wanting your mum to tell you shit, catholic imagery, teen angst, amazing belting. we get the slow part as jake is alone and just trying to work out how to help his mum, and then get the ANGRY BANGER as jake goes out to play with his dogs to get his frustrations out, because at the end of the say, all of these characters are still kids <3

then we get “young (club mix) by jaded because i just wanted kind of boring straight party music for the bryan and rory scene. 

BECAUSE THEN LGBT COMMUNITY!!!!! we get jake’s dramatic walk down the hallway as “somebody to love” by queen plays. it’s about the catholicism, it’s about the being gay, it’s about the being so fucking lonely and just wanting somebody!!!!! also the parallel between jake’s lonely scene with “somebody” playing and liz’s crowded scene with “nobody” playing…. it’s about mentally ill people being different but also the same <3

AND. NOW. THE MOMENT I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR. we meet Him. the most valid theatre kid rep in the world. mr alistair thomas fletcher, who enters our lives singing “shallow” from a star is born under his breath as he washing his hands. once again, i’m ahead of my time. but also the first lines al sings are, metaphorically, him talking to jake. like “aren’t you tried trying to fill that void / or do you need more”. and then we begin a piece of foreshadowing most pleasing to me. alistair in season 3 and the recurring motif of falling, which will climax at the end of episode 10. also foreshadowing of his experiences with bipolar disorder with “in all the good times i find myself longing for change / and in the bad times i fear myself”. and we also begin the motif of jake interrupting al’s singing. 

(you may be thinking, isaac tumblr user nickhealy, you’re putting a lot of thought into this. that’s because out of all of the characters, al’s the one who never really expresses himself with his words or actions - he usually expresses himself primarily through music, which is a very fun and autistic thing of me to write.)

(also, the og episode 1 bench scene did make me feel very. not good as a gay trans guy, with all the talk of penises and such. it’s just very sexy of me to change it to al talking loudly about ballet and elton john. and then we get jake up on the balcony and al down yelling up at him. because i have literally never referenced anything subtly in my life)

and we end with “how does it feel” by m-22. like: “how does it feel when your walls fall down /  how does it feel when you're lost and found / how does it feel / it's the sweetest sound”. like it’s about jake meeting al, king of not being Good At Social, fletcher, and instantly being like “yes, husband material, thank you”.

episode two

(yes, this episode is titled after the gay hsm song. yes i’m a genius)

we open, as all good things do, with a fun homoerotic punk song with catholic imagery “east jesus nowhere” by green day. it’s just jake being like “i am Trying to find the instagram of a cute guy outside of church, love being a sinner”.

and now we see the beginnings of Sad Boy Jake, with “it’s ok, i wouldn’t remember me either” by crywank. we got “i am looking for an easy place / to mask my thoughts behind my face” and “i can hide from friends but i cannot hide from you” because he’s gay and he has depression. 

AND THEN!!!! we get “i like you” by dandelion hands playing as he comments supportive things on the youtube video of al….. literally jacob love will see a pretty boy one time and be like “last time i had you i should have kissed you”. also his alternate name being jack valentine…. valentine and love ugh my brain is so big

AND THEN!!!!!!! slow mo time, with “bite” by troye sivan…… a gay classic, if i do say so. like it’s about jake seeing al casually walk past, being all prententious and out, and jake’s just like “please set me free and let me walk beside you” because of the gay experience of simutaneously wanting to be a person and kiss them.

and then we get “the daisy chain” by the growlers. “feeling pressure on every side” and “tired of waiting to be explained / weakest link in the daisy chain”. it’s just the vibes babe.

AND THEN!!!!!!!!!!!!! a brilliant moment in my bare a pop opera stanning career - we get jake watching a bootleg of bare 2004 as “role of a lifetime” from the show plays. literally one of the most gorgeous songs ever written, sung by matt doyle. like everything is an act when you’re pleasing everyone - which could be the tagline of skam brighton as a whole. also jake watching “see me” and beginning to tear up because he’s afraid to come out to his mother and get the same negative reaction….. and him watching “cross” and sobbing because he relates to jason so much and feels like he would also be better off dead than gay….. 

BUT AFTER THAT!!! we smash cut to al as jeremy in be more chill, singing the beginning of “more than survive”. absolute king shit!!!!! also, i don’t remember if it’s mentioned in canon, but eleanor is the person who plays the squip in this production of bmc, because i am not!! subtle!! with!! my!! metaphors!! 

and we return to sad boy jacob with “swear to god the devil made me do it” by the front bottoms, chosen because references to the devil and mommy issues <3

AND THEN!!!! A MOMENT OF GREAT FORESHADOWING!!! we get mister alistair fletcher practising alone in a theatre because he is dramatic, and jake walking in as he sings “broadway here i come” from smash. we got references to saints, we got hints at al’s anxiety, we got the falling motif coming back in a song explicitly about jumping off of a building, that also doubles as a song about wanting to do theatre….. also, al plays the last note wrong as a metaphor for al’s plan of suicide going well until the very end, where he ends up alive and goes home.

(side note, we also got the football team’s jackets and signature colours being black and white (straight pride flag colours babey) and then we see al in bright yellow. it also represents jake’s depression and al’s mania, the everything and the nothing of it all.)

AND THEN!!!! we get manic (in the most literal sense of the word) pixie dream boy al asking jake to dance with him to “movement” by hozier because. it’s literally just such a beautiful song. and jake is just watching al dance like “hm. no thoughts head empty just pretty boy”. also the scene itself is a reference to wicked, with jake doing an awkward and stilted dance and al taking it and turning it into something graceful (the glinda and elphie scene in dancing through life)

and then we get the return of blue neighbourhood with “youth” by troye sivan playing over a smoking montage with the boys, because they’re young, they’re gay, they’re vibing

AND THEN!!!! we get “talk” by hozier playing as the episode ends - a song that of course references orpheus and eurydice, as al also did in this clip with hadestown. it also plays over ellie talking because jake is just Ignoring her to pay attention to al. also the inherent homoeroticism of making eye contact while hozier plays

episode three

we open with “highway to hell” by ac/dc over a fun football montage of jake both playing the game and getting bored and checking out guys. it’s about the thinking he’s gonna go to hell for doing it but he literally Cannot Stop

AND THEN!!!!!! a moment. we get a performance of some of “all you wanna do” from six by al and ellie and their theatre kid friends as they rehearse for something at lunch and jake, bryan and rory watch them. ellie’s doing the whole flirty k howard thing, and not actually getting into the real feeling of the song, and the guy she’s dancing with it awkward as all fuck because he’s her cousin. so we get al stepping in and fucking going the fuck off. and we see how good of an actor al really is in this scene, as he’s legit scary. we also see ellie clearly having feelings towards al and him just being like “yep good acting! moving on!!!” because no thoughts just dance. also bryan and rory not understanding that the song is about assault and jake being genuinely concerned….. and then al and ellie’s kiss at the end as ellie “dies”..... god the real reason this show isn’t made is because i would be too powerful if i could make everyone see my theatre kid mischief.

AND ANOTHER MOMENT!!!! we get “like a prayer” by madonna playing as jake is living his life and taking some “am i gay” quizzes - the questions of which are comprised of actual am i gay quizzes i took to make the scene as legit as possible, and as a gay trans person. Did Not Like. Would Not Recommend. also jake admitting he’s gay to the quiz because he’s pissed about the concept of misgendering al….. also jake forcing himself to pick the straight options even though it’s emotionally hurting him…. and then we hear christine singing in the hallway “everyone must stand alone” because it’s jake pov at the time…..

AND SMASH CUT TO!!! fall out boy’s cover of “i wanna dance with somebody”, because at the last very gay house party “i wanna dance with somebody” played and i love a good parallel

AND THEN!!!!!! literally the hottest of all hot boy summer things, we get al and esther doing some karaoke at the house party with “don’t you want me” by the human league. (which, yes, is a glee reference.) THE LITERAL COURAGE OF THIS MAN!!!! alistair fletcher looked a closeted guy, who he has had three (3) interactions with in person, dead in the eye and was like “i know you want me”. as opposed to esther “just be her friend first and then see about anything else” montner and james “I Will Never Speak To You Again If You So Wish” cohen.

and then, because of course i did, we get “bad romance” by lady gaga playing over the next scene with the beginnings of the boy squad because it’s a gay house party and it’s a fucking banger for the ages

(also just the shift from al hot boy summer fletcher to al gay disaster fletcher with him running literally out of the house because he kissed a guy.)

“left handed kisses” by andrew bird and fiona apple plays after jake and al’s deep conversation outside. like jake’s really out here like “i don't believe everything happens for a reason” and “i don't go in for your star-crossed lovers / in the heart of a skeptic / there's a question that still hovers near” because al info dumped about his love for adaptation of romeo and juliet…. (side note, al is definitely an & juliet stan, as everyone should be, stream & juliet <3)

episode four

we open with a song i discovered when i was in a community theatre rip off version of cats, “the show” by lenka. it’s about a song about indecision in the middle of a church before confession, because jake can’t actually confess to the sins he believes to be true. it’s about the “'cause it's too much, yeah it's a lot to be something i'm not”.

And then we fade to “pink + white” by frank ocean (because mlm rights), and just like “you showed me love / glory from above / good glory, dear / it's all downhill from here” is a very al/jake line. also it’s a bop for a little football montage.

AND THEN!!!! on halloween, we get a little montage of jake dancing to “paradise by the dashboard light” by meatloaf as he makes himself a sandwich - it’s literally about just being happy and having a nice time. and also jake dancing to more old timey music because he’s going up to his parents’ old room and he’s also living in the past a little, with his childish snack and playful dancing.

(also, the phone call where al just infodumps about bare and jake’s listening and asking questions <3 it’s about the autistic love and friendship yet again)

and then we get “i’m so tired…” by lauv and troye sivan as we arrive at the very awkward ellie/jake/al pre drink, because Is Jake Not So Tired Of This Heterosexual Bullshit He Must Do.

(also, it is my personal headcanon, and therefore canon, that al convinced ellie to go with the angel and devil costumes so that he could pull up in his leo-as-romeo get up and live out his baz luhrmann esque fantasy).

AND THEN LGBT NATION!!!! we get “run away with me” by ms crj as jake and al literally run away from the party after al got misgendered and Pissed. it’s about the using romance and whimsy as an escapism from your shitty life, it’s about the being the in darkness and occasionally getting hit by the street light, it’s about the “i’ll be your sinner in secret”, it’s about the bare connotation with the “run away with me” parallels. it’s also about the song being one of the best songs ever written.

(and then we get the wedding, which, before i get into the song, is a reference to So Many Things. we got west side story with the fake wedding and first kiss, we got hadestown with al making the wedding rings from nature (a la wedding song), we got bare with wedding bells and the dream wedding, and in the scene, we get some vineyard scene from spring awakening vibes, with the discussion of the future and religion and philosophy…… quite literally i love art so much)

and then. ladies. a piece of writing written in Peak tender tumblr. al and jake have the kiss of their wedding to “pink in the night” by mitski. it’s literally about the “i know i kissed you before but / i didn’t do it right / can i try again?” of it all. like jake love voice “i glow pink in the night in my room / i’ve been blossoming alone over you”. the repression, the pining…………. i am such a talented man.

and then we end with a doctor who reference, with al saying “run”, taking jake’s hand and the two of them running out of the church as “run away with me” comes back in. it’s literally about al taking jake out of his dull life and helping him find his own happiness. it’s also about the inherent autistic culture of relating to aliens.

episode five

WE! OPEN! WITH! a song about being gay and falling in love with someone immediately after meeting them - “share your address” by ben platt. a bop for the ages. it makes me so happy, it’s a great “early stages of a relationship honeymoon stage” montage song.

(also, i just really love the detail i put in about al’s binder, because the cuddle scene with david and matteo in druck did make me worried because david was wearing his binder. like i understand why he wore it for the actor’s comfort but just the thought of sleeping in a binder…… terrible. awful. pain beyond my wildest dreams.)

(also also, al saying he couldn’t get on hormones because of “problems with his heart” is a lie, because he means because of his mental health, which is based on personal experience babey)

and then we get an iconic skam song: “talk show host” by radiohead plays as jake sits in the back of a drama club meeting, isolating himself. it’s literally about the “i want to be someone else or i’ll explode” of it all. 

and then we get “rock and roll” by led zeppelin as jake walks his dogs - just because it seems like the kind of song jake would like and it just vibed with the whole scene.

(also, the clip where jake texts al at the beginning of it and then asks bree about her family….. literally i’m so good at foreshadowing)

AND THEN!!!!! WE GET THE ICONIC!!! “involuntary teenage rebel” by clout from grandma’s closet plays as we get a jake solo slow mo. literally they were right when they said “they say i'm a teenage rebel / but i'm really just afraid of how i come across to others / and it bothers me when i look weak”. like that’s just another skam statement line babey. also it’s genuinely such a good song and literally helped inspire me to do more songwriting…. stream it 

and then we get “heaven” by avicii, chosen purely for the title being “heaven” because christianity centric season.

AND THEN!!!!! we get jake asking al to come save him from the shitty party, and al says “wait for me, i’m coming”, an obvious hadestown reference, and when he arrives, he’s singing the “la la la la la la la”s from the show. it’s because the party - where bryan, rory and ellie are - is, in al’s mind, hell, and he’s going to save jake from it. 

and then, because, as mentioned, the way al express his true feelings is through Music, we get al trying to comfort jake by playing him a song - “you matter to me” from waitress (put a pin in waitress, i’ll get back to it later). the inherent homosexuality in “come out of hiding i’m right here beside you / and i’ll stay there as long as you’ll let me”. also it’s just about mattering to someone. like, for the first time in his life, jake has someone who’s saying “i love you, you matter, i will be here for you” and he just needed that So Much. 

episode six

AND WE SMASH CUT IMMEDIATELY TO!!! “london boy” by taylor swift, a campy and beautiful bop!!!! because al Is from london and he Is a boy!!! (also, fun fact, i was going to make al be from ireland originally, but then someone in the skambr discord said this song should be used in a scene, and i was like “okay, fuck it, london time”)

(also, you can subtly see al’s mania in the london boy scene, with him coming up with quick ideas, clearly having very low anxiety through the past few episodes, and just taking off his shoes and going for a walk in a park in november…..)

and then we get “landslide” by fleetwood mac as jake lies in his dead dad’s bed. it’s really about the “can the child within my heart rise above? / can i sail through the changing ocean tides?” and about the grieving as a child and your mental health getting worse while you’re still so young and you feel like the world’s on your shoulders and you’re both an adult and a child at once……

and then……. we get “class of 2013” by mitski after christine has her breakdown and jake packs his things to run away. it’s about both of them dealing with their grief by pretending it never happened and having all of that build up inside of them until they can’t take it anymore. And i see the lyrics of “mom i’m tired / can i sleep in your house tonight?” in this specific situation as jake being tired of his father’s constant presence and he just wants to be in a house with his mother the way he remembered her before his father died. 

(and, sidenote, this is one of the saddest scenes i’ve ever written, in my opinion…...with jake being like “she’s so crazy, but i’m nothing like her” because he’s in denial of his own mental health issues and al seeing him saying that as “oh, he’ll see that i’m crazy too and want to leave”...... and al says his final goodbye to jake, using his full name, because he assumes jake will never want to speak to him again, but jake has no idea……..)

(also, jake parroting bryan’s words of “gay marriage is legal, so everything is fine” in the pride clip……. God. and the way jake’s internalised homophobia and ableism manifests in the same harmful way….)

and then we get “don’t threaten me with a good time” by panic! At the disco as they boy squad rolls up to the party in the park. it’s just a party song. no deeper meaning lads.

and then we get jake in the bathroom having a little breakdown (as a treat) to “Give me novacaine” by green day. it’s just about the using alcohol and drugs to cope with your poor mental health because you have no other quick way to make it all better. It’s about about jake trying both to numb himself and to force himself to feel something, but neither one of those things give him the results he wants.

episode seven

we open with another iconic and beautiful song: “life in italics” by clout from grandma’s closet babey. like jake love voice “all these troubles on my mind i’ve been lonely / building walls running from the old me”. thank you clout for literally writing some of the best lgbt music. 

AND THEN!!!!!!! a scene that brings me much joy. “gotta go my own way” from high school musical 2 plays in the other room as jake has a religious breakdown in a literal (storage) closet. and then al leaves the group chat and blocks jake…. like jake voice “another colour turns to grey / and it's just too hard to watch it all / slowly fade away”

and then we get “hello!” by role model as jake goes for a depressed jog and he sees bree out drinking with some random people. like “i never really talk much, keep it inside / to find someone who cares is getting harder to find / we should be dancing in the sun / it's hard when everything is numb”.

(also, at the end of that clip, we briefly shift from jake’s pov to al’s, as we see al filming in the park and he films jake running away…… do i know what this means metaphorically? not really. do i vibe hard with it? oh hell yeah)

AND THEN!!!! after jake and sandy have their beautiful conversation, we get “under pressure” by queen and david bowie, another older song, this time expressing jake’s joy as he finds some small solace with his younger self. it’s also just about the inherent homosexuality of the song and of sitting on the beach, eating chips with your best friend.

episode eight

WE BEGIN!!!! with a youtube video of ellie and al singing “wallflower” from we are the tigers. i chose this basically because i wanted to get more of a vibe of what their relationship is/was across, and also because i love the song (stream we are the tigers original off broadway cast recording). it’s also about the dynamic of the song being “shy introvert vs outgoing extrovert being very toxic friends”, and also about the ellie supporting al stuff, because she has canonically been there for him for years, just not in a very good way. also i wanted to write representation for the “had a very intense friendship with a girl pre-transition and then had a dramatic friend break up and now i’m a guy and feel disconnected from the whole thing, although it was quite homoerotic at the time” people. this scene also marked the beginning of my purely self indulgent musical number scenes, and be warned, this may the the first, but it is by no means the last.

and then it’s very music lite for the rest of the episode, until al returns, and jake’s like “hey, maybe you should stop talking to your toxic friend” and al responds by beginning to make out with him as “fuck time” by green day starts to play. the COMEDY of jake being like “seriously, i think--” and then all you hear is “OOH BABY BABY IT’S FUCK TIME”. skam brighton is a comedy show.

and then we get al “communicates through music and theatre references” fletcher beginning to sign the ASL translation of the bridge of “word of your body (reprise)” from spring awakening with jake - which is another Very tragic show - and al also literally says the line “and so you should”. and al responding to jake jokingly calling him insane by shutting him up with another kiss….. oh ladies.

episode nine

WE! OPEN! WITH! “love shack” by the b-52s as jake wakes up and sees james and al just having some Fun making breakfast in the kitchen. it’s just some boys being boys and having bants.

and then we get jake using al’s love language of music and singing “those magic changes” from grease, singing along to the jordan fisher and aaron tveit version because that song did assist in my gay awakening.

(also, al stanning female doctor pomatter in waitress and james stanning waitress as someone from an abusive household….. my mind.)

and now. we begin The Big Bad Clip. “why didn’t you stop me” by mitski plays over the beginning of jake and al’s london adventure. it’s literally about looking back on the scene as it happens in a montage and al being like “why didn’t you stop me from doing that”..... god.

(also, jake and al go to see waitress, which Has been played before, and it’s foreshadowing for how their relationship ends. jenna and jim’s relationship - the main couple of waitress - begins with them cheating on their parents and falling in love quickly in secret, but they know it’s not healthy for them to keep the relationship going, so agree to end things and part ways as friends who wish nothing but the best for each other.)

and then we get “oops! I did it again” by britney spears glee cast version, because it’s just really Sexy and Fun. also just the mentally ill experience of “oops! i did a manic episode again!”.

and then we cut between a piano version of “last night on earth” by green day, as jake sits alone in the hotel room, and “true trans soul rebel” by against me! as al walks down the streets of london, in a split pov, and then we see al having a full meltdown/breakdown in the middle of victoria station. like al voice in this scene “another night you wish you could forge, / making yourself up as you go along / who’s gonna take you home tonight? / does god bless your transsexual heart?”.

and then we get legit “last night on earth” by green day as jake walks away after ellie yells at him. just because it vibes so much.

episode ten

we open with “mystery of love” by sufjan stevens as jake walks down to al’s house, because it’s just a vibey song, and while i hate cmb//yn with the fury of a thousand suns, it Is a song written for mlm.

and then we get “better alone” by lykke li as jake researches al’s various diagnoses. and it’s just like “nobody wants to be the one to walk away / nobody wants to see the truth, then let it in, run away / nobody wants to know the ways they don't love you right” and then “i’m better alone than lonely”..... mr love

and then we get “let it be” by the beatles, a Very nostalgic old fashioned song with catholic themes and just big comforting and recovery vibes…. jake confessing his real feelings to the priest and then reuniting with christine in the church and hugging her tightly and they both agree on working on getting better….. 

and then we get to the talent show, where we see the end of ellie singing “on my own” from les mis - as jake did at the beginning of season one. is this foreshadowing? is it a coincidence? i honestly don’t know. i just chose it because basic theatre girl song.

AND!!!!! THEN!!!!!! we get the song that acts as al’s suicide note: “the goodbye song” by joe iconis (writer of be more chill and “broadway here i come” from smash). we get the return of the falling motif with “i’m flying away” and the lines that really act as what al imagines to be his final goodbye to everyone he knows, as everyone he knows and loves is in that building: “i'd stay if i could / but the universe won't let me / so please be good / and don't you forget me”, and then al turns the “aahs” at the end of the song from a catchy crowd pleaser ending to a long, painful scream as the audience slowly stops clapping, until the room is silent, and then he bows a la the emcee at the end of cabaret (a bow which is often viewed as a metaphor for the character’s death). it’s literally just al having a breakdown on stage, but he rolls a nat 20 on his performance check, and the audience are like “this is very good performance art”

we then get a flashback to “broadway here i come” because. i am a king of foreshadowing.

and then we get “wait for me” from hadestown (obc version) as jake runs to find al, and it’s about the role reversal of jake running to save al from something worse than al saving him for bryan. it’s about the repetition of “wait for me, i’m coming” because of the fear of “what if i get there too late?”

episode eleven

“a better son/daughter” by rilo kiley plays as jake looks through al’s two tumblr blogs - and the song simultaneously a very al and jake song. with the descriptions of depression and dealing with a mother with mental illness at the start, which are very jake, but then the lines “and sometimes when you're on, you're really fucking on / and your friends they sing along and they love you. / but the lows are so extreme that the good seems fucking cheap” are just the base character description for al.

and then we get “the archer” by taylor swift as jake goes into the school again…. like he has been the archer and he has been the prey, in regards to being gay (with him helping in outing sandy and being outed himself).....

(also, fun fact about the episode, it was originally written to be from al’s point of view, but then i decided against it and had to rewrite it, which is why there’s only 4 clips instead of the usual 5 or 6)

and then, lgbts, we get “the predatory wasp of the palisades is out to get us!” by sufjan stevens as jake walks his dogs  out on the beach and al goes to the beach to write his emo poetry…… also, fun fact, al’s poetry is the first time i’ve ever written poetry/lyrics that weren’t about me, which is very fun. 

and then!!!! at the beginning of the final clip, we got “footloose” by kenny loggins, the iconic bop from the film of the same name. just because it slaps and it’s a fun time.

(we also get some Foreshadowing with al referencing rent in this scene)

and then. transgender nation. we get “midnight radio” from hedwig and the angry inch playing over al and jake’s having fun and being dumb kids montage. 

i know riverdale made this song a meme, but it HITS. it’s about the al referencing origin of love in the cuddle clip, al saying “i laugh because i will cry if i don’t”, it’s about the “for the misfits and losers” and the “hold onto each other”. it’s literally about jake finding community and also wholeness and happiness in himself.

(also, jake talking about all the little soulmates and the fact that he believes that the boy and girl squads are all his soulmates in different ways…… and bree actually paying attention and showing some vulnerability at that point because she loves her friends so much!!!!!!!!!!)

season four

tw for discussion of sexual assault/rape, alcohol abuse and abortion throughout

trailer

lgbt community. we begins with the regrettes' cover of "don't stop me now" by queen because a) i think it's fun when women and b) it's about bree's mania that we've already seen throughout the seasons, this time from her perspective, and it's simultaneously a Fun Time and a Foreboding time.

episode one

we open with "hail mary, gentle woman" by the cathedral singers, which is literally just the prayer "hail mary", but a song. i chose this because catholic, women, and church time babey. also because it was always one of my favourite hymns growing up (because, in case you couldn't tell from half of the mains being raised catholic and lowkey fucked up because of it, i was raised catholic)

and then we SMASH CUT to "r u mine?" by arctic monkeys, a sad british teen staple, as we see bree wake up in josh's bed for the first time and take the "walk of shame" to get to church. it's about the "i go crazy 'cause here isn't where i wanna be", introducing the Mental Illness, bree's want to get out of where she's from and go to a good uni, and her literally not wanting to be in some strange guy's bed in one line. am I reading too much into this? hell yeah. but it's my show, so i can read as much as i want!!!! (also "satisfaction feels like a distant memory" is both about her depressive states and josh not being able to make her orgasm <3)

AND THEN!!!!!!!!!! we get "all i really want" by alanis morissette, the beginning of my season 4/jlp parallel hyperfixation. it's about bree kinning frankie healy and "do i stress you out?" being her @ audrey. and just bree voice "it would knock me to the floor if i wasn't there already / if only i could hunt the hunter". it's just a perfect teen angst song and it's perfectly grungy and brianna-y.

AND THEN!!!!! we get "kiwi" by harry styles playing as bree slow mos by herself down the street. it's about the just hot girl energy of the song and also the romanticization of unhealthy behaviour because that's bree, baby!!!! also we get more of the word "crazy" because of bree's internalised ableism, and we also get the chorus of "i'm having your baby, it's none of your business", foreshadowing her unplanned pregnancy done by josh, who we saw in the last scene.

AND THEN!!!!! we get "chandelier" by sia as bree and the girls have a fun party moment, but bree is still Fucked Up mentally by seeing annabell and also men being creepy. it's about the using alcohol and drugs to push away your feelings because you have a lot of trauma and have internalised ableism and have no idea how to get the help you need without being vulnerable, which terrifies you so So much. also we see that bree forgot to take her meds in this scene, which i couldn't explicitly say in the scene because spoilers, but it's a fun thing.

then we get dodie's cover of "when the party's over" by billie eilish because i like the soft piano vibes of it as bree walks home after the party, because we always see bree as "the party girl", but the party's over now and we see her petting her cat, making sure her brother's home safe, taking off all her makeup and pretty clothes, completely non sexualised, and just getting into bed to sleep because she's just So Tired. also it's about bree pretending she's happy on her own, but she's Not, she has a lot of self loathing and deeply loves her friends more than anything. also a bree/rori moment with "call me friend but keep me closer".

episode two

we open with an audition sequence!!!!! because i'm a theatre kid and love a good audition sequence!!!!

we get rori singing "sexy" from mean girls, because it's a very rori show (pink aesthetic, fun female characters, a funny time), and because it's a very maureen from rent song. also rori is just a very funny person and also has a sick high belt in my mind. also it's about her learning to like the way she looks, slowly but surely. it's also a song about changing who you are, which is a very skam brighton theme.

and then we get al singing "vienna" by billy joel, but the shortened version they did in smash, but he also plays the piano like ben platt in the politician because he's a basic white theatre boy. it's also just a beautiful song about growing up and maturing, and also "if you're so smart, then tell me why are you still so afraid?" is a very bree line. 

(also, the part where josh calls milo his "kid cousin" and then bree's like "yeah, milo's the same age as me" but josh ignores it…… creepy!!!!! bad!!!!!! also, side note, milo is canonically genderfluid and uses different pronouns depending on the day, which is why they change throughout the season.)

and then!!!! we get annabell singing "hallelujah" by leonard cohen, which is just a stunning song, we all know this. it's a song about faith and doubt and it's also a parallel to rori's happy go lucky song, which annabell's being slow and sad instead. also they're jewish and gay and lovely. and then the jeff buckley cover plays over the next scene because it's Good.

and then we get "feel it still" by portugal. the man as the girl squad text. it's just a fun song and the line "i'm a rebel just for kicks" is great from brianna "rebel girl by bikini kill" holland.

and then, swiftie nation, we get “new romantics” by taylor swift as bree agrees to go out with josh because she’s being self destructive. like the fact that she says yes to him as the line “we’re all bored / we’re all so tired of everything” plays say it all. and just the whole song is very bree core, as a whole, also it’s a really fucking good song. i am a 1989 (deluxe) stan.

and then we fade away with “vienna” by billy joel because it is such a good song god bless <3

episode three

WE!! OPEN!! WITH!!! “tik tok” by ke$ha because it is genuinely one of the best songs of our generation, and also it’s just a very shopping centre song. i don’t know why but it Is.

AND THEN!!!!!!!!! we get genuinely one of my favourite songs that i’ve been waiting to find the right scene for ever since i first heard it. “dog bite” by stella bridie is just genuinely a stunning song that really Gets bree’s character as a whole, especially the first lines “putting on lipstick in the bathroom at the doctor’s  / i got a party after this blood test”..... the whole Need to be perform feminity whilst doing something as simple as going to the doctor’s as bree draws herself and tries to make herself look perfect because she believes her only self worth comes from her body and just….. the vibes. immaculate.

and then we get “ophelia” by marika hackman, another beautiful song, as we see bree self destructively look through all of the cyber bullying that’s happened to her in the past as a way of emotional self harm. it’s just a genuinely depressing scene with a good song underscoring it.

but then we cut to rori and brianna out for a jog together - because both have issues with their self image, but also because they’re friends and like to do things together - as “it’s nice to have a friend” by taylor swift plays. it is a very homoerotic song, with a lot of childhood friends to lovers vibes, which is kind of what we’re going for here. they are both very deeply sad but also it is nice to have a friend and have someone there for you when you find out the cast list of the musical you auditioned for and you can hug them…….

and then!!!!! we get “...ready for it?” by taylor swift as we get another party sequence because it’s a fucking banger and also brianna is Very reputation as a person, which will be shown with some other taylor songs throughout the season. also it’s kind of a “are you ready for it?” for the Deeply Sad scene that follows the fun party sequence, because this is skam brighton, and i will always write scenes of people being sad outside/after parties.

episode four

we begin with “harlem” by new politics as bree, annabell and dean hang out at the shopping centre and fuck around in clarie’s. it’s about a funky song and about the recurring line of “like you, like me, like everybody else” of the three of them all having their mental illnesses in common and bree simultaneously feeling happy that she can be open about it, and deeply uncomfortable that she has to be open about it.

and then we get “crush on you” by elijah who as bree scrolls through instagram and looks at two pictures - one of annabell and one of rori and nick, and when she likes the picture of rori and nick, she literally taps over nick’s face so that she can just look at rori <3 it’s about the bree being a bicon.

and then we get the theatre club watching rent as a fun time!!!! we get tune up #1 and voicemail #1, just iconic numbers. we get theatre kid supreme al knowing all of the words, cool guy james doing his air guitar, and when the line “let her be a lesbian” is sung, we get annabell cheering and rori awkwardly looking away because she has internalised homophobia.

(side note, one of my favourite aspects of this season is that it’s a subversion of the past three, where we’ve seen sandy, liz and jake deal with their internalised struggles with their sexualities, but with bree and rori, rori’s the one dealing with her sexuality, while bree is in love with her quietly)

AND THEN!!!!! we open clip 5 with the iconic skam verse song “call your girlfriend” by robyn as the girl squad show up at a house party and bree and rori have a homoerotic moment

and then!!!!!!!!!!!! a moment of skamverse wlw solidarity, “blush” by rhiza plays as rori and bree kiss in the bathroom. a) because it’s a good song and b) because the whole “she's just a friend, you know, but sometimes yeah i wanna kiss her, uhm but that's just 'cause she's cute right? that don't make me gay, it's not like i like other girls like i only like her, i mean no, i'm not gay, right?” part is really summing up what rori’s going through in this scene. also the song is just a bree song. 

episode five

WE OPEN WITH!!!!!! an iconic moment, if i may say so myself. an iconic wlw song, “boyfriend” by marika hackman, plays over bree and nick out partying. like it opens with the lyrics: “i've got your boyfriend on my mind / i think he knows you stayed with me last night” and then we get “it's fine 'cause i am just a girl / ‘it doesn't count’”. i mean. come on.

we then get a snippet of “rent” from rent in a rehearsal, with the lines: “how do you leave the past behind / when it keep finding ways to get to your heart” and “how can you connect in an age / where strangers, landlords, lovers / your own blood cells betray / what binds the fabric together / when the raging, shifting winds of change / keep ripping away”, which all really relate to brianna with her trying to bury her past traumas and and how she struggles to connect and also struggles with change - and the reference to fabric in the line when she’s the person who does the costumes for the show.

and then we get “pynk” by janelle monae as bree and annabell go charity shopping together and have a nice time. It’s just a fun wlw song and i like it. also it’s boppy and happy and kind of dreamy to show how their relationship is very on the surface and not as deep as it once was and they’re not really going to get that back so it’s just really awkward. 

AND THEN!!!! we get bree panicking because she’s getting creepy messages from josh so she runs to hang out with the girl squad and works on her drawing of them, focusing on rori as “head over feet” by alanis morissette plays. this is kind of a contrast to “pynk”, with it being a song that uses real instruments as opposed to the more electro feel of “pynk” to represent the two different relationships. also the lyrics “you treat me like i'm a princess / i'm not used to liking that” and “you've already won me over in spite of me / and don't be alarmed if i fall head over feet / and don't be surprised if i love you for all that you are / i couldn't help it / it's all your fault” are just Incredibly rori/brianna.

and then we get “hand solo (acoustic)” by marika hackman as we get a brief scene of bree masturbating to some not very healthy p*rn. i was hesitant to include this scene, out of fear of over-sexualising bree as a bisexual girl of colour, but then i thought i had to include the scene from a non-sexual stand point - to show how bree uses sex, even in her own mind when she’s alone, as a self destructive thing, and to show that masturbation is a normal thing to do, but also it’s a hint that bree’s state is getting a bit more manic than usual, so she’s getting more hypersexual. also for the catholic guilt of her stopping and looking up to see the cross above her bed.

when then get ortopilot’s cover of “basketcase” by green day, which is more of an acoustic version of the song. the song itself is just a Very mental illness song and just has a lot of vibes of guilt with it, and the beat of the song is very quick and manic in itself.

we then get “every breath you take” by the police playing over bree and josh’s Scary text conversation in the fish n chip shop, because it’s a creepy stalker song with Pleasant Music over it, which is kind of the Vibe i was going for with josh. also, the season came out around the same time as skames season 3, and seeing the parallels between josh and miquel, with josh being very emotionally distant and miquel being very emotionally close, but both of them having the same goal in mind and end result was very interesting to me. also both of them being very creepy old guys who should stay away from teenagers <3

but then. oh but then. we get a moment that is genuinely one of my favourites. we get the broadway cast version of “forgiven” by alanis morissette, another one of my favourite songs. i chose the broadway version because i prefer the quieter orchestration and the build up to the chorus instead of going all in on it so quickly. i chose this song because bree does parallel frankie from jlp, yes, but she also parallels mj in the fact that she’s repressing her trauma from being sexually harassed and assaulted by adult men ever since she was a child. and the song itself is very beautiful and bree core, with lyrics such as “my brothers, they never went blind for what they did / but i may as well have / in the name of the father, the skeptic and the son / i have one more stupid question” and “we all had our reasons to be there / we all had a thing or two to learn / we all needed something to cling to / so we did”. we also see bree seeking refuge in a church after being harassed by josh, because religion is the place where she genuinely feels safest, but she also doesn’t feel safe, as a bisexual woman in the catholic church, but she also knows in her heart that she is loved by god. 

episode six

WE! OPEN! WITH! “motion sickness” by ms phoebe bridgers plays as bree wakes up at liz’s house the next morning - a song literally about a shitty older man - and then bree is literally sick in the bathroom, claiming she has food poisoning from the strange fish they got last night because she couldn’t go to their usual place out of fear. but, in reality, this is morning sickness from her pregnancy, because she had sex with josh for the first time 6 weeks prior.

and then we get a scene of bree in a manic state rapidly working on costumes as “my body’s made of crushed little stars” by mitski plays. this scene is directly inspired by me in what i believe to be a manic episode staying up until 5am writing because i thought that if i stopped i would forget everything that i was thinking and never write anything good again. fun times. but also just the fast pace of the song and the very depressing lyrics and the whole “i’m not doing anything” playing over bree doing So Many Things…..

we then get a lot of silence because it’s Emotion Time, but then!!!! we get a moment very pleasing to be, “unprodigal daughter” by alanis morissette playing as bree goes to buy a pregnancy test. the song itself is just one of my favourites, and it’s also about bree kinning ms frankie healy (having a “perfect” white older brother, having an intense relationship with your mother, being artistic and into english, being bisexual and just really cool), but it’s also a song about choice and the singer choosing herself and who she wants to be and having hope for the future and wanting to run away. also the line “i’d invite you but i’m busy being oppressed” once again being used in regards to a young bisexual girl of colour….. genuinely one of my favourite lines ever written. the power it has.

and then. bree finds out she’s pregnant via the tests. and “oh no!” by marina begins to play, because skam brighton is a comedy show, but also skam brighton is a show for depressed british-ish teenagers. bree copes with this Really Fucked News by deciding to go and get wasted because that’s her favourite method of dissociation. also the song is just very bree as a whole, with the wanting to change and the “i'm now becoming my own self-fulfilled prophecy” after her making fun of her cousin’s pregnancy in the first episode.

and then we get “bubblegum bitch” also by marina as bree goes out to drink. it’s there to represent how bree is trying to force herself to get into her familiar role of the fun bitchy party girl, but it’s not working because she’s just really fucked, but she’s trying her best.

BIG TW FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT

and then “you are going to hate this” by the frights plays as josh and bree dance together, and we see josh giving her more and more drinks, getting her purposefully drunk as she gives into it, wanting the release being drunk gives her, not realising that he could be doing something bad to her because she’s so distracted by a) the alcohol and b) the fact that she’s fucking pregnant and doesn’t know what to do about it.

and then we get “seventeen” by sharon van etten as josh begins to assault brianna. i first heard this song in sex education, where it played as a group of girls supported their best friend after she was sexually harrassed on the bus, and i wanted to use it here as kind of a parallel to that, but also as a reminder than bree is seventeen years old, a child, and josh knows this, purposefully got her drunk and is assaulting her, because he is a disgusting human being.

episode seven

we open with “interlude iii” by tessa violet, as bree wakes up and leaves josh’s bed again, a parallel to the first clip of the season, but this time we saw the before that presumably happened. it’s just a really pretty song that vibes with the lonely emptiness of the scene.

and then we get “the ballad of mona lisa” by panic! at the disco as bree walks into school. it’s just a really vibey bree song, and the whole “i’d pay to see you frown” line is just about the always masking around people and never showing your real emotions. 

we then get “out tonight” from rent, but the movie version, purely because i just prefer the music production on that version. it just slaps. also, i just used this scene to talk about my love for my interpretation of mimi marquez. she’s just a teenager with a lot of problems who needs proper professional medical help, very much like bree. also, i have always seen “out tonight” as mimi having a manic episode and using the number as a distraction from her actual problems (literally what bree is doing) and i love her. (also the scene of bree watching the scene from the movie and having gay panic is just an Iconic moment)

we then get “funeral” by phoebe bridgers as bree lies in bed, deeply depressed and barely able to move. it’s just about a beautiful and deeply sad song. like all of the lines just vibe really hard with bree and the deep loneliness and emptiness of the song, and the underlying panic really outline bree’s actual emotional state.

and we end with the titular song of the episode, “will i?” from rent. i chose this song because, despite it being very repetitive, it’s always been deeply meaningful to me. and the only lines being “will i lose my dignity / will someone care / will i wake tomorrow / from this nightmare?” playing after bree talked about having to deal with her pregnancy, and following the dream imagery used in funeral, because all of the music Is connected…….. quite genuinely one of my favourite moments, because it’s so understated

episode eight

we begin the music of this episode with “everything i own” by the front bottoms - just a really fucking sad song for a really fucking sad time in bree’s life. with like like “just try to appreciate what you got while you got it” and “sometimes i don't feel like singing / i don't really like these songs / sometimes i don't feel like dancing / dj please, don't turn the beat on / let's keep it quiet, keep me honest, keep me true” just really vibing with her.

and then we get “even my dog” by kathryn gallagher, another one of my personal favourite songs, as bree walks through the hospital. first of all, kathryn gallagher’s character in jagged little pill, bella, does parallel bree quite a lot - being from a poor family, being talented at art, being slut-shamed by her school and dealing with the trauma of being sexually assaulted. the song itself has lyrics describing depression, with lines like “i don’t know how i’m gonna get better / i just know that i’m supposed to / i don’t know how i’m gonna get better / but i’ll tell you i’m good ‘til i believe it too” and “everybody wants me to be happy / everybody wants me to be” and “i can feel it / the life i knew before you / it’s beautiful to be so naive” which i feel just Really fit bree and her situation

then we get a little bit of “musetta’s waltz” played by james, because it’s a rent thing, and rori sings a bit of “over the moon” because it’s a maureen song and i just wanted to include it for a little bit of fun in the hell week

and then. oh and then. we get the funeral scene from rent and “i’ll cover you (reprise)” performed by milo and everyone else. the reason i chose this song is because a) it’s one of the most beautiful and heart wrenching songs in musical theatre canon, and b) i wanted to use the imagery of a funeral to show bree quietly making the decision in her head to go through with the abortion, even though she has many doubts. and the line “a new lease you were, my love / on life” is about the baby bree might have had may be being her ticket to a new life, the way she was for her mother, but bree knows that’s not what she wants and not what she can handle right now. and the moment bree finally break is the climax of the song, the moment death is said out in the open “when your heart has expired”. she hears that, is struck by the reality of what she wants to do, and just runs because it’s a lot for any person, let alone a seventeen year old, to handle.

and then we get the girl squad picking bree off the ground, quite literally, and helping her go to the doctor, all of them together, as “sign of the times” by harry styles played. all of the girls are involved, organising rides and where to go and comforting bree, and al’s staying behind, doing ground control at the rehearsal, because al and bree are siblings and they love each other god damn it. ans the song itself is just. simply epic. and the lines “you look pretty good down here / but you ain't really good” really get to where bree is in regards to her self image and it’s about her finally opening up and accepting help and doing what’s right and good for her, not being self destructive or doing things for someone else.

episode nine

we open with a slowed down piano cover of “knee socks” by the arctic monkeys, simply because i liked the sound of it and it’s a quintessential sad british time, but it’s also about girls being pretty.

and then we get one of my favourite songs from rent being sung by bree, “without you”. it’s a genuinely beautiful song about addiction and the struggles that people can go through with it. the song has a double meaning to bree, as she’s been struggling with her alcohol abuse problems recently and going clean, but the song is also about bree imagining life without her hypothetical child. “but i die / without you” is how bree is seeing it, still thinking she’ll be rejected by her mother, and partially by god, if she goes through with it, but the song goes on. she knows the world will go on without her child, but she’s unsure of how she’s going to be after the child is gone. (we also see james come in and sing too, as he plays roger, but him singing is also a reference to him dealing with his own addiction, as mentioned before in this season, to nicotine).

we then get “you gotta be" by des'ree playing as we go from bree getting herself together after josh gets fired to bree and her mother sitting together and watching ladybird. i wanted ladybird to be playing because it’s a very bree movie, in my opinion, and the “give me a number” scene playing is a really good feel, for me, of what it’s like to be a working class child and feeling the need to pay back your parents, which is something bree also feels immensely. and the song has lyrics such as “challenge what the future holds / try and keep your head up to the sky / lovers, they may cause you tears / go ahead release your fears” and “stand up and be counted / don't be ashamed to cry” and “you gotta be tough, you gotta be stronger / you gotta be cool, you gotta be calm / you gotta stay together / all i know, all i know, love will save the day”, which just really vibe with where bree is in this scene, trying to figure out all the things she has to be and can be and the whole thing about standing up is just very bree, because, despite us seeing her insecurities and weaknesses, she’s always been a confident person 

and then we get a scene that i wrote just to make myself cry. bree gets her hair cut by her mother after deeply connecting to her as “slipping through my fingers” by abba plays. it’s a song about a mother watching her daughter grow up and trying to stay close to her despite her always growing and changing, which is how i see audrey. she’s a woman full of love and she will do anything to support her daughter and make her happy, and it took bree until now to see it. and then we see bree’s hair literally slipping through audrey’s fingers, because haircuts are often used as a way to regain control over one’s life, and i’ve used bree’s hair throughout this season as a way to represent her trauma. when she gets morning sickness, she throws up in her hair. josh pulls on her hair when he assaults her. her cutting her hair off is a metaphor for her cutting off her trauma, but then from the hair cutting we transition to:

the abortion clinic, where “soon you’ll get better” by taylor swift and the chicks is playing. a song where a daughter sings to her mother to get better, and we see a mother supporting her daughter as she gets ready to go through surgery. the song itself, though, feels more about bree’s mental health than her physical state. she knows that through this surgery, she will ultimately end up better, but it’s going to take a lot of time.

and then as bree and audrey sit at home, they watch another movie: this time “grease”, representing bree’s desire to get back to her younger, happier self.

and then. we get “wake up” by alanis morrissette as bree gets ready for the rally in support of sexual assault survivors. a song, when used in the jlp musical, is used to talk about how it’s easier to not stand up and speak out against sexual assault. with the line “it’s so much easier not to / and what goes around never comes around to you” being used in regards to the cishet abled white man who will never get back all of the harm he puts out into the world, but we see bree reclaiming the song and her own body, putting on makeup in a way that makes her happy and marching out to the streets as it plays, focusing on her and only her

episode ten

WE OPEN WITH!!!! a moment most pleasing to me - “i did something bad” by taylor swift playing as the girl squad slow mo down the street together, a united front. i chose this song because it’s literally about society saying a woman did something bad, but she doesn’t give a fuck and wishes that she could do it again, which is how bree feels about fucking up a rapist’s life. also, once again, bree rolling a nat 20 on her deception roll as she gets proof of josh having the pictures of her on his phone by pretending to be the manic pixie damsel in distress josh wanted….. and we also get josh using the term “witch hunt”, the same phrase bryan used when he went off on bree, to show that they’re both the same character archetype, but in different flavours (bryan coming in asshole jock and josh coming in adult man incel).

(note: i also wanted to include the girl squad in this scene, because in the og when noora when to go meet nikolai on her own i was just. So Scared for her because she had No One. also, fun fact, i included the fact that the squad call nick “nickolai” as a nickname in season 2 so maybe there would be a theory that he would be nikolai, but i was just playing 4d chess with myself and he’s just a nice guy)

and then we get “seasons of love” from rent, which is, yes, a basic theatre song, but you can’t deny how good it is. and the whole “minute” thing in it lining up with the “minute by minute” iconic skam speech, and we get annabell on the big soloist lines because they’re the person who also heard the “minute by minute” speech before from the same place as bree, because it was said in their group therapy…. and it also parallels “i’ll cover you (reprise)” with them all standing in a line, but this time bree stays because it’s about love and being supported by your friends and not being sure if you’re okay, but knowing there’s always a safe place for you to go where you’re loved.

(also, we get a throwback joke of sandy, once again, being surprised by how strangely sexual all of these musicals are. i love her so so much)

and then!!!!! we end the episode with rori and bree confessing their feelings for each other and kissing for real for the first time, and it ends with “dress” by taylor swift playing. literally just the most homoerotic song, and the whole “i don’t want you like a best friend” line…… they deserve to be in love with each other and i have been building up to them finally admitting it for four seasons. literally the longest slow burn i’ve ever written. 

episode eleven

WE! OPEN! WITH! “watch you sleep” by girl in red, a song i discovered in 2018 and wanted to save for a good moment, and then the whole “do you listen to girl in red” thing exploded, so. (james from derry girls voice) i support wlw, though i myself am not wlw. also it’s just a really sweet song that i like a lot. and we’ve seen bree wake up a lot at the beginning of episodes, and we see her wake up from a nightmare this time, and she calms down instantly when she realises she’s home and with rori…..

and then we get a moment MOST PLEASING to me!!!! we have canon swiftie alistair fletcher streaming “daylight” by taylor swift in the bathroom as bree and rori wait for him to be done. and then they start to dance together to it, with them referencing rent before they start dancing, and rori begins to sing along because rori, as a character, has such “lover” energy. and we get rori singing “i once believed love would be black and white”, which is a reference to her and james’s relationship, with her thinking it would be simple and easy, and then “i once believed love would be burning red”, with her and nick’s quick, passionate relationship “but it’s golden like daylight” and we see her and bree together, calm, best friends who are now lovers, no big dramatics, no fireworks, just two people who care so deeply about each other, holding each other, having seen each other at their worst and still adoring them with every part of their being. and we get the “you’re so pretty”, “no, you”, “no, us” exchange, which is just saying “stop comparing yourself to other girls, just be in love with them and yourself”

and then we get “number one fan” by muna, which is just a really fun boppy song, and just big bree core. with lines like “so i heard the bad news / nobody likes me and i'm gonna die alone / in my bedroom / looking at strangers on my telephone / well, wouldn't you? / wouldn't you like if i believed those words?” is showing her development, going from believing all of the bad shit people say about her, both online and to her face, and standing up for herself and believing in herself

(fun fact, there was originally a clip in this episode where we see bree going to the police about josh, but as i was getting closer to publishing it, i thought “fuck that, i’m not giving them any screentime”, and just gave bree some fun exposition about reporting josh to his school)

so we get “icu” by phoebe bridgers as bree’s walking down the street, just vibing, very happy because she just got her rapist expelled from his university. we get lines like: “and i get this feeling / whenever i feel good / it'll be the last time” which vibes with my perception and bree and her relationship with her mental health, which is currently, in the episode, in a good place because of goos things happening, but she knows that it’s going to come back down eventually, but she’s prepared for it now, she’s not as scared of herself anymore

then we get al’s film of the rehearsal process - which is, once again, him using art and music as a way of expressing his love - as “heroes” by david bowie plays. this is a direct reference to “the perks of being a wallflower”, a very inspiring piece of media to me, writing wise. the film that al makes is just a love letter to being teenagers and making art and noise in a world where people are constantly telling you to shut up.

and then, following two deeply philosophical speeches i wrote at 3am one night, we get the last 15 minutes of act one of a musical because it’s my show!!!!!! and if i want to have a character yell about love and then sing a song i can!!!!!

we begin with “la vie boheme”, the iconic act one closer of rent. quite genuinely, this song has the same meaning here as it does in rent, only with the added layer of “this is the last clip, so we’re just all having a fun happy ending” on it, so i’m just gonna be talking about my favourite fun parts of it.

we got al and bree sharing a laugh as al sings “not to mention, of course / hating dear old mom and dad”; we got al high-fiving jake as he talks about “fruits”, because they’re both gay; we got one of my favourite lines: “to being an us for once instead of a them”; we got milo and bree messing around because i love their friendship; we got bree and nick singing a verse together; we got al making it canon that mark cohen gets pegged with the “mucho masturbation” line; we get rori making eye contact with bree while she kisses another girl, because we love a call your girlfriend reference and we love her character development; we get james finally perfecting “musetta’s waltz”

and then we get “i should tell you”, a song i hated upon first watch of rent, but now i love it so so much. while james and bree are singing it together as roger and mimi, bree is very much dedicating the song to rori, because it’s a song about being scared of starting a relationship but doing it anyway because you’re learning to trust the other person. we also see audrey and patrick in the audience, both so happy and supportive of their children, because i love them so much. i love all of the parents, but audrey is definitely my personal favourite so fa.

and then!!!! we begin “la vie boheme b”, literally one of the biggest bangers of musical theatre history. 

we get rori singing the first fast verse, literally raising a middle finger to the idea of perfection and eating disorders, because while those ideas may be a part of her life, she’s happy to say “fuck you” to them; we get nick voguing to the camera as he sings his fast verse, goofing around like usual; and then we get milo yelling out their verse to the audience, serious, because they genuinely believe in the words they’re saying

then we get the cast all yelling out their lgbt identity in the form of a reclaimed slur. i also changed this part of the show because there’s two terms referring to lesbians in the song and i wanted to a reference just for bisexual people. 

then we begin to shift all focus away from bree and her story, beginning to move onto nick, as he and james dance together as al yells out the title line of the episode: “the opposite of war isn’t peace, it’s creation”. and i decided to edit the closing monologue because i felt that it placed too much focus on roger and mimi’s romance and wanted to end the season with a focus on revolution and positive social change, ending with the line: “the riot goes on and on and on and on…”

and then we end the season with the line “we will now take a short intermission” as nick looks into the camera, because it’s time for a break between seasons babey!

and that’s another well over 10k essay on my music choices!!!!! also, as of writing this, i have officially finished production on skambr season 5!!!! i’m way ahead of schedule, which is really good for me, and the trailer will be coming out in about a month’s time!!!! until then, thank you for reading my infodump <3

#skam brighton #skam brighton spoilers #isaac speaks #tw rape mention

[evakuality]

I’ve been thinking of doing this for a long time, but it kind of got kicked into another gear when I got this ask a while back.  That gives a broad overview of the similarities and differences between these boys, but I’m also interested in drilling down and looking at them as their respective stories progress.  Now I know a lot more about Isak because I have actually seen all the seasons of Skam and have only seen the full season 3 of Druck.  So I’m going to stick to the storylines in their own seasons, but bear in mind that there’s a broader understanding of Isak behind what I’m saying.  Having said that, I did watch those ‘season x but it’s just Matteo’ videos for s1 and 2 of Druck but it’s not really helped a huge deal.  I don’t feel like I have that good a handle on his character as it stood before s3 started.  Anyway, the thing about these characters is how fascinating it is that they share a lot of similarities (of course, since Matteo is based on Isak) and yet they’re very different and their stories play out in quite different ways.  So I decided to take a look at why this has happened.  Episode by episode because as usual I’ve been very wordy.

Season 3 introductions: From the start, we get some very different vibes from the two of them.  The music chosen to set the scenes for each is interesting from this point of view.  Isak’s is ‘LiQR’ which holds suggestions of needing social lubricant to enjoy the situation.  And indeed, there is a lot of that on display: people drinking, smoking etc to enable them to enjoy the party.  Matteo’s, by contrast, is ‘turning me on’ with it’s heavy suggestions of sex.  That also plays out.  Lots of sexually charged behaviour happens before we see him and even when he meets up with the boys it’s all very explicitly sexual.  I think in a lot of ways, these things set up how the seasons play out.  Isak does need to learn how to rely on himself rather than the easy drug and alcohol-fueled flippancy he’s been used to hiding behind.   By the end of the season he’s much more secure in his own sense of self and we see much less dependence on those social lubricants.  Matteo has been holding back from his life, including sexually, staying on the edges of those conversations etc (and it’s interesting that when he blows up later in the season at the boys it’s sex talk that he targets as the way they piss him off), and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Matteo waits til the last episode before this is something he really explores.

Then we get the actual introductions of each of the boys.  Isak’s in a bathtub surrounded by his friends, outside of the party which is what we see first.  Matteo is at the party, but on the wall.  He’s isolated himself not just from the schoolmates but also from his friends who at this point are in the bathtub together.   Isak is far more integrated into the boys’ conversation than Matteo is, and seems to be far more consciously deploying the ‘I’m a straight guy’ cover.   Matteo, as we see later in this episode, almost falls into the pretence without his own impetus, whereas Isak very definitely uses it to convince the boys.  There’s a reason for this: Matteo has fallen into a reluctant relationship with his Sara and is still in it.  Isak has removed himself from the relationship with his Sara, and has no ties at all with Emma.  In fact, he uses her as his cover story before we meet her.  Once she’s there, he has to carry through with it or he risks losing his mask with his friends.  It’s very obvious that he’s only doing this for their sake by how quickly and how thoroughly he pulls back as soon as they’re gone.  Matteo is still with his Sara, and we see him with her before we see him with the boys.  He’s dragged into it by her but doesn’t want to be there at all, and yet he plays along.  He seems kinder at the start (not to say Isak isn’t kind, but he hides that side of himself a lot more at the start of the season), and he doesn’t want to hurt Sara at all.  Isak’s ‘insult her to intrigue her’ thing isn’t something I can see Matteo doing at all, even if he wasn’t already connected to Sara in a deeper way than Isak is to Emma.  

The interesting thing here is that, despite the very deliberate facade Isak is wearing, Isak has a real connection with his friends and he has a happy enough life.  I get the feeling that if Even hadn’t come along, Isak was reasonably happy with how things were.  He may be tired of the pretence but it isn’t affecting his ability to engage in the rest of his life.  For example, Isak has a much longer time with the boys in the bath and he’s much more present in the conversation.  Matteo is very quiet by comparison, and is faced with explicit sex talk immediately, while Isak’s boys are much less forthright at this point (again, this ties into sex being part of Matteo’s learning curve; that’s all part of being present in his own life by the end).   Part of this is because Matteo is isolating himself, putting himself on the edges and he quite clearly doesn’t really enjoy his life.   From the start,  Matteo is a lot softer with less hard edges, and so he feels a lot of the things in his life more obviously than Isak does.  He’s also a lot more internalised than Isak is, even though they are both fairly clearly introverts.

Matteo has already gone through getting with Sara, so his comments to the boys about things with her are all vague; he has no need to convince the boys of his heterosexuality as he’s already got the cover he needs.  Isak has to ‘perform’ in front of the boys to make good on his boasts, and indeed he has to make the boats in the first place to let them know he’s into girls when they question him.  This is partly his own fault: he talks up his chances and talks a good talk so when Emma arrives he’s put on the spot.  Still, even though the situations for each here is different, they’re both left alone with their own thoughts when the boys leave.

Interestingly, they’re both isolated and unhappy at the end of the bathroom section, but how they get there is different.  Isak is there because of Emma and how that whole little farce had felt (pretty awful as it went on and he was left alone with her), whereas Matteo was already there before he got into the room and lets it out properly once the boys have left and he can be alone.  Neither of them has any focus on the girls they’re with at this party; Isak is performing for the boys, and Matteo is so tuned out he can’t wait to get away from Sara.  He’s not performing here, just genuinely totally not into it.  They both reject sexual advances from the girls, though at different points in this episode.  Emma has literally just met Isak and wants to go down on him, which flusters him because she’s just supposed to be an easy cover and not this forward this soon.  Later in the episode, Sara wants to seal their newfound relationship with sex.  Both boys are visibly uncomfortable (to the audience) with the idea and find ways to get out of it.  Both girls don’t recognise how uncomfortable the boys are, though Sara seems to get it faster.  She just always manages to talk herself out of it.

Getting the weed is different too.  Isak’s boys are arguing about who ‘has’ to take it, whereas Matteo keeps it as a way of teasing when Abdi wants it back.  They both have different responses to the police as well.  Isak’s not at his own place, and just wants to get rid of the weed.  Matteo fobs off responsibility for talking to them (but only after Linn also does), and plants the weed on Amira.  Matteo’s actions are far more shitty to the person who confronts him about it, though both are shitty in trying to hide it somewhere that it will come back to bite someone else if found.  This of course means Isak doesn’t know what happened to his weed, whereas Matteo does which in turn changes how they go about getting it back.  

Isak in general is far more glib, able to use his wit to get himself out of trouble (eg with the police the way he talks to Emma etc), apart from the disastrous story he tries to spin Eva to get the weed back from her.  Matteo is much less vocal even with his friends, and therefore less able to talk his way out of things.  They both end the clip (or start the next one) with their Jonas, but Isak’s much more bro-ish.  He seems by this point to be over whatever it was that he felt for Jonas.  Whereas Matteo is very clearly still pining.  This of course changes how they approach their love interests.  Matteo seems hit by a truck, whereas Isak is flustered again.   Isak sees Even in a very public place, catches his eye across a crowded cafeteria and immediately tunes out everything the others are saying.  He’s ready, I think, to find this overwhelming big passion, the thing that will force him to drop his carefully cultivated mask.  Matteo, on the other hand, is tuned out of his life already, moving once again away from his friends, going through the motions of the day.  He wakes up suddenly when David appears.  He doesn’t need to break a facade at all; he’s a bit more self aware I think, in terms of accepting who he is.  So, what he needs is someone to push him out of his apathy and make him face life.

The social media stuff the morning after the party is interesting too.  Isak is included and involved even if Eskild insults him a bit; he’s cuddled up with the others while they talk to Noora.  Matteo leaves before they take the picture and so is once again excluded, even from his own bedroom, though again this is a deliberate choice he makes when Jonas and Hans are talking.   Matteo flinching away from Jonas when Hans comes in is fascinating too.  He’s hiding everything he’s feeling and it’s part of what’s isolating him so much.  We see Isak consciously deploy a persona to cover up for who he is, so he puts himself out there almost as a larger than life version of himself.  But Matteo doesn’t want that; his preference is to fade so far back into the shadows that no-one ever notices him and he does everything he can not to be noticed and not to be seen as different.  

Having said that, Matteo is a lot more proactive in some ways than Isak (again, not to say Isak isn’t, but Matteo takes more action even at this point).  It’s his choice to go and talk to Amira and try to get the weed back.  This is partly because he knows exactly who has it and Isak doesn’t, but it plays out over the rest of the season as well.  He’s an odd mix, actually, because he’ll let people tell him what he should think and he’s passively willing to go along with Sara but I think it’s because it doesn’t really matter to him.  When it does matter, he’s all action and quite determined.  Isak will be proactive in defence of his mask or persona, but he doesn’t do much about pushing in other ways.  This is seen quite clearly at the kosegruppa meeting vs the abistreich meeting.  Isak slips away, sure, but he follows Even outside and kind of lets the conversation come to him.  For the first half, Even is definitely the leader and Isak follows, even if he picks it up more in the second half.  Matteo, by contrast, speaks to David first, gets him to come along with him to the hallway and is the one offering weed.  While they both take an active part in their respective conversations, Matteo is more of a leader definitely at the start.  David does eventually engage further in the conversation and gives as good as he gets, but Matteo is the driver for a lot of the first half.  

So that’s the first episode.  Clearly, while our boys have some similarities and their stories are still mostly the same at this point, the differences in the way they are presented and the way they react have already turned up some big contrasts.  It all boils down to what each has to learn, and as I said earlier, for Isak that’s to open up to himself in a more real and authentic way.  To drop the mask and be true to himself.  For Matteo that’s how to re-engage in life and stop hanging on the sidelines letting things passively come to him.  They both actually make some progress with this stuff in this episode, but they both have a long way to go.

Episode two can be found over here.

#druck #skam #my meta stuff #my isak and matteo comparison stuff