Fear: The Bible vs. The Movies.

(bit of a disclaimer: I’m going to spoil the movie The Woman In Black for you in this essay.)

What does the Bible want us to think about fear? What does the world want us to think about fear? What do horror movies want us to think about fear? That last question seems a little ridiculous. Easy. Be afraid. Which is true, but there’s more to it than ‘be afraid.’ I’m taking the last horror movie I saw as an example (the Woman in Black) because, during it, I couldn’t get out of my mind the dichotomy between what the movies want us to think about fear and what the Bible wants us to think.

 

Beyond gore and slasher films there lies the genre of horror, which, when done well, relies on visceral fear- things we’re all afraid of because we have healthy survival instincts. It relies on what you can hear at night in bed, what the characters can see that you can’t. A rocking chair moving independently is scary, we all know that. But you know what’s terrifying? The fact that it doesn’t stop moving when you walk up to it- just gets more fierce.

Little, everyday noises like pipes and faucets are even scarier when you’re dropped into an anxious silence.

The scene with the baby crow, symbolism aside, was the beginning of the terror in Woman in Black because there was nothing ostensibly scary about – just a baby bird- but because of the senses disturbed, the loud Mama crow defending her baby, the crash of the window, the cold, clammy mood of the scene that made the viewer in the warm, cushy theater uncomfortable.

In a way horror movies shouldn’t be scary because they remind us of what we already know, but we push that down constantly the way Sam pushed down the existence of the Woman.

Horror movies are a cold splash of water on our collective unconscious. For those of us who can handle it, who even want to, they’re a good thing when done well (which is depressingly rare). In this movie specifically (Black), a  message about fear was spoken out. Arthur Kipps, main character, had a lot to be afraid of. Not to mention this creepy woman around the house, he lost his wife during the birth of their baby who he was now afraid of, and they say a child dies every time the woman appears. He’s away from his son for work, and he just may lose his job.

This is his last chance, arranging this dead woman’s papers, and it’s an impossible job so he’s probably going to be out of work when he sees his son next. But while he’s broody, and certainly depressed, he’s never afraid. He’s told, explicitly, to be afraid. This whole village is afraid. They fight against him going to Eel Marsh House because they’re all afraid, and for good reason. Every time the woman appears another child dies. Two children die while Kipps is there trying to figure things out.

He’s not afraid. When the noises occur he chases after them with an axe, at first finding a baby crow and thinking he sees someone in the graveyard and then finding the rocking chair of creepiness. In the end, he dies because of his lack of fear. It’s his lack of fear that causes his son to, possessed, walk in front of the train that’s supposed to take them, happily ever after, back to London. It’s his lack of fear that has him jumping in after him. And then he dies, apparently telling us that if we don’t live in fear, like the safe residents of the village, we do die.

(Not that the message was intentional, at least in the modern adaptation of the story. Bear with me. I overthink things.)

What does God have to say about that, about fear? The answer goes beyond don’t watch horror movies, although it’s acceptable and good to do this if they cause fear in you. There’s no verse that specifically says ‘don’t watch horror movies’, though, just like ‘don’t watch Harry Potter’ isn’t in the bible even if lots of Christians have good, justifiable reasons for not wanting to wach it.

2 Timothy 1:7 springs to mind, perhaps too easy an answer but a right one nonetheless.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. -

 

Some versions say ‘discipline’ instead of ‘sound mind.’

And fear could be talking about panic, about anxiety, about nerves, or about the fear that horror movies like to instill in you. Whatever it’s talking about, if it’s rooted in fear, it’s very plainly not of God. But what is, according to verse?

Power. That includes the power in the Holy Spirit to take down demons who cause fear. Also included is ‘sound mind,’ and horror movies do have the ability to mess with your mind. So we know this – we’re not supposed to be afraid. And I’m not saying ‘if you panic, have anxiety/fear, or any struggle like that, you’re not Christian’. I struggle with fear more than I’d like to admit. Daily, I have to almost tangibly wad up fear and anxiety and panic and offer them up to God, literally giving him control over the situation. It’s intense enough most of the time that if I don’t do that, I won’t make it.

From doorknocks to phone calls to people touching me, yes, I fear things. In a way I shouldn’t be preaching about how we shouldn’t be afraid because it’s definitely my weakness.

Peter walking on water was always a confusing story to me. Chill, Jesus, I used to think. It’s only easy for you to walk on water. But I was missing something. Peter only started sinking when he looked around at the waves- pointedly away from Jesus. It’s ridiculous to claim that we can -just be free- of fear, panic, and anxiety without the holy spirit’s help.Yes, we’re going to sink without him. It will happen.

The movies lie to us in that we should be afraid. That facing a situation without fear is wrong. That every Arthur Kipps will get hit by a train. Jesus tells us not to be afraid- but not on our own strength.

Ed Sheeran, Wayfaring Stranger (off of +)

First off, Ed Sheeran is such an artist in the most stereotypical way. On the Graham Norton Show, when asked what his album is titled, he replied with ‘plus, or positive sign, or it could be addition’ with a vaguely philosophical look on his face.

To top it off, he even wears hipster glasses in his downtime. Right, so. He’s an artist, and a good one, but he does (or does he, anymore, people who’ve seen him live?) have this extremely annoying quirk.

He breathes in so loudly.

Now, don’t doubt my Ed fan status (but you should probably doubt my objectivity). I still cry when I listen to The A-Team and I would never ask him to play any Oasis at a show. I’m just saying, anyone who took choir in high school knows that you’re not supposed to audibly breathe in, or at least do it as quietly as possible if you have to.

I can’t ignore it on this song.

‘I’m going there to see my mother/ *gulp*/I’m going there no more to roam.’

The first time I listened, I rationalized that this was probably a quirk, a one time thing. A glitch. Surely someone so popular in the UK knows how to breathe in.

But nope, if you listen to Small Bump,  he does the same thing throughout the entire song.

Is this going on throughout the entire + album, fans?

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Maybe I’m being too harsh on him. I mean, when I sing on Sunday mornings it’s definitely more loud than good. But shouldn’t someone so popular have his technique down already?

(Ed if you’re reading this – don’t hate me. I don’t hate you. I’ll make it up to you somehow.)

Moving on from the technical difficulties, this was an interesting take on a spiritual/gospel song. I’ve definitely never heard beatboxing in a song I usually see in a hymnal. Beatboxing (on boys like Ed) is also a stereotypically sexy thing to do, and was interesting mixed with talk of crossing over Jordan.

Overall, a good song, but I’d like to hear it now, if he’s improved.

‘I hit back when the pen hurts me- Ed Sheeran, You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’ –

I typically hate this type of song, this ‘listen to me – this is why you should buy my record’ exposition. Ed saves himself by being a genuinely good writer during this song.

Gonna be breaking into other people’s tunes when I chase it

And replace it with the elephant in the room with a facelift

Into another rapper’s shoes using new laces

….

I hit back when the pen hurts me, I’m still a choir boy in a Fenchurch tee

….

I won’t stop till my name is in lights

At stadium heights with Damien Rice, on red carpets, now I’m on Arabian nights

Because I’m young I know my brother’s gonna give me advice

Long nighter, short height and I’m going hyper Never be anything but a singer-songwriter

It may be partially due to the fact that Rupert Grint gave Ed some publicity, but there’s poetry in how honestly he says he’ll ‘never be anything but a singer-songwriter.’  It’s something artists (of any stripe) can recognize in ‘I’d rather fail at this than succeed at anything else.’

 

Ed’s not exactly starving anymore. For example, he has a house now, and he’s opening up for Snow Patrol on tour right now.

 

This song caught me and I liked it for a couple of reasons, namely the sign language and impressive use of metaphor and….uh…simile .

 

Don’t Marry Me, Will//Things To Consider Before Marrying a Mentally Ill Person

 

Glee has, for sure, an interesting way of exploring relationships we don’t accept (a person with Downs dating and wanting to have sex, women like Bieste even having romantic whirlwinds and men kissing them, fat girls like Mercedes having boys like Sam begging them for their love and affection) and challenging status quos of relationships we do – savior complexes regarding mental illnesses, to pick one out of the pile. It’s glanced at, in discourse to teenagers, that relationships Can’t Save You, but then everything tells teenagers that they can, like Will/Emma’s relationship without criticism. Will wants to love Emma, but I’m not quite sure he actually does. I say this because I think he’s only willing to commit (and is fooling himself into thinking he’ll get his wish) if he has an OCD-free Emma. He withheld is proposal because he wasn’t sure she was ready for motherhood (a valid concern in discussion, but a douchey move to decide not to marry someone because of it), for the ‘mess’ of life. He had her crying and bargaining something she shouldn’t ever have to bargain- her well-being. It shouldn’t be up to him when she gets better.

It shouldn’t be up to him, or up to her parents, or up to her psychiatrist, even – it’s up to Emma. And Will can’t truthfully say that he loves her ‘in sickness and in health’ if he wants the ‘sickness’ part that’s already there away before he walks down the aisle. He views the OCD as separate from Emma’s identity, a disease to be cast out before Emma becomes optimally healthy, wifely material.  True as it may be that OCD is hell to live with, you simply have to love a person with it if they’re not better yet, or you need to rethink your commitments. It needs to be on their timetable, not yours. OCD is complex and rooted deep in several issues. Emma isn’t going to figure out her trouble with messes and the childhood traumas it came from in time to become a perfect wife. She’s not going to overcome the issues her parents gave her by tying her hands together with rope to make her stop counting in time to be a mother.

That has to be okay. It would also be okay for Will not to be able to handle that, because he can’t, but he has to be honest. Instead, he’ll probably marry her and constantly be pushing her toward perfection – or that’s what she’ll feel like. He’ll continue trying to rescue her by pointing her toward avenues he approves of. He’ll continue to put his hands on hers when he notices her dysfunctional movement. It’d perhaps be all well and good if that actually cured mental illness, but the pressure would probably make Emma regress and both sides will be in a very unhappy marriage, now matter how romantic his proposal was. He won’t get the wife he wanted – (and let’s face it, Emma with OCD is not the wife he wants). The person you want to marry should be the person you want to marry- not the person you marry with 1000 improvements they haven’t undertaken yet.

Is there more of a recipe for failure? Maybe we don’t think about this a lot because we usually hear it in girls who want to rescue broken boys and ‘fix’ them. Will probably have to come to terms with the fact that Emma may not be OCD-less for their marriage. She may slip and she may regress even if she ‘overcomes’ it. There may be times when the mess of diaper changing is overwhelming to her and she asks for help. There may be times when she washes the dishes until her hands bleed and he has to hold her, tell her it’s all okay, and try to get her to breathe correctly. Unless he’s okay with that happening – and no guarantee of a cure, a remission – marriage isn’t a wise idea.

 

Note: yes, I know all characters talked about here are fictional. But TV shows like Glee make political and cultural comments with the very not-real people they portray and the messages are worth criticism before being soaked up. One of the defenses I’ve always heard of Glee (specifically, why it’s no big deal, the bigotry usually displayed on the show) is that people can decide for themselves what they think, and don’t just absorb messages without critical thinking. Well, this is me doing that, and I encourage you to do the same.

A biased look at what’s happening to the DSM right now. (LOADED with controversy)

Basically what’s happening with the autism diagnosis right now:

Bunch of white, rich dudes who don’t have autism: sucks that there’s such an autism epidemic.

I mean, it’d really suck to restructure the program so that we could treat everyone, help people increase their quality of life.

But we can’t have this, like, epidemic on our hands. No, no no.

Let’s redefine it so that only severe people we think of as Retarded qualify.

It’s really important to make sure we have our definition of developmentally disabled people as people we think of as Less Than Us.

None of this ‘people with asperger’s dating’ crap.

*Fixes it*

See? No more autism epidemic.

 

Look, I know that I’m being biased. That’s because the proposed redefinitions would cut out over 56 percent of current autism spectrum diagnoses. What does that mean? It means no treatment, no services, no help. No improvement of quality of life for autistic people who need it. (Oddly enough they won’t just stop being autistic because of this radical change in definition.)  It means no validation for parents and individuals with autism. Unless you’ve been in that situation, it’s hard to understand exactly why it’s validating. From danbehavingbadly on tumblr:

“This. Finally getting my son’s diagnosis was one of the best things ever, if for no other reasons than it made total sense of his behaviors, and well-intentioned but wrong-headed relatives could stfu about how if I was a better parent and/or he wasn’t a bad kid he’d act “normally” like the rest of the kids his age. I was totally vindicated, because I always knew that it wasn’t a bad parent/bad kid issue, and with an official diagnosis I could start getting him the therapy he needs. He doesn’t need “fixing” but he does need to be equipped to get by on his own terms in a world of people who suck and would think it’s perfectly acceptable to tie him (or someone like him) up in a bag.” – danbehavingbadly.tumblr.com

People who aren’t autistic tend to make comments like, ‘don’t make the diagnosis your identity.’ and ‘well not having a diagnosis isn’t that bad,’ but their ignorance is given to the fact that they’ve never been autistic. They’ve never felt wrong in quite the same ways. They’ve never dealt with sensitivity to light and sound, and meltdowns that have no explanation.  They’ve never put up with the social difficulties, and oftentimes the abuse that comes with being tied down to get your hands to stop moving. They’ve never dealt with that, so they don’t know how wanting and seeking a diagnosis is not the same thing as ‘making it your identity.’ Oddly enough these are the same people who will try to get you to stop moving tell you to stop being so stupid all the time.

It’s frustrating and saddening to see how many people are going to fall through the cracks with these changes. It’s hard for the people making the decisions to see the ramifications for their actions – they’re not on the front lines. They’re not single mothers who have no clue about their son’s tantrums, they just know they can’t go anywhere in public anymore. They aren’t the thousands of children who can’t speak.

It’s not like the climate for autistic people is easy as it is. Autism Speaks is in many ways ushering in a wave of teen suicides that we’ll see go down in the next ten years. Why, we’ll ask? We never saw the signs. They were such happy children!

We won’t think about giving their parents a platform to wish away their child’s existence, to lament at the plight of having a Retarded Child. No one on the Autism Speaks side reminds parents that they invited their child to the party. We’ll continue to pat parents on the back who say their autistic child has ruined their lives. And when these kids start retaining the message that they’re not wanted, because their parents explicitly say so – a lot, and very publicly- (if you have an aut sibling or loved one and you want to complain about them, it’s a good idea for you to picture them reading, hearing, understanding, and responding to every word you type about them)- and they don’t expect their child to know that it’d be better if they were dead. This could be from Jenny McCarthy very publicly proclaiming that between measles and autism she’ll very gladly choose measles, to the surge in anti-vaccination philosophy claiming that autism is worse than polio.  This message will sink in, and we better be ready. It’s not going to be good.

When it does sink in, with the proposed changes, we’ll have the added fault of having let many children fall through the cracks because they don’t live up to the increasingly narrow definitions of what we consider autistic- definitions absolutely informed by ableist public perceptions of what we consider a person with a developmental disability to be. We may have erased the r- word out of our cultural vocabulary, but there are some sinister attitudes remaining, and making 56 per cent of autistics magically not autistic anymore will not erase the problem.

 

‘I just wanted to go to the museum.’ Parenthood, episode ‘Missing’

(Disclaimer- the video needs to be watched in order to understand the post.)

http://www.hulu.com/watch/303977/parenthood-missing?c=1809:1939

(I’m getting feedback that this isn’t working so well, video wise. if it’s not, go to the link codeman provided. Thank you!)

‘You must be great with numbers’

‘Well, I am sure it’s a really, really, really mild form of autism.’

‘What? Autism? You don’t have that.’

‘My cousin has autism and can’t wipe her butt!!!!’

‘Just try!’ to multitask.

‘Insert sarcastic comment, with full knowledge that autistic people really don’t understand sarcasm.’

‘It’s just a joke. Come on. Get a sense of humor.’

‘Do I need to teach a sarcasm class or something?’

‘Asperger’s is so trendy. Everybody has to be JJ on Skins.’

‘You just need some anxiety pills and a weighted blanket.’

‘How would you know what you’re talking about. you’re autistic!’

‘You’re just making it up for attention.’

‘Real autistic people never talk about it.’

‘I mean obviously you’re really high functioning. you can type.’

‘I mean don’t you know at least one person’ who is making up their autism for attention? (When challenged, allistic person cannot think of a single example.)

(This post is about Things People Say to autistic people. Most of the post focuses on parents and siblings and the fact that some of those things are damaging and worth talking about. The above, though, is simply things strangers say, and they’re either hilariously ignorant or annoying.)

I’m not about to make the commentary all about ‘look how horrible Haddie is’ because even though she’s not very popular in the autism community, her panic and feelings are quite valid for much of what she says to her brother. For about the first ten seconds, I’m glad she’s talking to him. Max doesn’t even seem upset in the slightest, which I think is just how the actor was told how to act under the ‘autistic people don’t show emotion’ stereotype. If he was upset, I would understand him needing to go feed his lizard, to go to his room to calm down. After being lost, most autistic people would probably need a calm-down because being lost is a terrifying experience especially when you were quite sure you knew where you were going before. And the worst thing to do when someone is upset is crowd them and yell at them especially if they’re overstimulated, but again, Max doesn’t seem remotely upset.

He just looks bored. After making a valid point, Haddie kind of loses control and I lose respect for her. I’m still grateful that Parenthood made this scene, though, because it’s important and it’s a real experience a lot of us have had, and gives some voice to us to talk about it how it feels, as weak as that sounds.

‘Do you care? No. You don’t care, because you never care. Of course. Max, you have to think about other people. You only think about yourself. … Why. Why don’t you think about anyone but yourself? ….It’s not fair. We try so hard to make everything normal and it’s just not!’

His parents made perhaps all the wrong moves during this scene. First, trying to just let him off the hook – autism doesn’t mean you can just run off like that, which is why I said Haddie’s feelings of panic and fear were valid. But they don’t stop Haddie on the above rant, either. It’s ironic that in her rant about her brother’s selfishness she’s doing the same thing, refusing to even try to understand why her brother would wander, and why these things happen, and why things aren’t normal.  Instead of stop this discussion, they let her sound off, perhaps thinking the catharsis was good for her but not thinking about what it was doing to him.

Maybe it’s easy to do that if he doesn’t show emotion in easily readable ways, but a parent’s job is to recognize that and protect his emotions anyhow.

‘Is she going to get in trouble for yelling?’ He asks after she’s sounded off, understandably frustrated that she gets off he hook. And she doesn’t. The end of the episode features a scene where we’re encouraged to feel sorry for her for having the autistic sibling who makes everything so darn difficult and that’s it. She’s not punished for it. She’s not even talked to about it other than ‘we feel sorry for you.’

And yes, having an autistic sibling is difficult, but I have to point out that Max would be difficult even if he didn’t have autism, and she would be equally frustrated but wouldn’t have his broken brain to blame it on. In the discourse about ‘I have an autistic sibling/child,’ people seem sugarcoated by the likes of Autism Speaks and they forget that siblings are difficult whether or not neuroatypicality is a factor. Raising a child is difficult whether or not they have autism. One parent with a popular video on youtube about his daughter’s autism has tears rolling down his face as he laments the fact that they have to create routines for her.

Now, stop me if I’m getting out of hand and I’m not a parent, but….don’t children of any neurotype, even the gold standard of normal, need a certain measure of routine? I’m not getting how he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for having to set up a schedule in order for his daughter’s quality of life to be manageable. And I don’t feel sorry for Haddie, even though I realize she was scared and had reason to be scared. I don’t feel sorry for her simply because she went beyond ‘it was very scary what you did, Max. I love you and the thought of you not being here terrifies me. That’s what happens in my heart when you run off like that. Please don’t do it.’

She went instead to ‘You ruin everything, Max! Gosh! Life would be so much easier if a. you didn’t have autism or b. you weren’t around!’ And that point of view? It was validated and rewarded.

That’s not just a fairytale and it’s not just something that happens on sloppily written television shows, which is why I’m glad they wrote it, and why I’m writing about it. I and others have been/felt like Max with words like that coming at us, so to see the way he just takes it even though it doesn’t make sense to him and his body is shaking was painful. The only reason I don’t like the scene sometimes is that the overwhelming response to it has been ‘Oh my gosh, Haddie is amazing and finally someone understands me! My autistic sibling ruins everything and makes life so hard!!’ It’s obvious that we forget that Autistic Siblings exist and see and hear and feel, too, and have reactions to being the ones who Ruin Everything and Make Life So Hard. It’s important that reaction is known, which is why I made this post.

5×07 ‘You’re a shapeshifter of happiness.’

 

The first question I asked my friend, who also watches Skins, after seeing this episode was, how am I going to positively spin the cocaine use? Usually the drug of choice is MDMA or Anonymous White Powder and I can get away with ‘oh, just partying.’  But here, the word ‘cocaine’ was mentioned several times in five minutes because they were, uh, doing the cocaine.  ‘We should do cocaine every night – it’s marvelous,’ exclaims Grace, which is perhaps the writers poking fun at drug culture, I don’t know. In any case, I was a bit surprised by it. I was also surprised that the headmaster is Grace’s dad. He wants to send her back to the college she was at before, for typical controlling dad reasons.

Grace doesn’t want to go, for typical daughter reasons. The main issue is that he doesn’t like her boyfriend, which is a bit far fetched, but I can’t really blame him for wanting to get her out of a crowd who recreationally use cocaine. That’s not exactly being ridiculous as a parent. Still, Rich and Grace become Romeo and Juliet, and their differences become apparent as they sit at dinner together under her dad’s intimidating gaze. They don’t work, is Rich’s solution. It’s too much difference- too wide a gap between Romeo and Juliet. He sees that she acts different around her family than she does around him and that gives him further doubt that they’re even meant to be together.

The play Liv has to do in order to get a good grade is a disaster – the acting is bad, and there is no time, as well as the fact that the actors keep dropping out because of personal drama issues. Near the end, it seems, it’s not going to work out. She’s being sent back to her old college and her and her boyfriend are over. She’s becoming cynical about it all, claiming that everything she’s been taught about life is just stories. And then Rich memorizes Shakespeare and climbs up and then, the final surprise of the evening, proposes to her.

This should be interesting, come the finale. Cocaine and teen marriage? Okay, Skins. You weren’t always so ridiculous, but okay. Like Franky defending Minnie, I’ve spent a lot of time telling people that your show has a shred of moral value. Don’t disappoint me now.

5×06 Alo

One episode every season seems to come along and really affect me. I didn’t think there was going to be one this time around, but here we have it – Alo. It’s his sixteenth birthday, ie, time for adulthood to start. He doesn’t see it that way, though. He spends the morning wanking (in, honestly, the first full wanking scene that Skins has done that I know of,) sleeping, and smoking pot. His rude awakening comes when his mom gives him a spade for his birthday and pulls him out of college. (Chris first, then Thomas, then Alo.) However, his mom’s parenting methods aren’t perfect.

She spends most of the time telling him what, well, a waste of time he is, and he keeps messing up more, living up to her expectations. Fed up, she takes his dog away, and most of his stuff. His reaction to his dog being taken away was mostly heartbreaking. Still, he and his friends decided the best course of action was to party, stick it to the man, show his parents. All that did was give his father a heart attack, which is where Alo started to grow up.

He went to the party that was still going on, but didn’t drink, and instead reflected on his actions. Without a place to stay, he went to Rich’s place to see that he was….uhh…occupied, and went back to his parents. I liked that he stood up to his mom – not a lot of kids are willing to do that, at least in the productive manner that he did. He told her that yes, he was going to try to start growing up, but she had to do it, as well. Parents who have little to say to their children but words that cut them down cannot hide behind ‘but you’re supposed to honor me-  it says so in the bible!’ honoring someone isn’t letting them walk all over you or constantly erase the self-esteem you have. Kudos to Skins for taking that route, for not taking the ‘adults know everything’ route because the scary truth is that adults don’t know everything, but that you do have to grow up.

 

Grow up has been a more intense theme in Skins this year, and I have to say, I like the way it’s being executed. It’s still not preachy or patronizing, but it does get the truth across.

Skins 5×05 Nick

Nick is the British version of the American football quarterback, and it’s nice to see that it’s not just me who saw the rape culture in Nick before, as he makes allusions to rape in his locker room speech. There’s a nice dichotomy between him and his brother, Matty- Nick’s a star athlete student, and Matty spends more time in criminal activity and pissing off his dad. The only thing they seem to share in common is that they messed around with Liv last week, and it seems both of them still share that affection – problem. The sex scene between Nick and Minnie seems to communicate effectively the comedy of sex, especially if you haven’t done it before. The departure from typical (even for Skins) sex scenes that depict only lust or romance is quite welcome. The brothers make a promise that they’ll both be on their best behavior, mainly Mattie with his criminal past.   This episode seems more comfortably a Skins episode, so watching it isn’t as painful as Liv’s episode was.

It seems that the romance between Minnie and Nick’s relationship seems to be entirely pretend- on her part, and only in private, but in front of their friends, they’re all kisses and hugs, my hero and sweetheart. Nick seems to regret letting his brother in soon after he comes in, because Mattie takes the place of the Alpha Male within five seconds of meeting the crew, which is rather…tense. ‘I’m not the one fucking you up, Nick.’ That line from Mattie confronts Nick on the fact that he’s the one messing up his life with bad choices, not anyone else-  even including his brother.

Is it predictable, then, that it’s Nick, not Mattie, who tears the house up this  time after getting a ‘grow up’ from his father in response to a plead for help? What is surprising is that Mattie takes the blame, when he’s losing everything this time -everything he hasn’t had in quite a while, that Nick is the one a drunken mess on the ground, wallowing in his own coices by the end of the episode, and not Mattie. Unexpectedly and surprisingly, though, he grows up.

Skins 5×04 Liv

I don’t quite know where to start with this episode, so let me start with what I don’t like about it: the sex. Really, though? Did they have to go that overboard? Skins has always been known for its raunchiness but at least in Season 2 (when, for the most part, it started,) it had some kind of a point.  Vulnerability, fear- there was some reason for the nudity. Somewhat of a point to the drug use. Now both of them have kind of gone haywire with sex scenes (including full nudity) happening for…no discernible reason. For purely artistic reason alone, was this because Liv’s storyline was so troublesome to write? Anyway, keeping secrets is tough- especially if you’re sleeping with your best friend’s boyfriend. Liv is- and she can’t hold it in for too long. Liv’s mom is away on a retreat and Minnie decides to make amends- asks everyone for forgiveness- it doesn’t feel genuine and I’m wondering if there’s something behind the apologizing.

So they party, like any responsible teenager would do, and, among other things, Liv spits it out- the cheating. And then her and Matty go on an adventure that involves drugs, attempted rape, bunny costumes, and robbery. (The plot still doesn’t make any sense.) Then we’re back at Liv’s house, where Frankie has passed out, Alo is still going strong and Rich and Grace are snoozing adorably. Oh, I forgot to add. Minnie and Nick are having sex.

Graphic sex. Because this is Skins, remember? It turns out that Matty and Nick are brothers, drama ensues, and Liv attempts to make up with Minnie. She’s already drunk enough vodka for alcohol poisoning, so in a move fitting with the love to hate her villia-protagonist, Minnie makes her drink another bottle. A parental encounter more and there we have it, Liv’s (apparently pointless) episode. Check, please.