‘Faking It’ season 2, episode 3 review: Liam comes clean about Amy … but to who?
Like its fellow MTV show in “Awkward,” “Faking It” is at times prone to being a little too stagnant in its middle episodes, while waiting until either the premiere or the finale episodes for some of its biggest surprises to be unleashed.
With that, there was a good two-thirds of Tuesday night’s episode where we felt legitimately like the show was not really going anywhere. The arrival of the “sister school” from Brazil, who were being cared for after some dramatic sinkhole tragedy, was so out of left field, and also so clearly-temporary that it was hard to take any of the characters too serious. The whole idea was also ridiculous, but given that this show is so over-the-top sometimes, that part of it was easy to ignore.
For much of the half-hour, it felt like the real purpose of this story was just to reveal a few feelings that certain characters were carrying around, and while we wish there were more personal ways of doing it than bringing in a bunch of new students who are going to disappear again soon, it will have to suffice. For example, Karma tried to use these arrivals as a way to desperately force Amy to move on, but in the process didn’t realize that you cannot really do this. Amy has to go at her own pace, but she seems to be willing to do so.
The twist for these two is this: Didn’t Karma seem just the wee bit jealous watching her best friend kiss someone else? This is probably the first real sign that maybe she doesn’t view their relationship as entirely platonic, but we don’t feel like she is at the point yet where she is ready to admit to that.
The heartbreaking part of this is that right when Karma may be getting close to having feelings, the truth may come out about Amy and Liam, and everything will come crashing down. Liam realized that he had to come clean about the post-wedding disaster to Shane, because the arrival of these students made it so clear that he could not move on regardless of how many potential female suitors there were out there for him.
There were a few isolated moments in here between Lauren and Theo that were also interesting, at least in that he challenges her in a way few others do. This was more of a foundation, though, than a romance that will start up immediately. It’s just something to take note of for the next few weeks.
We give this episode the benefit of the doubt somewhat because it knows what lies ahead, and it’s not like the writing made any enormous mistakes or threw someone out of character. The premise was just kind of crazy, and that coupled with the lack of big reveals (save for the final seconds) make this an episode we probably will not remember in a few weeks. Grade: B-.
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Photo: MTV