Midseason Report Card: Is ‘Faking It’ season 2 a genuine hit?
It took us a little bit of time to first get on board “Faking It” as a show to add to the CarterMatt roster. After all, there are so many programs that air on TV these days, and sometimes being a comedy airing on MTV in the spring can be a tough window to appear in.
Still, this show in particular has developed a devoted following not just for its humor, but for capturing so many different kinds of characters in a real, genuine light. It’s a romantic comedy in some ways, and the sexuality of its characters really comes secondary to those emotions.
With this article, we’re specifically giving our Midseason Report Card for the first half of the second season.
What worked – Very funny moments, including the whole episode that forced everyone at Hester High into specific roles for a social experiment. This felt very “Community” inspired, and was a good backdrop to explore Karma’s feelings of rage towards Liam, who she discovered had slept with her best friend Amy after the two were drunk. (Amy, meanwhile, is actually in love with Karma.) The emotional mining of these characters is still great, and the show is not afraid to make things complicated. Karma may have some feelings for Amy, but she is not ready to admit them to herself yet.
Meanwhile, the Lauren intersex story was a pretty tremendous inclusion of something that has not really been explored much on TV before, and it was nice to see that her love interest Theo didn’t really care about that. He had his problems, but they were very different than that.
What didn’t – For almost the entire season, we were waiting to see what would happen with Amy and Karma when the truth came out about Liam. We wish that this happened a little earlier in the season, and there was less time spent getting to that point. There’s a lot of story before that we cannot even remember yet.
We feel like in the end, the story could have benefited more from just some other absurd, laugh-out-loud moments. It was fun, but probably not as funny as the first season.
Overall – “Faking It” is still a very good addition to the MTV lineup. It didn’t capture the strength of the first season, but did tell a story that was complex, and continued to make you care about its characters. Grade: B.
What was your take on the first half of “Faking It” this season? Share with a comment, and head over here to see some of our other coverage related to the show! Also, you can sign up right now if you want to grab even more updates on everything we cover right away via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: MTV.)