MTV’s New Show Faking It Completely Drops the Ball

As a self-proclaimed major TV buff, I’m not above the occasional hate watch or simple guilty pleasure (read: my undying commitment to both Teen Wolf and The Bachelor). But this week I watched something so appalling I cannot, in good conscience, continue to subject myself to it. Although, I must admit I never had any expectation to like it to begin with, so maybe that only fueled my overall hatred. Regardless, this past week MTV premiered an original series titled Faking It, which follows the lives of two formerly unpopular high school girls who’ve gained a newfound popularity due to their lesbian relationship. The twist? They’re not actually lesbian!  The premise of the show sounded just offensive enough to actually get me to see what all the fuss was about…and boy do I have a lot of fussing to do!

In one of the first scenes of the pilot episode, the leads Amy and Karma complain that they never get invited to parties and they must figure out a way to be noticed. The audience is supposed to sympathize with them as outcasts, however it’s a bit difficult to imagine two beautiful girls such as them being socially ostracized.

Possibly the most frustrating aspect of Faking It is the multitude of self-referential jokes which come so close to acknowledging how problematic the show is but then back out. For example, the characters live in Austin, TX, a notably liberal city in contrast to the incredibly conservative majority of the state, and the show’s characters are quick to make light of this. How lucky are they to live in open-minded Austin while everyone else has to deal with the very real consequences of homophobia? Hilarious. Another scene towards the end of the episode shows Amy and Karma in a position to come clean in front of the whole school about their hoax of a relationship, as someone who wants to expose them shouts they are “mocking the gay rights movement!” …Yes! MTV admitted it. Pretending to be gay in the hopes of gaining favor with others while so many American teens feel they must hide their identities for the exact opposite reason indeed is in so many awful ways a complete mockery of everything LGBT activists have worked to achieve. It also, in my opinion, perpetuates the straight male fetishizing of lesbian relationships but that’s a whole other post.

I really could go on about the many issues I have with the show but my main problem comes down to this: MTV is a medium that reaches and influences so many teens and they have a real opportunity here to give voice to a marginalized group that so often goes unheard, and to advocate for the visibility of lesbians in mainstream culture. As the show currently stands and from what I can perceive, that is not the stance MTV has chosen to take. Faking It operates under the privileged assumption that our generation isn’t sexist or homophobic anymore, and that coming out is the right thing for every LGBT person to do. Instead of trying to get rid of the problem, they are ignoring it entirely. And that is an absolute shame.

The preview for the rest of the show’s first season indicates to the audience that somewhere along the line of “pretending” to be in love with her best friend, Amy actually begins to fall for Karma. Despite having no plans to continue watching, my only hope is that the show might delve further into the storyline of someone who is questioning her sexuality while bringing to light the internal and external conflicts that go along with it.

For those who also watched the pilot of Faking It, were you offended as well or did you enjoy it? Is anyone still planning to watch the show in the future?