having now finished druck s8, I’m incredibly saddened at how this season has gone, considering it’s the end of the second generation, and it’s unlikely that we will see any of these characters again. after 10 weeks, mailin is still a cipher—she had no internal struggles; her flaws were left unaddressed from previous seasons. there was no growth. overall, this season felt incredibly pointed towards silencing BIPOC members of this cast—particularly ish, which isn’t surprising given her comments. every episode, repeatedly, had ava and fatou either comforting or praising mailin for her “feminism,” her “girlbossing,” when it’s clear in seasons produced by q3/jünglinge that ava, in particular, would not say these things. for a season where finn was the LI, we learned nothing more about him or his family, besides that they run a furniture business impacted by the pandemic. yara was given a romance plotline with zoe, but that was entirely offscreen until the last two episodes. kieu my was only allowed to criticize the action mailin and zoe engaged with once, and it was apparently because nhungi and the others intervened on set. season 8 was also a season pointed towards conservatism—nora upheld purity culture in her final clip before departing for three weeks, and essentially shamed mailin, one of her best friends, for taking pictures of herself. in one of their fights, finn also did the same to mailin. zoe and mailin’s activist action with the destroying of books was essentially a parody of Teenage Activism™️, while in earlier seasons, activism was treated as something worthwhile, something important to engage with and discuss.
but the thing is, it just wasn’t season 8 of druck. season 7 had much of the same issues. the instas and sascha were static. the season, while hinting at the ideas of toxic friendship, did not touch on that internal struggle within isi from season 6, choosing to instead show the topic of gender dysphoria. while this topic is incredibly important, the new writers and SM team did not remember how isi was the one who introduced kieu my to the LGBTQ+ community, queer terms and language, and how she already was following drag queens and non-binary people on IG, and would have had some inkling into what was happening with themselves. the writers chose an easy route instead of building on the nuances already in the character. lou’s actions from s7 with the tampons could also be seen as a parody of true activism, and she also may have been a character created to fight back against the “isi is fatphobic!” allegations—but he was. that four minute clip in which he apologizes to ava for the bullying, and then it is never addressed again confirms it. the LGBTQ+ youth group & david could have been incredibly important for isi, but they were only shown in two clips; same with the turkish community, where they made a nameless neighbor into a bigot and homophobic and transphobic, rather than addressing the issues where consti essentially assaulted isi and made terrible comments towards her head-on. sascha, much like finn, didn’t have a personality beyond plant boy and LI either, and isi treated him like shit in his shoe until a bogus apology in ep 9. screentime was taken from BIPOC members of the cast and given largely to two white newcomers. eren had to fight for the pronoun scene, but also mentioned the efforts of the team/castmates to help them in that fight.
it’s sad to see the parallels between s5/s6 and how s7/s8 turned out. this last clip really showed me how much this cast had to fight tooth and nail to try and protect these characters who they loved. the cashqueens memory scenes consisted of s5/s6 references; as did the montage in between the cast speaking, again primarily about the early generation 2 seasons. overall, i wish the cast the best, i wish jünglinge & q3 the best. their talent is stunning, and i can’t wait to see what they do next. thank you, mina, sira, eren, frida, ish, zethphan, nhungi, madeleine, elena, anh, casper, paul, and paula. thank you for these characters. they will always have a place in my heart, even if the writing doesn’t. rant over!!
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