
Because of this I decided to try out a series I knew barely anything about: Skins. Going into this series I only knew two things: 1/ Dev Patel was in it and 2/ it’s about sex. What I discovered was a refreshing series full of unexpected storylines and an intense cliffhanger.
It’s hard to review this series without giving away those dreadful spoilers but I shall do my best. Essentially, you take a tight-knit group of British teens, throw in some sexual tension, add a bit of serious life lessons and you get Skins. Notice only “some” sexual tension. As it turns out, while sex drives most of the plotlines, the series tends to focus more on the gradual formation of intense relationships rather than the lustful hanky panky.
The group of friends is made up almost entirely of your stereotypical teens. Sid Jenkins (the main character) is a slightly dorky, physically unappealing virgin. Sid’s best friend is the morally corrupt Tony who serves as the resident popular stud. The two friends find themselves in a somewhat love triangle with Tony’s girlfriend Michelle. As the typical “hot” lead, Michelle lacks a large amount of substance. There is barely anything appealing about her until half-way through the series. Essentially, Tony dates Michelle but Sid has a massive crush on her and Michelle is fully aware of said crush. The supporting casts consists of Maxxie (the out and proud homosexual), Chris (the typical fun guy), Anwar (Dev Patel’s Muslim character who manages to balance his religion with his horny teenage life), and Jal (the sage of sorts who essentially exists only to give her friends advice). If these were the only individuals offered by the series I probably would have stopped watching after a few episodes. Luckily, the heart and soul of this quirky British teen drama is Hannah Murray who plays the delightfully individualistic Cassie Ainsworth. Initially it seems Cassie’s only here to fill in the best friend role for Michelle. But this spacey blond with an eating disorder really carries the entire show. Cassie may have a drug problem early on, she may not eat anything ever, and she way look and act like a M

The biggest flaw with Skins is the depiction of the kids’ parents. Don’t expect to find any Sandy Cohens in this group. Instead we have a bunch of self-obsessed parents who the audience is clearly supposed to blame for how their kids turned out. The parents themselves are typically too busy with their own lives to really care about their children. Cassie’s stay far away from her rehab center and would rather paint nude portraits of each other than drive her daughter to the doctors. Tony’s want to have some family time but easily give up because they don’t know how to talk to their children. Michelle’s mother is so involved with her new husband that she offers no sympathy for her own daughter’s heartache. I can live with some unrealistic storylines (and trust me this series has several) but I don’t buy the parents-are-to-blame-for-everything scenario. The only real villains in this series are the parents (unless you argue that the arrogant Tony is simultaneously everyone’s friend and enemy…which you could definitely argue). However, Skins saves its own ass by (finally) introducing a good parent in the season finale. To elaborate on that would be far too spoilerific so that’s all you get.

This seems like a good point to address another accomplishment of this series. It’s not often on television that a platonic friendship between a gay male and a straight male is portrayed. Typically gay men have their female friends, their boyfriends, or the straight males who magically go gay for them. For a while I worried that the friendship between Anwar and Maxxie would turn into something more. I was concerned the tension between the two was a result of some sexual confusion on Anwar’s part. Luckily, the writers did something absolutely unheard of: they took sex completely out of the equation and portrayed a shockingly realistic (yet uncommon) friendship between two polar opposites. I applaud them for this.
There are so many wonderful moments in this series which need to be addressed in full (I didn’t even mention the student-teacher affair between Chris and Angie) but they also need to be experienced first hand to appreciate. Give Skins a chance and let it play out a bit before you make judgments. It isn’t until the episode “Michelle” that Skins really comes together. Somehow the episode which focuses on the least intriguing character managed to make me really commit to the show. That’s a sign of damned good television and I can’t wait to watch series two.
Some memorable quotes to end:
“I didn’t eat for three days so I could be lovely.”- Cassie
“It’s like a fucking episode of The OC in here.” -Chris
“Sex plus power equals fun”- Tony
“And I’m really really sorry for being a slut okay!” -Maxxie
“We have so much in common….depression….self-loathing.”- Cassie and Simon
“Of course I’m fucking ashamed of you.”-Angie
No comments:
Post a Comment