Another Look at Skins

After watching series one of Skins, I was eager to continue watching to see what became of Cassie and Sid’s relationship, how Maxxie and Anwar’s friendship would grow, and whether or not Tony survived getting run over by a bus. So I patiently waited for my DVDs to arrive in the mail and once they did I was utterly disappointed. The problem is Skins focused on some ridiculous storylines this season and effectively ruined a lot of the amazing relationships they originally built.

In a typical melodramatic turn of events, Sid and Cassie suffered through a pretty horrible breakup due to a complete misunderstanding. While webcamming with Sid, Cassie accidentally left her camera on and he saw her sitting with a half naked man. The man, of course, was gay and just a friend of Cassie’s. Sid did what most immature teenagers would do and refused to ask Cassie about it. Instead, after his father’s death he starts sleeping with Michelle. Meanwhile, Tony is undergoing physical therapy and trying to get back to his normal life after suffering brain damage. In other ridiculous plots, Anwar and Maxxie’s friendship is destroyed when Anwar starts dating Sketch, a girl who stalked Maxxie because she wanted to date him regardless of his sexuality.

The only interesting plot to happen this season was between Jal and Chris. Jal was my least favorite character in the first series, but she became the breakthrough star this series. The writers gave Larissa Wilson the hardest story. She had to make Jal transition from the boring supportive friend to a romantic love struck girl dealing with pregnancy and death. In an unexpected twist, she falls in love with Chris and is impregnated the first time they have sex. Shortly after telling Chris, her lover dies from a hereditary disease (another problem with this show is how much quickly some of the plots move forward). The series three finale shows Jal coping with Chris’ death and her decision about whether or not to keep the baby. Cassie may have been the star of series one, but Jal takes the cake in series two.

The final episode also marks the sendoff of all the original characters. As far as sendoffs go, it was probably one of the worst in television history. The storylines were rushed, characters were not fully developed, and the emotional goodbyes were lacking. High school goodbyes should be elongated, full of emotion, and they should give meaning to the past relationships. None of this was successfully accomplished by Skins. The best goodbye was between Tony and Sid, but only Tony showed a good deal of sadness to see his best friend leave.

My biggest problem with the finale, which is still driving me insane, was the way things were left with Sid and Cassie. These two proved to have the best relationship throughout the series and it was a pleasure watching their friendship develop into something more. Cassie runs off to New York, missing Chris’ funeral, and Sid follows after. The episode ends with Sid searching for Cassie in the city, but we are given no glimpse into their possible reconciliation. In fact, it seems like the directors want us to believe that Sid might not actually find Cassie. After watching the miserable ending, I checked up some information about series three to see if Cassie and Sid return for some closure. According to the credits, they don’t!!!!

The last shot in series two shows Effy laying in Tony’s infamous bed (infamous because the bed spread shows two naked people and is a staple of the show) and she gives the camera a sly smile right before the credits role. The reason for this shot is to show the direction of the series. Effy takes over in the shows junior year as the main character. I have no desire to continue watching Skins because Effy never really interested me as a character. Also, I’ve lost faith in the writers for this show. Series one was engaging, realistic, and had a great deal of emotion. This was all lacking in series two. I’d still recommend watching Skins, but only on a rainy day.

Skins: Series 1

The problem with being a television fanatic as well as a pop culture fiend is that you often run into spoilers regarding your favorite series. Without seeing even a single episode of the most recent season of Grey’s Anatomy, I already know some of the major story lines (Izzie’s brain cancer, her reunion with Alex, George’s departure/death, the big proposal). I knew that Alan Tudyk was the doll-gone-wrong Alpha before he even appeared on Dollhouse. Most recently I unfortunately learned that Nancy Botwin is pregnant without even seeing a single episode of season four (let alone season five). Needless to say, spoilers tend to, well, spoil things.

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 Mary-Kate Olsen knock-off, but gosh darn it the girl’s got some serious likability. Once you look past the annoying anorexia storyline you see Cassie for what she really is: a surprisingly mature teen who, like most, just wants to be loved. Cassie throws herself into the love triangle, without really intending, and this results in a horrendous amount of heartbreak. Luckily for us, Cassie isn’t an emotional, self-pitying teen so we get to see her subtly deal with her emotions.

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.

The best thing about Skins is the gradual progress of all the relationships and storylines. Occasionally the writers throw in random plots which came out of nowhere, but they clearly knew where they were heading with the entire first series. The real success of the series is that even though the writer’s knew where they were going, I was left kind of clueless. Maybe this is because I knew nothing about the series or maybe it’s because I wasn’t wholeheartedly invested until about half-way through, but it took me a few episodes to realize that it wasn’t Sid’s crush on Michelle that drives the plot. Instead, to keep the viewer’s watching, the writer’s rely on the superb acting skills of Hannah Murray to portray Cassie’s gradual infatuation with Sid. Sid and Cassie’s relationship is almost in complete opposition to the other strong relationship in the series: Maxxie and Anwar. Cassie and Sid meet during the premiere episode and slowly get closer as the series progresses. Maxxie and Anwar are best friends at the start of the series but gradually grow apart. Sid and Cassie can’t be together because Sid loves Michelle. Maxxie and Anwar can’t be friends because Maxxie loves men and this is against Anwar’s religion. The finale of series one is almost too good to be true. The two relationships are somewhat resolved and the individuals involved learn exactly what it means to love. There’s never a doubt that Cassie loves Sid or that Anwar and Maxxie love each other, but it becomes a question of whether or not that love is strong enough to bring them together. For a show seemingly about horny teens who only want sex, these four characters teach us that love is really the most powerful thing in this world…even more so than the libido.

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