T.V. Review: Skins U.K. (Season 1 & 2)

Why Skins? Well up to this point I have entertained myself with mediums older than my demo. So when thinking of something to watch for my T.V. review I wanted to find something younger than my demo. Short of watching the Disney Channel I decided to try Skins season 1 & 2. It’s probably categorized as a teen drama more for women so I believe its worthy to review for this blog.

I first heard of Skins when the U.S. version was set to release and there was a lot of controversy with all the sex and drug depictions. I just waived it off because I wasn’t gonna watch the show anyway. While in college I overheard many conversations of people (mostly girls) that liked Skins (U.K.) which first came out in 2008. I decided to watch seasons 1 & 2 because there were only 19 episodes and I would finish it relatively fast. My expectations were of a series that may be kind of shallow, but I thought it must be popular for a reason so I went in with an open mind.

The series first caught me off guard with the structure of each episode, which centers around one (sometimes two) characters. There are eight characters that the show focuses on (Tony, Michelle, Sid, Cassie, Chris, Jal, Maxxie, and Anwar) who are in the equivalent of American upper high school. It took me a few episodes to grasp the lingo of U.K. slang because there are quite a few differences between U.K. English and American English. For example, instead of calling it weed/pot they called it spliff. If anything I learned some cool new words that I can now introduce into my vocabulary. There is also the music, which is pretty awesome and an important part of the show. At the end of the first season creative juices simmer when the characters go somewhat Bollywood and lip-sync to Cat Stevens “Wild World.” I usually skip the opening credits of a show, but in this show the credits are too catchy to miss. Check it out for yourself:

Cassie (Hannah Murray)

Before you think this is a flat out comedy let we warn you that it is straight drama with some laughable moments. But I must state that the characters in this T.V. show have serious problems for being teenagers. You grow to put up with the negative aspects of each character some worse than others. If you’re looking for your favorite character you kind of have to pick the best of the worst. My favorite character was Cassie who held down the second episode in the first season and absolutely kept me entertained. Actress Hannah Murray does a great job portraying this character that has Anorexia and a peculiar personality. If you can only watch one episode of the series I would definitely recommend 1.02 just to watch Murray put on a show.

Tony (Nicholas Hoult)

If you like the sociopath bad boy characters you would definitely like the character of Tony played by the most famous of the cast Nicholas Hoult. In the first season Tony manipulates, tricks, and chisels all of his friends and enemies to do whatever he wants. Tony definitely has an evil personality, but he is so entertaining because of it. Tony’s personality shift is just one example of the differences between season 1 and season 2.

The story lines get more serious and the characters suffer heavy emotional losses in season 2. One can see the evolution of high school students to adults as well. They went from sex & drugs to death & heartbreak quickly and I’ll let you decide if the evolution was too heavy. If I were a teen I’d probably be upset at the change, but as a guy in his 20’s I can appreciate the change.

The friends are kind of split between primary (Tony, Michelle, Sid, Cassie) and secondary (Chris, Jal, Maxxie, Anwar) characters in the first season, which is not a big deal because it depicts friendships in real life, sort of friends within friends. The best part about the show is that you can actually believe these are high school students. These are not models in their mid-20’s playing high school students, but actors that look like regular people. The show is sort of drenched in realism that is lost with American teen dramas that try to depict teenagers as pretty white people with problems. Of course the show has to pander to teens so there is a bunch of ridiculousness, like walking in on an attractive teacher while showering in school. The sex & drugs criticism is a little overplayed because I didn’t see anything that was too bad or too graphic, but I will say that the nudity was HBO-esque for a teen show. I guess I’m just used to American shows that don’t really show so much nudity without being on a premium cable network.

As much as I wanted to go off on some of the negative traits of these characters, I came to realize that we’ve all suffered from these traits as teens even though it was probably to a lesser extent. After season two the show spins off with new characters and although I don’t plan to watch future seasons I’m glad I watched this pillar of late 2000’s pop culture. It was refreshing to see a new window into the T.V. genre that has disappointed and plagued T.V. entertainment. I can now see why this show is praised by fans and hated by parents. Without influence I have come to recommend the first season to your teenage sensibilities. GRADE: 7.5/10