connor1802
Skins is one of my favourite TV series. For me the first generation is the best, I just feel that you can connect with the characters in it, I mean not everything in it is everyday, but for me the characters emotions and just being a Teenager was something I could connect to. The best character I think is Maxxie, although he isn't a main character as such, I just felt like the problems he had with Anwar were the same as I have had. Overall I would say that Skins is a defiant watch if you are looking for a great series to get into and something that you feel involved in and attached to. Just a shame they change the cast every two seasons.
c-matassa
I started this show a few weeks ago after being recommended from a friend, and I don't regret it one bit. This show is absolutely brilliant. It brought you into the lives of teenagers, and all of their problems. Season 1 & 2: The characters are really easy to bond with and you instantly fall in love with them. The cast is top notch, they are all great actors and fit their role perfectly. Season 2 is similar to season 1. however it is much darker and much more intense in my opinion.I have just started season 3, and so far I love it. I was afraid that the new cast wouldn't live up to the high standards set by the previous one, but I've been impressed thus far. I'm glad to have seen familiar faces in the first episode, which relates the new season to the previous 2. After finishing the whole second generation, I can truly say that they were as good as the first one.The third generation was very difficult for me to get into. It took three or four episodes to really start to attach to the characters. However, I am very happy that I pushed through, because they were just an amazing generation. BE WARNED, THIS SHOW IS NOT SUITABLE FOR EVERYONE. If you somehow got the impression that this was a family show, you may want to rethink. There is constant drug use, harsh language, sexual references, nudity and just in general is very graphic.
alex239-545-53158
Despite some scathing criticism and a reductionist advert campaign that focused disproportionately on the rebellious, edgy elements of the show, Skins produced some remarkable television. The first generation especially were moving, funny, intriguing personalities and the writing was superb. Season 1, structured mainly around the bored, semi-sociopathic narcissism of Tony and the nihilistic emotional turmoil of Cassie had heart, humour and amazing chemistry between all the leads. You cared about every character, episodes were structured fantastically and work as individual pieces as well as fitting the whole. Despite the much derided parting and drug taking, the season actually felt extremely realistic in everything from the dialogue to the wardrobe to the moral ambiguity to the parents, who are probably the most well drawn adult characters in the entire history of teen television. They are three dimensional and interesting, not merely stereotypes. Their comedy is natural and unforced. The pilot is as good an example of a lead television episode as you will find, perfectly introducing the cast, maintaining forward motion and a satisfying ending.Season 2 is almost as good, darker and pervaded with melancholy as the cast start to grow up and lose their dreams. Hannah Murray and Joe Dempsey put in career defining performances, full of pathos and humanity. Criticisms? The Sketch storyline divided viewers, being well executed but badly conceived, and the NYC storyline was preemptive of future seasons in its lack of believability although was beautifully shot with the usual superb photography that underpinned this show. The final episode is very poignant.Season 3 drops off a little but still surpassed expectations after the cast completely. The characters are still well drawn and memorable, the acting is solid, the music and cinematography continue to excel, the writing still concise and focused. The excellent Naomi/Emily plot got a huge online following. Jack O'Connell is sensational as Cook, a role that could slip easily into embarrassing parody but is instead absolutely riveting. The biggest drawback is the complete lack of chemistry between Freddie & Effy, undermining the love triangle storyline that the season fixates on - they are portrayed as deeply in love despite never having a meaningful exchange. Their scenes together are awkward and unnatural. The adult characters also become two dimensional, depicted as being out of touch and mainly used for badly written attempts at comedy.Season 4 sees a massive drop off in quality and is almost uniformly awful in terms of storyline and writing. The enhanced focus on Thomas is a negative - by far the most ridiculous character ever drawn on the show. The immigrant from a tiny, impoverished village in Congo who speaks perfect, eloquent English, portrayed as a perfect character without flaws. He nurses his little brother, fights off a local gangster with his wit and charm, forgives his girlfriend for cheating, makes a stand against underage drinking, gives girls his coat and shoes in freezing cold weather, is devoted to his family, reacting with serenity when goaded, and absurdly gets an instant athletic scholarship to Harvard despite having never ran before. His plot lines have no life because he doesn't ring true, even if the efforts to counter negative stereotypes of immigrants were noble if a little patronizing.This is unfortunately symptomatic of a season that completely sheds any semblance of believability. Edgy shots of drug abuse are inserted for shock value, with one character taking ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis in one sitting before cycling to college, with no explanation as to how he would pay for them, or why he would mix such different drugs other than that they needed a 'cool' looking montage of him snorting powder to show how deep, sad and lost he was. Lazy. The adult characters deteriorate further, becoming caricatures with the usual stock stereotypes of buffoonish headmasters and smug evil teachers expelling pupils, and an obsessive, murdering psychotherapist who is meant to make the show seem dark and haunting but succeeds in making it a ludicrous laughing stock. The JJ episode is the only saving grace, sweet and warm and cutting out the story arcs of the season to work as a lovely standalone piece.In Seasons 5 and 6 the writers vowed to 'bring back the lighter side' of the show. In practice this meant ripping off Mean Girls and especially The Inbetweeners, a show that had rocketed in popularity and prompted a backlash against Skins which was held to be an unrealistic portrayal of teen life next to the embarrassment and social awkwardness of The Inbetweeners. The cast were solid but unremarkable, and not helped by being given hipster makeovers making the show even less relateable to your normal teenager. The dialogue and clothes and plots were not a felt false; the collapse of ratings came as no surprise. More deaths were inserted for no other reason than easy drama and cheap tragedy to give the characters a reason to be angsty and enjoy those lonely, brooding close ups of them that had descended into self parody.Season 7 just served to tarnish memories. The lack of creativity in the writing is seen by more pointless, unrealistic deaths and dreadful dialogue ("Fetch me a towel, jewboy" a Muslim chef says to his Jewish assistant...). Shabby, poorly thought out plot lines include a girl going from admin assistant to top trader at a London stockbroker in a couple of weeks. Visually the show continued to excel but the episodes were incredibly disappointing.For all that, the first two series captured lighting in a bottle with a truly special cast coming together to create memorable, groundbreaking television that maintains a huge cult following still on Tumblr. It is no surprise that so many of the actors have become huge worldwide names. The writing, photography and characterization were all stunning and Season 1 especially is an inch perfect time capsule for being seventeen and at college in the UK in 2006/2007. Stick to the early stuff.
