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So I watch a lot of television in my spare time. I DVR tons of shows each week. I watch shows on Netflix and Hulu. . . pretty much anywhere I can get my hands on the stuff. Well, I recently started and finished the British teen drama Skins in a matter of a week or so and it was good. Really good. My only other run ins with British television have been with The Vicar of Dibley (not very good in my opinion), The Office (brilliant!), and Extras (also brilliant). I randomly found Skins on Netflix and decided to try it out out of sheer boredom. From episode one, I was hooked. This show is reminiscent of American teen shows like The OC or 90210 but minus all the melodrama and plus loads of swearing, sex, and drug abuse.
The show has received criticism here in the US and abroad for its controversial depictions of teenagers doing all of the aforementioned activities. The show runs on Britain's Channel 4, but has run in the US on BBC America (although censored in parts due to nudity or other factors that the FCC frowns upon).
The show has a very simple structure. It centers around a group of friends going to college, the British equivalent of the last two years of high school, in Bristol. Each episode focuses on one of the friends, highlighting story lines to further that particular character while still having secondary story lines that help the other characters stay involved. Each season runs about 10 episodes long and so far there have been 4 seasons.
The writing is what separates Skins from any other show that I have seen in recent memory. It is brutally honest, extremely funny, and poignant. Yes, there is a good deal of drug use and sex but there is a good deal of that in real life too if you just look hard enough.
The music selection for this show is also the best that I have ever seen in a television program. This show is an indie music fan's dream. Skins has sampled songs from Grizzly Bear, Florence + the Machine, Born Ruffians, Crystal Castles. . . the list could seriously go on for days. The right song has the ability to change an ordinary scene into something extraordinary, and I think the music supervisors for this show know how to pick the right song for the right moment.
Another reason why Skins is so great is because of the actors themselves. All of the actors are actual teenagers, not freakishly good looking twenty-somethings. Most of the actors are relatively unknown. The only real exceptions are Nicholas Hoult and Dev Patel from the first two seasons of the show. Some might recognize Nicholas as the little boy from About A Boy or more recently as Colin Firth's student, love interest in A Single Man. Dev Patel was only known for his role in Skins until he was chosen to play Jamal in Danny Boyle's Oscar magnet Slumdog Millionaire.
Skins is a daring attempt to depict teenage life as harshly and as real as any show out, and I think is succeeds in that respect. For anyone looking to try out something new, I highly recommend Skins. Those Brits know how to make damn good television if you ask me. . . (minus the Vicar that is).
