This weekend, I skirted all my responsibilities and consumed the entire first season and most of the 2nd season of the television series, Skins. This is not a new show, and I’m sure what I’m about to share has been expressed elsewhere with greater aplomb.
This show is really watchable.
The music is good; from this to grime/dubstep, and even an O.C.-esque cameo from these guys. The acting is good; you may recognize this guy, or this guy. ..and there are a very reasonable amount of exposed titties for a show targeted at tweensters.
In terms of capturing the teenage zeitgeist, this show succeeds where its American contemporaries have failed. With a team of writers who have an average age of 21, the dialogue is far easier to engage with than that of certain pun-happy ex-strippers. Even the few montage/musical theatre moments flow within the narrative with a subtlety and relative lack of cheese that Glee is incapable of achieving.
Much of its influence can be credited to the legacies of its overseas cousins in Beverly Hills and Pittsburg. However, by eschewing anachronistic casting for mostly age-appropriate amateur actors, Skins exists within the storied lineage of the O.G. of tweendramas.
(It may be worth noting that two overtly non-American television series have been most effective in capturing that most American of teenage sentiments, angst.)
