Skins s05e01 review

young fucks

Is it really 4 years and 5 seasons since Skins first came out? I can't actually believe that. I remember after the 'first generation' ended and we all found out we'd get new people in season three and we were all bloody outraged. I remember watching the first episode of season 3 and thinking 'who the fuck are these people?'. But, as the season went on, I grew to love the characters and the show again. The first generation was still much better, but the second had their moments and some great plot points. Where seasons two and three failed, is that they tried to do way too much. Massive things would happen in one episode, only to be forgotten as the next weeks episode showed the next massive event. Loads of people died, but we never got to see a resolution to those plots. Some of the problem comes from having character-centric episodes - we find out about one life changing problem a chatterer is facing, but the next episode doesn't have chance to resolve anything because we're onto the next person.

The first generation used this format too, but the main character was arguably Tony so we could focus on that plot throughout.

This first episode of the third generation was actually pretty good. I didn't get the feeling they were trying too hard like I did on the last season opener. We focused one one character throughout - Frankie, there wasn't massive drug use or craziness (I think on the first episode of the second generation Cook started a fire in the college about 12 seconds after we met him), it was all more believable. I think they'll ease us into the usual heightened reality of Skins more slowly this time.

As for the content of the episode itself, we met and followed Frankie, a weird small girl with two gay dads who had to move from her old school due to excessive bullying. She is weird, to be fair, look at the girl:

a look the screams 'social outcast'

She moves to Skinsville and immediately gets bullied by this popular girl with ridiculous hair, Mini. Mini then flip-flops, decides Frankie is supercool and invites her to join the social group. They shoplift and do drugs but the group eventually find out how badly Frankie was bullied on a ridiculous generic 'Facebook' type site and all hell breaks lose. Throughout the episode you see a dirty rocker duo and a mysterious tall dark and handsome type who faces down Frankie when she's at her most crazy. Eventually the rocker guys and one member of Minis group become friends with Frankie and the season has begun. All the players are in place and you can see how its gonna come together. I don't think the main cast are gonna get on as well as previous seasons, there will be more conflict between the characters.

I like it so far, things seemed more toned down and I don't actively hate anyone just yet, but I know its just a matter of time.

SEVEN THUMBS UP

I was going to review the recent American re-make of the show, but its so god-awful I can't bring myself to. It seemed like a cheesy teen-movie, they've missed the feel of the show entirely. No thumbs up.

Catch up with the golden years with Skins, Vol. 1and Skins, Vol. 2 and the silver years with Skins, Vol. 3and Skins, Vol. 4 .