Another Pair Of Eyes

Skins

Prior to my essay deadline, I had never seen an episode (or even a glimpse of) the much-mentioned Skins. I’d not seen it on TV, what with me hardly ever watching any and all, and what sketchy premise of the programme I’d picked up didn’t really appeal. Lo! and behold, the first episode was indeed filled with innuendo, sex driven adolescents and questionably hilarious antics involving stealing a car and crashing a house party. So so, I thought, and I almost didn’t watch the next episode.

“Cassie”, episode 2, series 1 of skins is a masterpiece. It’s touching, and human, and even though it’s still got the sex and the innuendo and the outright nudity (there’s a lot of it) it is just really, really good. It took a character who from the first episode was a vacuous, spaced-out nymphomaniac and put her whole life into perspective, through her eyes explaining what she is going through and what is important in her life.

And that is how skins works. Each episode another person’s life, and from the bunch of shallow personas in the first episode develops a complex set of people. Some episodes are better than others, and “Effy” is just bizarre (although her silence is magnetic – they’ve done a great job of creating this mysterious character about whom no-one knows. She speaks twice in the entire series), but overall it’s well worth watching. I’ve not seen the second series, so not sure how good that is although I’ve heard negative reports of it.

Still, colour me impressed.