Skins

When Skins first appeared on TV, I ignored it, figuring it to be a trashy teenie drama that I wouldn’t be interested in.

Then, because of a friend staying with me at the time, I happened to catch the last two episodes of series 2, and I actually quite liked it.

So, a few years later, now, I noticed that all 4 series (series 4 is part the way through) are now available on the web with 4OD (4 on demand), so I thought I would see what I missed.

Over the last few weeks, I have watched series 1 and 2, and thought it was pretty enjoyable. Last night I sat down to watch the first series 3 episode, and ended up turning it off.

Series 3 had a mostly new cast, with the old cast having left their 6 form college and gone their separate ways. However, my problem was not with the new cast but the new scripts. What had been a (sometimes far-fetched) drama, with funny moments had been turned into comic farce, where the show starts with a police constable taking an sticky ice-cream to the crotch; a driver of a crashed car is tricked into thinking they hit someone with a daubing of ketchup (and then conveniently pays them off, rather than wait for the police); and all the teachers are idiots (for example the teacher who accidentally farts down a live megaphone held behind his back during assembly).

Many of the actors in these scenes were in the previous series, but appeared to have had a personality transplant (or a brain removal) before the start of series 3.

I took a quick look at later episodes, but it didn’t improve. I realise that I am not the target audience for this show by a long chalk, but I still think that they kinda spoilt it by going so broad with the humour.

Oh well, time to find something else to watch.

Originally posted on my WordPress blog as http://www.filklore.com/2010/03/skins/.

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