Three Things About SKINS

1. E4's Website updated it's SKINS page with pictures, video and a trailer for the new series of SKINS, set to debut early this year (no word on an exact date). The impeccible series 1 & 2 cast has gone off to university, and now the show revolves around a new group of friends led by the lovely Effy, Tony's nihilistic younger sister. I've been a little leary of this, even though I think it's a genius idea, simply for fear that the writers couldn't create a group of characters as endearing as the first group. But this trailer, with the song "Halfway Home" by TV on the Radio, renews my faith in one of the best shows on TV, definately up there with MAD MEN and all the other critical darlings. Here's the trailer:



2. BBC America can rot in hell for what they're doing to SKINS series 1&2. I'm no flake, I understand inherent problems bringing a show like SKINS to a more conservative America, but damn! Not only do they subtitle this English-language program, and butcher the naughty bits, but they replace the immaculate soundtrack with cheap-ass pop punk. I know pop punk can make things seem more bad-ass in a kid-gloves sort of what, but it feels like their fucking up the MOna Lisa here! I knew BBC America couldn't do it justice, and had been hoping that HBO would in a similiar collaborative fashion to the way they handled EXTRAS or ROME. Sheeit, even SHOWTIME would do it justice. SKINS would fit right in. They could sell the show on all the sexy drugs and sexy British teens boning, but I think these networks have the environment to allow critics to see the show as the would-be classic television it is, and not dismiss it as another retarded baby from the N's soggy netherregions.

...AND NOW, WHY SKINS IS GOOD:
3. SKINS captures the essence of the teenage experience in modern culture, rather than being a realistic portrayls. It harnesses youthful tendencies towards angst, melodrama and the apocalypse in a stylish, artful magic realist landscape, using a cast of actors talented beyond their years (Dev Patel, oddly enough, the first to be recognized post SKINS in Danny Boyle's Oscar Slut SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE), fucking great music, and stories that recognize the importance of economic and tasteful storytelling, rather than pandering to audience desires. I'm about the furthest thing anybody would want in a parent, but I really think SKINS is the perfect thing for an aimless teenager to pass the time with. I can't even imagine the perfect world where a show like SKINS had existed when I was a 16-18. Sadly, American culture seems too scared of its own butthole to appreciate something like this with anything other than their Church Lady pants on... which is why you need to live in fear of the day some network producer decides to make SKINS USA.