Skins Season 7 Review

1st Aug 2013

The first season of Skins (2007) was a bit of a revelation for television aimed at the teen/early twenties audience when it was first aired. Not only did it have an impressive marketing campaign it also was one of those first shows which you just had to watch not on terrestrial but digital (who could wait an extra week!). The critical reaction was conflicted with strong opinions about its explicit scenes of sex between teenagers and their casual use of drugs. Some argued this was not what a teenager’s life was really like and were appalled that this was aimed at young people who may think it was acceptable to emulate the behaviour onscreen. Some believed this was a pretty accurate portrayal of what some teenagers got up to nowadays. Whatever your stance on the activities of the teenagers in the show it managed to combine humour with the dark and painful melancholy that plagues us at an age of heightened hormones. Everything is life or death when you are 16 and Skins never shied away from this. The quality of those first two seasons could be observed by the success of the young actors who featured in the main roles. One is becoming a major Hollywood lead, one featured in one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2008 and continues with a successful and high profile acting career and two of them can be spotted in Game of Thrones (which if you didn’t already know – everyone in the universe watches).

Over the six seasons the show has followed a group as they go through College/Sixth-form from the ages of 16-18 moving on once they leave this bracket. Seasons three and four were transferred to the younger sister of Tony, one of the leads in the first two, and whilst not bad did not quite match up to the early seasons. Seasons five and six sadly just lost the magic the show started with and became too stereotypical, the guts and f*** you attitude of the early seasons went limp and the quality of young actors seemed to decline.

Season seven, however, is like an ode to Skins and is a quite beautiful round-up of the end of what once was. The six episodes are compiled of three two parters following three of the characters from the first four seasons. We have Effy, a hugely unlikeable selfish character perfectly placed in the financial world of London, Cassie the wonderfully vulnerable and beautiful character from the original line up and Cook, the loveable but somewhat psychotic rogue from the same era as Effy (who unfortunately always felt a little like Chris version 2).

What these three stories show us is just how amazing the material and characters were. We dislike them, they can be awful but we still get drawn into their stories. We’ve moved on in our own lives since watching them as teenagers and so have they. Teenage angst has transitioned into young adult angst. What is so impressing with these three actors is the nuances they give their characters, with many shots focusing just on their faces they all have that talent to express levels of emotions and conflict without doing anything. Combine this with the beautiful way in which it is shot, a fine supporting cast and surroundings, you will come away from watching these stories depressed, melancholy and probably in need of a cigarette and drink. A fine return to form for a show that knew how to get under your skin.