Skins (British TV series)
Skins is a British teen comedy drama television series that follows the lives of a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of sixth form. Its controversial story-lines have explored issues like dysfunctional families, mental illness (such as depression, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and bipolar disorder), adolescent sexuality, gender, substance abuse, death, and bullying.
"Skins (TV series)" redirects here. For the American remake, see Skins (American TV series).Skins
- Nicholas Hoult
- Hannah Murray
- Larissa Wilson
- Joe Dempsie
- Mike Bailey
- Mitch Hewer
- Dev Patel
- April Pearson
- Kaya Scodelario
- Aimee-Ffion Edwards
- Jack O'Connell
- Merveille Lukeba
- Lisa Backwell
- Luke Pasqualino
- Lily Loveless
- Ollie Barbieri
- Megan Prescott
- Kathryn Prescott
- Dakota Blue Richards
- Alexander Arnold
- Freya Mavor
- Laya Lewis
- Sean Teale
- Will Merrick
- Sebastian de Souza
- Jessica Sula
- Sam Jackson
- Harry Enfield
Fat Segal
United Kingdom
English
7
61 (list of episodes)
- Bryan Elsley
- Charles Pattinson
- George Faber
- John Griffin
- John Yorke
- Matt Jones
- Chris Clough
- Matt Strevens
- Neil Duncan
- Toby Welch
Bristol, England
44–49 minutes
- Company Pictures
- Storm Dog Films
25 January 2007 –
5 August 2013
Each episode generally focuses on a particular character or subset of characters and the struggles they face in their lives, with the episodes named after the featured characters. The show was created by father-and-son television writers Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain for Company Pictures,[1] and premiered on E4 on 25 January 2007.[2]
Skins went on to be a critical success as well as a ratings winner and has developed a cult following. It has since been considered revolutionary,[3] and continues to draw appraisal for its depiction of problems that British youth experience, which was generally not showcased on public TV at the time.[4] Over its initial six-year run, Skins was atypical of ongoing drama series in that it replaced its primary cast every two years. Plans for a film spin-off were first discussed in 2009, but ultimately did not come to fruition. Instead, a specially-commissioned seventh and final series of the show was broadcast in 2013, featuring some of the cast from its 2007–2010 run.[5]
Other ventures to expand the brand have included a short-lived American remake, which aired on MTV in 2011, but was cancelled after one season after advertisers abandoned the series in response to controversy surrounding the series' sexual content.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Co-creator Bryan Elsley recalls his first conversation with his son Jamie Brittain, soon to be co-creator, which led to the creation of the popular and edgy show. Brittain critiqued many of his father's other ideas for a TV series. He started with the idea that being a teenager co-existed with poor behaviour, casual sex, and experimenting with drugs and alcohol. Most shows with teenagers pretended that these things did not happen especially involving consequences, which this show also lays bare. Elsley has been defending his controversial show for years. His philosophy explored how teenagers believe adults act in corrupted ways, which explains why most adults in the show appear to be crooked, in poor relationships, swearing, and overall poor parents.[12]
Writing[edit]
The show's writing team has an average age of 21, and includes several "teenage consultants". Elsley said, "It's all about the writing. [...] We're about letting our audience feel they are not alone. [...] We're always having people miss [writing] meetings because they've got A-levels or even GCSEs".[13]
In January 2011, Jamie Brittain announced a writing competition open to the public to help with the developing and writing of Series 6. According to Brittain, the winner will receive "a four-month placement in the Skins writers' room, where you'd be invited to attend at least 10 of our top secret meetings, working with [Brittain] and the other Skins writers," as well as monetary compensation.[14] The winners of the 2011 competition were Sophie Boyce (18) and Joe Hampson (21) who ended up staying on in the writers' room for the full duration of Season 6. The winner of the 2008 competition, Dan Lovett, went on to write for episodes in subsequent seasons.[14]
Reception[edit]
Critical reception[edit]
The first series received positive reviews, although some critics complained that the series depicts teenagers unrealistically and stereotypically.[25] Others criticised the excessive promotion of the show (specifically in the UK) and having relatively mediocre writing in comparison to other similarly themed shows. The use of portrayal of sex, profanity, and explicit drug use in the first few episodes garnered criticism.[26] Actor Nicholas Hoult defended the extreme storylines, saying they would not reflect "everyone's teenage life", adding "it is maybe heightened for entertainment but all of it is believable."[27]
Marieke Hardy expressed admiration for the show, and particularly enjoyed the fact that the show was "beautiful and sad and poignant and perfectly hurtful", while also managing to be at once "edgy, funny and rude".[28] However, she did state that she was unsure whether the show was meant for teenagers or not.[29] Rebecca Nicholson in a review for The Guardian praised the show's balance in showing "hedonism with consequences, the comedy with tragedy" and criticised those who "Slammed it for being irresponsible" to have "missed the point".[26] Stewart Lee has remarked during an interview on the BBC4 programme Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe that he feels lucky for having been a teenager watching TV for teenagers in the 1970s and not the 2000s as "there was something really comforting for nerds and weirdos about programmes like Children of the Stones and The Changes." He said that watching Skins as a teenager today would make him feel lonelier than he already would have been.[30] However, Brooker himself gave the programme a positive review in his Guardian column "Screen Burn", and specifically stated that "the series had wrong-footed me", comparing his initial expectation of Skins as a shallow show to after he had finished watching the series.[31] Caroline Preece wrote that "The genius of that first season was its disguise."[32]
In his book Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, Russell T Davies and his co-author, Benjamin Cook, discuss Skins at length, with Davies praising the show's innovation in a genre that was fast becoming tired and out of date. They are critical of some elements of the first series, such as the believability of Tony's character, or episode 6 which is described as "Carry On Russia", but give high praise to the second series as a whole, highlighting the death of Sid's dad as a superb moment, and calling the finale "perfect". Davies, creator of the award-winning Queer as Folk, also praised the handling of the show's homosexuality-related storylines, saying that he knew a boy very like Maxxie in the 1980s.[33] The Age called it a "refreshing, entertaining and worthy series" and wrote it was "compulsory viewing for parents of teenagers as much as for teens."[34] Similarly, the "Naomily" storyline of Series 3 and 4 proved popular with lesbian viewers; a poll conducted by American lesbian's' media website AfterEllen.com ranked Naomi and Emily as the top two fictional lesbian and bisexual characters.[35]
Television ratings[edit]
The pilot episode of Skins averaged 1.5 million viewers.[36] The ratings for the second series which launched peaked at 884,000 viewers, which gave it 5.9% audience share and taking 60% of the 16–24 demographic; however this was still more than 500,000 viewers down on its series one premiere.[37] The series finale attracted an audience of 740,000 on E4, equating to a 4.65% share of the audience.[38] The start of the third series drew in 877,000 viewers,[39] proving popular with its key audience demographic of younger people—56.2% of viewers were aged between 16 and 34.[40] Series 4 premiered with 1.5 million viewers across E4 and E4+1, the highest rated episode since series 1.[41][42]
Cultural influence[edit]
The programme has given rise to the term "Skins party", referring to a debauched night of heavy drinking and recreational drug use.[43] During the 2007 Easter holidays, a girl in County Durham threw a house party; it was advertised on her Myspace profile as "Skins Unofficial Party", referring to the party in the first series' trailer, with the subtitle "Let's trash the average family-sized house disco party." Two hundred people turned up, breaking into the house and causing over £20,000 of seemingly deliberate damage. She claimed that her account was hacked and someone else placed the ad.[44][45]
Similar incidents have taken place in Ireland, with major household damage and theft of personal property being reported in Firhouse, Bray and Drogheda. Although these attacks have not been conclusively linked to the show, news outlets have reported that they are called Skins parties.[46] Club nights marketed as "Skins Secret Parties" have also taken shape in Leicester and Brighton.[47] Following this, a series of parties were run by Company Pictures in spring 2008.[48]
In a ten-year retrospective, Rebecca Nicholson noted that Skins transitioned teen dramas from stories of luxury to more frank and gritty depictions of "what young viewers might want and aspire to by actually thinking about and consulting young viewers."[26] Caroline Preece shared a similar sentiment in her retrospective, calling the show's casting and use of online marketing as indicative of it being a "trailblazer".[32] Its dark and realistic portrayal of mental illness influenced shows to depict it similarly.[49]
The characters of Cassie and Effy were influential to young audiences, with many young female viewers praising the impact of Cassie representing them and their struggles.[50][51] She has, however, been criticised her for being an extreme example, causing some to feel disingenuous in their struggles with anorexia.[51] Both characters have been said to trigger eating disorders in those trying to replicate their look and behaviour.[50] Cassie, who became a poster child for eating disorders, has also been linked to pro-ana media although there was still vocal opposition to pro-ana sentiments from fans of her.[51] Effy had a particular popularity on the blogging site Tumblr where blogs dedicated to the character could be found.[52] Samuel Rosenberg of The Michigan Daily criticised this subcommunity for "[reframing] the instability of Effy's [life] into something attractive and exciting through which people can live vicariously."[52] The show as a whole has been embraced by communities dedicated to depression and anxiety on Tumblr.[53] In 2020, it saw a resurgence among Gen Z audiences after popular TikTok users took fashion inspiration from and made videos about Effy.[50]
Other media[edit]
In May 2009, E4 confirmed that Film4 and Company Pictures were in "preliminary talks" about a movie spin-off.[76] In March 2010, Jack Thorne revealed to The Guardian that the Skins motion picture was in pre-production.
On 31 May 2011, after many whisperings about whether the movie would go ahead or not, Kaya Scodelario announced on Twitter "I genuinely don't know anything about that, have no idea if it's even happening." Scodelario continued by saying, "I would still love to do the Skins movie" and that she would enjoy working with the cast again.
In September 2009, Company Pictures announced that the Skins brand has been licensed to Crystal Entertainment.[77] The plan is to help creator Bryan Elsley expand the brand into areas such as film, fashion and music. They described Skins as "the most authentic teen brand on TV".[77]
In January 2010, Hodder & Stoughton published Skins: The Novel, a short novel by Ali Cronin that describes events taking place between series 3 and 4.[78] In March 2011, they published Skins: v. 2: Summer Holiday, a short novel by Jess Brittain which centres around the series 5 cast.[79]
Works cited