Has anyone seen Skins on MTV?

[winston89]

Posted: 1/19/11 at 11:26am

I had been a fan of the British drama Skins for quite some time. It is a show that is actually edgy even by UK standards due to the fact that they don't have the same censorship laws there that they have here. I do love the fact that in England they don't censor anything. But, at the same time they wouldn't air an R rated movie with a lot of swearing during the middle of the day.

I had seen the first episode of the American version of this and realized before watching that even though they decided to air it as late as they could (at 10PM) to still be able to get an audience I am not sure if the show still has its edge that it did in the original British version.

For example, the first episode dealt with one high schooler who helped his friend loose his virginity. The high schooler was so hellbent on doing so that he was even willing to go so far as paying someone to sleep with his friend in order for this to happen. While I will give them credit for an original storyline that is somewhat edgy (I personally have yet to see a show where something like this happens in the story) I am not sure if I would consider it as edgy as they are having it come off to be. Which leads me to ask this question.

With people being more and more open about what they are willing to discuss, and with teenagers in this generation (even young twenty-something) going through a lot more different things than the previous group of people this age, is it possible to accurately convey these stories in a TV show without coming across as fake and unrealistic? Or, to put it another way, is it possible that we can come up with a TV show that can be authentic to some degree and at the same time please the bastards at The FCC?

[strummergirl]

Posted: 1/19/11 at 11:45am

There are many things I did not like about this pilot/concept:

1.) Turning gay Maxxie into lesbian Tea. How is this going to fit into the original Maxxie-Anwar conflict or the Tony seduction? It will not have the same effect.

2.) I have a hard time believing this Tony could seduce and manipulate people like Nicholas Hoult's Tony.

3.) Chris went from a Peter Pan, lovable manchild to a terror.

4.) Sid goes from nerdy underdog to a Jeff Spicoli doppelganger in Stanley. Also he seemed like he was not that hellbent on getting his cherry popped as much as the rest of the group.

I always found Skins to be ridiculous and sensational, but, the cast was very likable and made their roles believable. This cast is missing something. Also the fact it is painfully obvious they are shooting in Degrassi territory aka Toronto. Even I can tell they are not filming that in Baltimore.

This makes me appreciate a show like Friday Night Lights in presenting an American high school student/student-athlete in a competitive/high-pressured setting without getting gratuitous or ridiculous (except Second Season when the writers of the series seemed shocked they got renewed), or, making the parents seem like aliens on another planet.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 1/19/11 at 12:12pm

No Cassie in the US version. That didn't go over well with me.

[toanythingtaboo 2]

Posted: 1/19/11 at 12:36pm

I lost interest when I heard about the extensive censoring and character changing.

The whole appeal of Skins is that it's raunchy, crude, irresponsible, edgy and portrays a slightly more realistic look into teenage life (in the UK at least). Turning it into a tamed down, glossy version so not to offend completely defeats the point of it.

MTV are completely the wrong people to tackle the project. What the hell do they know about producing a non-'reality' scripted show, let alone a gritty balls-out drama like Skins?

Updated On: 1/19/11 at 12:36 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/19/11 at 1:07pm

I saw the first episode. Stupid. And after all the chatter about how "gritty" and "realistic" it is? 90210 all over again.

[Calvin]

Posted: 1/19/11 at 1:44pm

I saw this show 15 years ago, only it was called "Undressed" then.

[clever name]

Posted: 1/19/11 at 1:50pm

I loved the British series. I got through about 20 minutes of this one before I turned it off.

[Lavieboheme3090]

Posted: 1/19/11 at 2:01pm

The British series was only interesting for about a season after that it just got boring.