Skins: Season 6 Premiere

Written by Andrew Watson Friday, January 27, 2012, 7:36 PM

To understand Skins massive popularity in the UK, you have to look beyond the screenplay, and I’d advise to sit down because it ain’t pretty. Although the episodes’ teleplay is credited to show co-creator Bryan Elsley, it is the product of a writing team whose average age is just 21, including a wrath of “teenage consultants”. This is very much a television show that has been designed by committee and for a lot of us; this is our own personal vision of hell. Surely, the focus group is the kind of creativity numbing work that will remove its heart and soul.

However, the results will always speak for itself, which is why I find myself reviewing the premiere of the sixth season, transporting its rabble of Bristolians to the much sunnier climbs of Morocco in a not-so-subtle copy of The Inbetweeners antics last summer. It opens in a bombastic flurry of dirt bikes, crunching dance tracks and sexual themed insults as four of the group ramble about as they are lost on their way to the airport in typical student fashion. Their holiday villa is borrowed from a relative and provides the perfect slapstick moment as Alo (Will Merrick) jumps into an empty pool. Also, someone appears to have left some weed behind. Bonus.

The storm clouds begin to gather with the much later arrival of Franky and Matty (Dakota Blue Richards and Sebastian De Souza), who are the love story from the previous seasibm which appears to have run onto shaky ground. The long claustrophobic hours spent across country in her boyfriend’s van have developed into boredom and irritation expressed into dialogue that is occasionally subtle “Maybe we can talk to other people” and occasionally cringe-worthy “I’m bored of the fucking.” The omens do not look good for Matty, and once Franky finds herself back in the group he is quickly frozen out.

The fracturing of the relationship is the main plot of the first episode, which takes things further as the group gatecrash a party nearby, which introduces Franky to another guy called Luke, a man  who is fantastically sinister despite looking like he should still be in school. He is deliberately marked bad news from the very beginning and whatever situation Franky is about to jump into is going to end in disaster. To Bryan’s credit, it avoids more predictable plot twists in favour of a honey trap that is planted into the script with considerable skill. It also ties itself to another sub plot involving lovebirds Rich (Alexander Arnold) and Grace (Jessica Sula), who will provide some interesting viewing for the rest of the season.

Watching Skins for the first time, I quickly realised why this is such a hit with young British audiences, as for a long while there was nothing like this produced in the U.K. It’s fantastically melodramatic, filled with childish dialogue and a pounding dance track that would make other serious dramas blush. It wears its badge of teenage drama with complete pride. More importantly its badge is totally authentic; the legions of young consultants have given the writers the ammo to produce works which actually connect. Skins greatest asset is that it knows what its audience wants and it delivers it to them, an important aspect of any success that some very big failures have failed to heed in the past. It also helps that despite some dialogue that borders on irritating; it is a tight and generally well-written. Although I didn’t find many of the characters particularly likeable, it wasn’t much of an issue, and it is a very watchable TV series.

However, for the 6^th Season, the stakes have gotten much higher. Last summer, The Inbetweeners transfer from TV to Film managed a remarkable £42 million at the British box office, enough that it will be invading American screens this year and taking Skins crown as the quintessential teenage TV show. On top of that, last year another pretender to the throne in Fresh Meat provided slightly more realistic storylines. Inbetweeners is written entirely by just two people. Can Skins and its committee provide the thrills that it has for so long, or will it fall into anonymity?