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Teens run wild in 'Skins'
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Tony (Nicholas Hoult), Michelle (April Pearson) and Sid (Mike Bailey) are friends who get into trouble on BBC America's "Skins."
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For a less innocent coming of age story, there's BBC America's "Skins" (9 p.m. Aug. 17), a racy, at-times-humorous drama about hooligan teens. Sex scenes from the show have been posted all over the Web.
Ringleader Tony (Nicholas Hoult) makes the plans, arranging for his buddy Sid (Mike Bailey) to be deflowered while also assigning Sid to buy pot for the latest party.
In next Sunday's premiere -- followed at 10 p.m., the show's regular time slot, by a second episode -- nothing goes according to plan but a debaucherous time is had by all. Sid gets threatened while buying pot, Maxxie (Mitch Hewer) bores his straight friends by dragging them to a gay bar and Muslim Anwar (Dev Patel) gets booted from morning prayers for answering his cell phone.
The show is subtitled, which helps viewers understand the thick accents and British slang, but the whole thing is a bit nihilistic and the characters come across as somewhat debased. It's not that they seem unrealsitic -- sometimes they're uncomfortably believable -- but their devil-may-care attitudes have the potential to do them such long-term harm.
"Skins" is the flip side of ABC Family's "Secret Life of the American Teenager." Both purport to show what teen life is really like and yet both go to extremes. "Skins" pushes boundaries further than some real-world teens would be comfortable and "Secret Life" plays it overly safe. Could it be that the first season of "Dawson's Creek" was the respectable middle ground? How times change.
First Published August 10, 2008 5:07 pm
