THE fifth series of E4’s teen drama Skins came to a conclusion last night, and it ended as it started, poorly!
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| HAPPY?: No wedding, but Grace and Rich seem to have survived the storm |
The whole episode centred on the gang eloping away from Bristol to Southend. This was to see Rich (Alexander Arnold) tie the knot with Grace (Jessica Sula). Eventually, Grace’s dad, Professor David Blood, played by the hilarious Chris Addison tracks them down and manages to say enough for Grace to stop the charade. The other main plot, the ‘love square’ between Franky (Dakota Blue Richards), Matty (Sebastian de Souza), Liv (Laya Lewis) and Mini (Freya Mayor) ended in suspense. Liv saved Franky from a perilous drop from a cliff in the woods, whilst Mini’s crazy girl crush on Franky nearly spiralled out of control. As for Matty, he couldn’t seem to decide who he wanted more, Liv or Franky.
Unfortunately, the whole series has simply failed to live upto expectations. It was always going to be difficult to follow highly the footsteps of both Generation 1 and Generation 2, but with only eight episodes, it was going to be tough to stamp their authority on the new Skins. The writing only seems to get worse, and this time, the acting quality, unlike series four, couldn’t save their blushes. It wasn’t the actors fault. Dakota Blue Richards aside, none of the cast had any proper acting experience, especially on television. However, there certainly isn’t any sign of the potential that has taken the likes of Dev Patel, Kaya Scodelario, Nicholas Hoult, Lily Loveless and Hannah Murray to stardom after Skins. Some people have taken well to the new generation, but the reaction has definitely been mixed and the viewing figures have dropped on the previous series.
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| STARS: Mini (Freya Mayor) and Franky (Dakota Blue Richards) were big hits |
The positives were that there were some more light-hearted stories and group scenes involving the characters. However, some of the storylines seem to be very repetitive. Liv seems to be a very plain and basic version of Effy, whilst the Franky/Mini story seemed to have strong echoes to the unique ‘Naomily’ storyline in Generation two. When storylines keep getting repeated, this suggests that either the writers are running out of new material, or the show is starting to lose its appeal to the teenage viewer.
I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t see Skins being on our screens any longer than the end of the already contracted sixth series. It definitely is a great stepping stone for budding actors, but the appeal and quality definitely seems to have gone downhill and with the criticism of the American series, I’d hope more focus would go into the delayed Skins Movie now and putting the TV series to bed. Only time will tell to suggest whether this was just a bad series, but I don’t think the series, nor did the finale do Skins any justice this time around. The future for one of E4’s biggest shows now has to be called into some serious jeopardy.
