Skins – Season 3

Archived review

E4 advertised the final episode of this 'season' as a 'season finale', so if they're going to encourage the growth of American terminology I don't feel too bad doing the same. The third 'season' of Skins saw the writers make a bold yet sensible decision of introducing an entirely new cast, with only the younger Effy still remaining (however, for all the ways they've changed her, she may as well be a new character too). This enabled us to go through the fun part of a character-based show again, which is learning what makes them tick. Finding out their interests, their flaws and how their family backgrounds have influenced the people they are. Just as with the first generation of Skins stars (who through rose-tinted spectacles all seem quite loveable now), everyone's going to have their favourites, and cleverly the characters aren't quite as easy to define as Tony, Sid and company. There's Emily, the younger twin trying to step out of her sister's shadow. There's Thomas, the African immigrant taking joy in the small things. And there's mildly autistic JJ, whose rational dialogue and love of magic cover up some serious rage issues.

However, I didn't find the 'core' characters quite as interesting this time around. Whereas Cook successfully manages to out-'Tony' Tony, and remain a character you love to hate, the eventual pairing of Effy and Freddie was something I never rooted for. It's all personal opinion, of course, but the writers seemed to want us to hope that Freddie would eventually win the battle for Effy because he wasn't as destructive as Cook. This backfired for me as Freddie, prettyboy looks aside, didn't have a nice-guy vibe going for him either.

As for storylines, well, the show went as extreme as possible. By the end of the season, it felt like almost everyone had slept with almost everyone else, one character almost killed another, and it doesn't feel like an episode of Skins anymore if someone doesn't get beaten to a bloody pulp. Perhaps next season, much like the second, will settle down slightly and get a better look at the characters' psyches. Perhaps the fringe players like Thomas and Pandora will get some more well-deserved screen time. And perhaps I'll enjoy it more. My opinion of the second season was quite harsh at the time, but upon rewatching it all made a lot more sense, both in terms of character actions and what the writers' overall objectives were with the show. I'm just glad that they've managed to establish another set of strong characters whose outcomes I want to see. For the most part.