Dylan Vs. Skins
So the British series of hit teen drama ‘Skins’ is now in it’s fifth season (Or as the Brit’s like to misappropriate it as Series, something that I’ve never understood). This marks the dawn of the third generation cast, which is a cycle they use to reinvigorate the show with new characters and fresh storylines.
‘Skins’ is well known for being an edgy, unconventional new-age drama, and for the first four seasons, it’s been exactly that. Although many complained, myself included, that the second generation cast were poor rehash’s of the the first and their respective story arc’s weren’t as well realized and lacked a certain sense of emotional payoff for the characters during the end of their two season run.
But during the show’s fifth season, the writers have created a whole new cast of characters which bear no real influence from the much loved first generation cast. Although I’ve only seen two episodes of the show’s fifth season, I can’t help but feel that the show has lost some of it’s edge, and now feels like a more conventional teen drama. Now don’t get me wrong, this is not a bad thing at all from a creative stand point. It became quickly evident during the show’s third season that it was become increasingly hard for the writers to create new and compelling story lines whilst trying to maintain the shows hyper-glamorized insight into teen culture.
For the first time since the shows second season I actually feel remotely interested in the show’s story arc and the fate of it’s characters, and if the two first two episodes are anything to go by, this generation might just turn out to be alright. My only real qualm I have is the fact they still title the show ‘Skins’, the show now bears very little resemblance to it’s former self and should be respectively titled in recognition of it’s independence.
In short, ‘Skins’ is still overrated, but not as overrated as it once was. But seriously, why am I wasting my time complaining about ‘Skins’ when there are so many better shows to talk about. I mean ‘Breaking Bad’ just started filming it’s fourth season!
