Skins (BBC)

I thought the show completely fails to live up to its potential. The first season is pretty good, but it completely falls of the map in the second one. The third season follows another group of kids, but I haven't bothered to see it. Dev Patels character started out interesting, but he becomes a one dimensional hound dog used only for comic relief. I don't see what the big deal about him is, even in Slum Dog, he's the weakest link, they should've cast an actual Indian kid imo. I will say the show does a really good job of capturing how miserable children in the UK are.

Ardal O'Hanlon has a cracking cameo in the third season.

I've seen two out of three series of this show. Dev Patel's character doesn't really do much. He's barely touched on, and that's even when interesting things are going on.

For some reason, as much I was want to enjoy this show. And it's detail of basically rich twatty kids dealing with the stuff kids get into (Fuck off Dregrassi). There's always one or two characters who just piss me off to no end because they are so unlikeable. In the first series, it was Tony. In the second series, it was Cassie. And it got so bad with Cassie, I didn't give a shit where her character went.

I hated this when it was first on, mostly because it was an accurate portrayal of the utter twats I went to college with and I'd had enough of them whilst in college. Then it quickly flew off the handle and became more over the top and strange and I liked it more.

Go and watch The Inbetweeners instead, same sort of area but much funnier and surprisingly spot on with the language of 17 year old boys.

Kate, I can't read your posts cos I've got you on Ignore, but this has nothing to do with the BBC. Its Channel 4. They are in no way related. You continue to unimpress even at the basest levels.

Kate, I hear you. The first few episodes had be really excited for the show, but it eventually subsided. I know many people who love the show so it might just be me. But as others have commented it takes another direction as the show progresses, more bad humour and less interesting character work. I can't remember too clearly but most of my problems are in season 2, I think. The creators to their credit, make a fresh change by changing the cast in season 3, which some of my friends appear to like quite a lot.

It actually plays on BBC America here in the U.S., so the confusion is understandable.

The show definitely goes downhill after the first season/series. I also really liked Tony, though, in that I found him entertaining. He was an asshole, but he was a self-aware asshole. He didn't care about being the bad guy as long is it kept things interesting.

Really? I mean the shit he pulls is so incredibly infuriating. Especially against his best "friend". Only in the last episode of the series do the tables get turned in such a way do you get thrown. Otherwise, you just don't care.

And I still don't quite get the second series episode in which he dreams his way through a university.

I suppose the only thing worth while about the show is that Maxxie isn't the usual gay sterotype. But then he's barely there.

I liked that Tony treated his friend like shit, it reflects the reality of friendship at that age for many people. Especially the whole alpha dog dynamic. I like how the kids are so much more hopeless than the kids of say, Freaks and Geeks, it represents the difference between American and English kids well.

It's filmed around Bradley Stoke in Bristol. Although i lived there at the time I never saw them filming - otherwise I would have punched them all in the face.

This show is utter shite. If you want a decent Brittish show set in Bristol watch Teachers.

My biggest gripe with this rather disposable but occassionally entertaining show was that the writers jettison perfectly good plot threads within the space of an episode just because they lack the conviction to develop them, and instead resort to stretching out more obvious plot threads, like love triangles. There are two (almost identical) examples in series 1 and 3, they both involve a dangerous gangster type (so immediately I'm aware this show is cartoon fantasy) crossing paths with one or two of the gang. The potential for an overarching subplot throughout the series is there, but they dropped both of those storylines the very next episode in their respective seasons. And in the most contrived ways imaginable: Jal's dad takes care of the guy in series 1 because he broke her flute, and series 3 heads even further down Convience Alley by their newfound immigrant friend challenging Gareth from The Office to an eating contest, if he loses then he'll just leave them alone. Ignoring the fact one of them assaulted him and ruined his daughter's engagement. And that scene ends with him shitting his pants. And they never hear from him again!

For a show that tried to sell itself as a realistic depiction of teen life, it feels much more like teen wish fulfilment, probably due to this "viewer generated content" angle the show brags so much about, there are too many idiotic cooks in the kitchen making a fucking mess of the broth.

I agree with the previous recommendations: Watch Teachers or The Inbetweeners. Both are well written, far more realistic and a lot more fun at the same time.

It's about the private lives of a bunch of secondary school (high school?) teachers, it was good stuff. It's not exactly original material, if you think about it, but it tackles it with a combination of good writing and acting, and that makes all the difference.

I love that the adults in Teachers are actually more childish than the kids. It's a great show and the cast are amazing.

Yes, unfortunately, I'm English, but I lived in the US for a while when the family moved, and went to Uni in the US also. I think I want to move back to the US in a few years. Easier said than done though. Mass is cool, I used to visit Boston often, great city.

The vast majority of TV is bad everywhere. But at least in the US you have amazing hour long dramas. Brit comedies on the other hand are pretty brilliant, but I wouldn't say the same for their dramas.

Skins keeps up the slice of life angle, it's worth watching. But for humour other shows like Inbetweeners are more worthy. Try The Mighty Boosh, it's a strange, strange show. But man is it hilarious. If you do watch it, keep in mind season 2 is when it really finds its groove.

For the record, we leave high School at 16 in the UK. Then we have 'College' from 16-18 (Unless you're shit) then from there you can go onto University.

Mass was really beautiful from what I remember. Most of the times I'd visit just Boston, since my best friend was at MIT, and both my sisters went to school there too, at BU and NorthEastern. I actually spent a lot of time in Boston, it is such a cool city. I myself went to Univeristy of Michigan, I love Ann Arbor! But as I said we had some family friends in Mass, I can't remember the name of area, but it was maybe an hour and a half away from Boston, and it was beautiful. Very green, with lots of trees everywhere. Ann Arbor during the spring summer time is incredible also, really, really picture-esque. Every summer they have an open street, art festival, I think its the biggest in America. I loved the event, you should check it out. I'm sure you went to school, or will go in Boston?

I love Flight of the Concords, its too bad it got canceled. And Rome is amazing, I thought it was made by Americans though. The level of production values in Rome is something that can only be done by the US or in conjuction with the US, its a phenomenal show, I agree. There are some good dramas here but they're just very rare. Its a little low grade but I really liked the new show Jekyl, its a modern day retelling of Jekyl and Hyde.

'Rome' was a BBC Co-production. All that actually means is that they pay for the rights to show it up front, and they'll get their name on the credits. They did the same thing with 'Band of Brothers'.

Well the original creators are behind the remake, so I really don't think they can rip-off their own creation.

Not as far as I recall, outside of the usual hysterical reaction from The Daily Mail (aka The Single Most Vile 'Newspaper' in the History of the World) to just about any slightly racy drama on Channel 4. If I remember rightly, Skins is only ever shown quite late, say 9 or 10 onwards so there's never been any case of it being a childrens' show.

 

And now, for the benefit of our dear US cousins, a brief guide to UK TV stations:

 

BBC 1, 2, 3 and 4 = publicly funded as you all know. Most of the good shit (but not all!) comes from these, Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes, Sherlock, State of Play, Top Gear, Doctor Who, The Thick of It, QI, I Have I Got News For You, The Office/Extras, The Mighty Boosh, The League of Gentlemen/Psychoville, a multitude of Steve Coogan shows and all the awesome David Attenborough docs. Well, less so from BBC 3, whose only contribution to the world is Snog, Marry or Avoid, which is a terrible makeover but so oddly compelling I can't help but watch it anyway. Probably because in my heart of hearts, I desperately crave someone to give me a terrible makeover myself.

 

ITV = Commercial station funded by advertising. Generally AWFUL these days but does have a knack for putting out a decent show every now and then. Produces Downton Abbey, the long-running Poirot and new Marple series (though the old BBC one with Joan Hickson was way better!) and a hundred and one detective shows (Midsommer Murders, Morse/Lewis, Frost, Taggart ) It wasn't always so, back in the day it gave us Cracker, The Second Coming, The Prisoner, The Avengers, the classic and definitive Sherlock Holmes with the late, lamented Jeremy Brett, along with loads more I've forgotten.

 

Channel 4 = Commercial station funded by advertising BUT also publically owned with a remit to provide educational/minority programming, which they've largely ignored over the last 15 years or so, much to ITV's chagrin as they shouldn't really be competing against them. Basically, it's been a straight split between the Beeb and C4 for all the cool stuff over the last decade - C4 gave us Father Ted, Spaced, Black Books, Skins, Misfits, Peep Show, The Inbetweeners, Brass Eye, The Adam & Joe Show, Darkplace, Jam (although the original radio show Blue Jam was a BBC production), The IT Crowd, Shameless, The Red Riding Trilogy, Sex Traffic, Queer As Folk, etc, along with loads of popular light entertainment stuff and terrible game shows and reality shows. Of course, the Greatest Thing Channel 4 Ever Did is a toss-up between Eurotrash and the Red Triangle warning symbol C4 used in the 80s whenever a film containing large amounts of sex and nudity was about to be shown. Beloved of young boys up and down the nation, the Red Triangle regularly ensured a rapt audience at midnight for 3hr films in French with subtitles that consisted of absolutely bugger all interesting for 90% of the running time but who cares when that other 10% was almost certainly guaranteed to have a bored Emmanuelle Beart standing around naked as the day she was born. God bless you, little Red Triangle.

 

Channel 5 = lol

 

There you go, poppets, hope that clears things up a bit.