E4 sheds its Skins for a new cast

Teenage drama Skins is back on E4. Steven Pile of The Telegraph describes the drama series as a “good-humoured, moral and comic celebration of teenage life, its parties, car crashes and grapples with virginity”.

Executive Producer, Bryan Elsley told BBC America “We’re very excited about the new season of Skins and feel that our new cast are shining in roles, stories and characters which have been created by young people to a greater extent than ever before”. Series three of Skins focuses on a new group of teenagers, the only familiar faces are Tony’s sister Effy (Kaya Scodelario) and her friend Pandora (Lisa Backwell). The rest of the cast are new to the show.

Although Generation two of Skins, as the new characters have been nicknamed, are already as much party monsters as the old were, Margy Rochlin of the New York Times says; “watching Generation Skins noisily get their party on isn’t the real motor of the series. What reflects the human-size soap opera that is the life of a real teenager are all the casually stinging asides, the surge and abrupt decline of social power, the unforgivable betrayals and gnawing insecurities that the kids experience”.

The difference between Skins, and every other show that tries to capture what it is like to be a teenager, is its tone. Skins is written by a team whose average age is 22, overseen by co-creator Bryan Elsley. The first two series of Skins have been criticised for trying to depict realistic teenagers through unrealistic, exaggerated storylines, such as Chris’s mum walking out on him or Cassie running away to New York. Nicholas Hoult, who played Tony in the first two series of Skins, defended the show in The Guardian; “It is maybe heightened for entertainment but all of it is believable. I can think of someone I know who is like every character.”

Gordon Farrer of The Age agrees; “The most worthy and important thing about Skins is that it takes the side of the teenagers… Youngsters have enough to deal with and don’t need unsympathetic adults, who have forgotten what it’s like to deal with sex, drugs and emotion in an increasingly complex society, adding to their burden”.

Series 3 of Skins airs at 10pm every Thursday on E4. Unseen footage and catch ups are available at http://www.e4.com/skins.