Skins blog: Rich

One of the biggest issues facing series 5 of Skins is one that has been present since the show began. Because of its format, which focuses on a specific character in each separate episode, Skins is always more likely to have strong individual episodes rather than strong series-long story arcs. This structure, whilst occasionally allowing Skins to be unique and great like it was last week, often makes the series incredibly inconsistent. Last night’s episode, ‘Rich,’ was a weak offering and particularly disappointing considering that this series had such an effective premiere.

The plot of the hour centered on the character of Rich, someone who seemingly defines himself merely by the fact that he likes metal music. In the opening, we’re shown Rich and his best friend Alo fail spectacularly when attempting to talk to a couple of girls, and this is where the main storyline for the episode stems from. Aside from Grace, the episode largely ignores the other cast members, with the mysterious Matty completely absent. The drama mostly manifests itself in the form of the relationship/friendship between Grace and Rich as Grace attempts to help Rich pluck up the courage to talk to a girl who works in the school library.

I have to admit, I felt that this was kind of a juvenile plotline, and that it didn’t really work in relation to the type of show that Skins has proved itself to be in the past. With the usage of the word “clunge” (which truly is a disgusting word that I wish people wouldn’t use) and characters using “gay” as an insult (another thing that I wish people wouldn’t do), this story felt like it would be more at home on my least favourite British comedy, The Inbetweeners. Along with the installment being poorly plotted, the acting on display was also relatively weak, especially in comparison to the fact that it wasn’t last week. The character of Rich may work in small doses, but Alexander Arnold doesn’t portray him in a wholly convincing manner and he’s irritating when there’s too much of him, and the same goes for Will Merrick as Alo. In fact, the only real saving graces of the episode acting-wise were Jessica Sula’s Grace herself and Dakota Blue Richards as Franky, but there wasn’t much of her.

One of the things that I’ve always loved Skins for is how well it uses music. Unfortunately, misuse of music was another of the failings of last night’s episode. It’s not just that I don’t like metal that much (although it does all sound like noise to me), it’s that the choices didn’t fully work, were positioned oddly throughout and that there were multiple random interjections that were more than a little bit weird. I also didn’t really buy that Rich, as a character, is solely identified by his music tastes. I get that there are people like that, but somehow it just wasn’t convincing.

As I previously indicated, I thought Grace was still fantastic. Her character is one that remains intriguing, particularly due to the way in which she switches between two rather separate social groups. However, perhaps one of the more significant issues going forward is that the idea of Grace and Rich as a romantic pairing simply doesn’t work. Overall, ‘Rich’ felt quite out of touch with what I’ve grown to see as characteristic of Skins and I feel that it’s certainly amongst the more subpar offerings that I’ve seen from the show. What this week showed is that a changed Skins isn’t necessarily a better Skins and this version of the show is still capable of the mistakes that it has made in the past.

Skins airs on Thursdays at 10pm on E4.

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