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So, that was the fifth series of Skins. Thursday night’s episode wrapped up certain storylines and put some things in place for the sixth series. However, it is very important for any finale to stay well-paced and in control, which Skins didn’t really do at all. The hour played out in a messy and rushed fashion, with only a few minor aspects of it being effective and most of it feeling haphazard and silly. Now that the series is over, it’s difficult for me to declare that it has been anything other than a monumental disappointment, showing its weaknesses in both its acting and its writing. I’m not sure how I’ll feel about this next year but, right now, I doubt I’m going to be desperate for any more Skins anytime soon.
Often, my approach to the show has been to accept that if the characters are not questioning their own actions, then what they are doing must be completely normal within the world of Skins. With that in mind, when Grace and Rich decided that they were going to get married, I of course felt that it was utterly ridiculous - but I still attempted to understand it on some level.
The setup for the finale is basically that Rich and Grace are getting married while Alo is organising the celebrations. Unsurprisingly, Alo is awful at his role and everybody ends up lost. Everything that happens from that point onwards is either totally bizarre or reaches various degrees of stupidity. The muddled relationship between Franky, Liv and Matty now appears to have ensnared Mini (who quite obviously has a crush on Franky) into its weirdness whilst Grace and Rich are content (until the very end, at least) to rush into marriage.
I’ll admit that I do love it when a show uncovers a previously unused character combination and it turns out to be a dynamic that works. For Skins, that is what has happened with Alo and Nick. I imagine that Sean Teale probably had a lot of fun with his portrayal of Nick in ‘Everyone’ as he was the most consistently entertaining character and the melodramatic way that he played off Alo was frequently hilarious. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for anybody else in the cast as everything else in the episode was simply odd. For something that included a near-death experience, an almost-marriage, some unexpected hook-ups, and is mostly set in the woods where most of the characters are lost, this was rather boring and underwhelming.
In many ways the series’ biggest disappointment has been Matty. As he’s someone who so much drama occurs around and someone that was vaguely mysterious and intriguing in the first half of the series, I had relatively high hopes for his character. Now that we know he’s just a self-centered, petulant annoyance there isn’t really anything to enjoy about him. The same goes for Grace, who I thought might have been interesting, but ended up being just about the least compelling character of the lot.
Aside from the fact that Skins finally managed to convince me that this group of people could be friends, I’ve got nothing positive to say about the finale. It was a letdown to complete the overall letdown that has been the teen drama’s fifth series. I can’t really think of anything that will keep me watching for when it returns next year and there’s no doubt in my mind that this version of the show is not worthy of comparison with the earlier series’. In so many ways, this doesn’t feel like the Skins that captivated me back in 2007 and I’m tired of hoping that the show can ever recapture what originally made it unique and great.
If you missed the finale, there is a repeat on Monday at 11.15pm on E4. All the episode of series 5 are available on 4OD.
You're not wrong. This series has been abysmal.
I stopped watching after episode 2 only to watch glimpses because I felt like i hadn't given it a chance. but even the snippets i saw of the rest was shockingly bad.
the characters just didn't come off as remotely likeable, whether this was down to diabolical script or bad acting or a combination of the two is debateable.
I also felt this series had a far too omni-present American feel to it. Not just in the dialogue, which felt about as natural as an episode of 90210 but in the ridiculous stereotypes only really present in American high schools, not British Colleges.
I don't think this "generation" holds a candle to the previous one of seasons 3 and 4. I also felt this season didn't address anything that season 1 already addressed in its opening few episodes. They seemed to use sex sex sex as a hook, but it got tired. Quickly.
You can't tell me that "Mimi" comes anywhere near to Effy or that any of the male characters were even a fraction as talented as Cook or Freddy.
Grace was perhaps the worst offender and the less said about episode 2 the better.
I also felt that the faux-slut virgin (Mimi - yeah right) was taken straight from a bad American teen flick.
And i must be the only person on the planet to not see the virtues of that Dakota girl, at best she's a decent actress. But the character.....the misunderstood sexually ambiguous androgynous yet surprisingly attractive when dolled up rebel....it's only been done a thousand times before.
Either recast for a new season (unlikely) or let skins die with some dignity.
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