Skins US

I discovered Skins during the first series when I was looking for shows like The OC. It was nothing like The OC. Instead it reminded me a little of the short lived Life As We Know It. But I got hooked by the characters and the drama. I've watched every series thus far and enjoyed most of it (the exception being series 4). When I found out about MTV making their own remake of Skins, I was very very skeptical. From the early commercials, it looked like an almost scene-for-scene remake of series 1 and I thought that was stupid and unnecessary. I just didn't see why they would remake an already existing series instead of create completely new characters and situations, even using the Skins name.

I've been a little excited about it lately (I'm also more excited about series 5 in the UK as well). It's supposed to go away from the content of series 1 and do its own stuff. I guess it's going to have as many episodes as a regular US season is, rather than just the 8 that were in series 1. Personally, I thought 8 episodes wasn't enough to really get into the characters.

I didn't get to watch it last night, so I watched it this morning. From the description, this is the exact episode 1 from series 1 in the UK Skins, with only half the names being changed from the original. Of course, I don't have time to do a side by side scene comparison and it has been a while since I watched that episode, but if anyone wants to watch it, it is available on Netflix streaming.

The biggest changes in this show are Tea, the lesbian cheerleader, instead of Maxxie and how they wrote Cadie (the Cassie character from series 1). Other than a few minor things, like the Cadie/Stan scene at school, it really was practically identical in this episode. Because of that, I can't really critique the episode story other than to say that I think they could have done something different than copy it. The actors are the big thing here, as well as the tone of the show.

To make this easier, because a lot of it is comparison, I'll just bullet point it.

• The character I liked the most is Tea. I think she's a good addition to the show- far more interesting than I found Maxxie to be- and I'm really good with that change. 
• As of this first episode, the character I don't like is Cadie. Instead of the whimsical character of Cassie, she's just crazy. If the show weren't a remake of UK series 1, I wouldn't be bothered by this, but why would you bother to use existing characters if your characters aren't going to be the same. Maybe it's because of the almost exact replica of the episode and I might start to like her when it deviates from the original. I do reserve the right to change my mind about her later.
• I do like the other characters, some more than the originals and some less. James Newman's Tony is not as charismatic as Nicholas Hoult's Tony. I definitely like Rachel Thevenard's Michelle much better. I never liked Jal, so Daisy is a big improvement. The rest I like about the same. As time goes on, I may change those opinions, too.
• Overall, I think the show manages to capture the feel of the less-censored UK Skins. They did a good job of giving the viewers the impression without the showing. The biggest example is the woman Tony would watch through the window. While she was naked, she was covered by the window frame. The only thing that threw me off was the bleeped "fuck" that happened twice that I counted. Honestly, I'd prefer they say "shit" or something else they can actually say on TV instead of throwing in "fuck" but having to bleep it. Possibly a DVD release won't be bleeped.
• Some random things I noticed: The song Tony sang for choir was the same as the theme for The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Tony also looks a little like Penn Badgley.

I've got to say that I don't hate the show, though I can't say that I love it right now. I just don't want to watch the same show with different people and hope this is the only episode they copied. As long as it deviates from the source material, I think I'll enjoy it more. I am going to continue watching- at least for now.