I wanted to wait to comment on this new and controversial MTV teen drama show, Skins, until I’d had a chance to actually watch it. As it is, I lasted a whole 15 minutes, which is probably apropos. Advertisers have been pulling out en masse, and the nonprofit TV watch group Parents Television Council has been calling for a federal investigation into whether it shows child pornography. Underage actors are shown engaging in on-screen sex, drinking, drug use, masturbation, I could go on. The plot focuses on teens scheming to get up to no good, to the point where it gets tiresome just a few minutes in. I found it predictably over-the-top, like Porkys meets American Pie with a twist of Superbad. (Without 1/10th of the originality of any of those films.) I’ve only seen part of the first episode so far, which had awful one-liners and very trite plot lines, specifically (spoiler I guess) a Eddie Haskell-type character (Tony) who tries to get his friend laid before he turns 17. Some of the more winge-inducing lines include:
To a lesbian cheerleader: “Have you ever told those sweet girls [fellow cheerleaders] that you worship at the coochie shrine?”
To a friend on how they’re plotting to help him lose his virginity: “Tonight, you’ll present Mr. Happy the keys to the furry city.”
Then the virgin guy lifts up the covers on his bed and says “You hear that Mr. Happy? The furry city.”
The cheerleader issues a challenge: “Tony if you can get that kid’s cherry popped, I will accidentally lose control of my breasts during next week’s halftime show.”
The virgin on his prospective “cherry popper”: “I’m going to park my Chevy in Michelle’s garage?”
Then the Michelle chick comes over and starts making out with the Alpha character, Tony. The virgin guy asks “Am I getting laid or should I just start filming this so I can whack off to it later?”
That’s just in the first fifteen minutes of the show and I couldn’t bring myself to watch the rest. It was lame and while I’m unqualified to judge, I doubt that it was in any way indicative of teen culture beyond the sex and drugs. Kids don’t talk that way, and it just felt false, like worse than a heavily scripted sitcom with a laugh track.
There were some funny parts, but there were also plenty of jokes I didn’t get at all, although that could be due to the piss poor delivery. Some of these kids are terrible actors. The show is a reboot of a UK series of the same name. Maybe it worked better with the original British humor.
Advertisers that have pulled out so far include Taco Bell, Wrigley, General Motors, Subway, H&R Block and Schick. I don’t blame them given the quality of that show. In my opinion the problem isn’t the controversial subject matter as much as the very awkward, obvious, feeble way that it’s handled.
Ken Tucker at EW agrees, and explains this controversy much better than I can.
You can watch Skins on MTV.com if you’re in the US.
the american version of skin sucks.
BULLSHIT. You should watch the first episode of the British version. This sounds like a complete Cheesy translation of the script. Lame. I don’t understand the point of even making an American version. You’re right, it works well with British humour, and while the scripts didn’t always seem very realistic, the show flowed well and was very natural.
OMG we dont need this.
Really we dont.
Good god.
This reminds me of some similar remark about the garbage on tv today: ‘reality shows dont document the troubles of society as much as they help to perpetuate and encourage them/create them’— something like that.
The issue isnt kiddie pron, its putting stuff like this out for kids/teens to look up to. To emulate, to be influenced by. To think is worth copying. This is just a complete slap in teh face to most peoples opinion, that our society is crumbling and that TV just assists the decay process– its like they wanted to embody all that is wrong in society in a series and then put it out there as some sort of a glorious achievement?
And why is everythign revolving around sex? Dont young adults have anythign else to think about? Why dont they show something worth while? This totally sends the message, again, that sex is the standard by which you measure your self worth or value. Isnt there a whole lot more to life– and a lot that is mroe rewarding, meaningful, progressive, productive, and less harmful, dangerous, risky, and complicating than teen sex?
Like seriously Im just tryign to figure out the flippin agenda of the media heads– are they really trying to recruit the next seeasons stars of ‘teen mom’ or something but on a more diverse and massive scale- like maybe they want to make a show ‘teen aids’ and ‘teen dropout’ and ‘teen alcoholic’ and ‘teen abortions’ or ‘teen blind sheeps’ and ‘teen conformists’ etc; – why are they being so deliberatley destructive and misleading towards younger and younger audiences…. to be less and less responsible for themselves and others- very suspect.
I’ll do my potential children a favor, and not have kids LOL so they dont have to see me climb the walls and chew on pillows 😉
some americans are ridiculous. , you lot need to stop complaining. the more secular society gets the better then you wouldnt have to deal with so much “outrage” about stuff. I honestly dont get this “wholesome” family values thing.
skins here didnt cause much fuss at all. critics love it. plus its not watered down likes urs is
They have an American version?
The British version makes me cringe. But these are the things that teenagers are doing. If Americans are freaking out about Skins, then how would they react to Shameless? That’s life, but trust American ‘censors’ to freak out about it, request an investigation, just to bury their heads in the sand, like they do with everything. It’s like the stupid idea to put parental advisory labels on CDs. Now that didn’t stop the various college and high school massacres did it? Good on Tipper Gore -not.
American television on large networks is so watered down it’s ridiculous. But then again, it’s normal to find a sitcom about a male whore, narcissistic alcoholic (Two and a Half Men) funny and pay Sheen the highest salary?
What hypocrisy.
Haven’t seen this, no interest in seeing it, and have no idea why MTV thought it was a good idea to remake it for an American market who plainly would be up in arms about it, but the original – UK Skins on E4 – was excellent and had a dark underlying wry humour. It didn’t glorify a lifestyle, it just portrayed a group of teens with a broad and complex range of personal issues and how they dealt with them, sex and drugs being a part of that. It was essentially drama, not a reflection of the average teen life. And the largely unknown cast were also excellent. And it won a BAFTA.
I haven’t seen either version, but from what little I have seen, and heard others talking about, it sounds like it was entirely an attempt at shocking people.
The few commercials I saw for the show left me thinking “WTF is it even about? I haven’t heard one thing suggesting there’s even a storyline.” It just showed sex, drugs, some kids walking near a bridge, and the word ‘SKINS’ in big letters.
I won’t judge the British version until I see it, but the American version is an epic fail. I do agree that it may have the unfortunate possibility of making teenagers aspire to being ‘cool’ by imitation of such characters. (Which unfortunately they already get some so many other sources, so this blatant subject matter is being thrown right in their faces.)
I watched it the other night and was surprised at how tame it was. I mean i guess because its on cable and is about high schoolers it may be inappropriate, but it wasn’t anything worse than those poorly edited reruns of Sex in the City on TBS or Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia (which I love).
P.S. the show itself is awful…I agree CB, that is not how young people speak and then there was this awful attempt at slapstick in there too..you’re lucky you didn’t make it to the end it was eye rollingly bad.
The British version was written by a team of very young writers so they could have realistic sounding dialogue. That stuff you quoted above is just awful!
“actors are shown engaging in on-screen sex, drinking, drug use, masturbation, I could go on”
I thought Two and a Half Men was a CBS production.
British version was really good, but only the first season. I was to old to get into it later on. At first, you might think it’s impossible for kids to act like that, but then, you just realise it’s more real than half reality shows on TV, which makes it disturbing. Just watch Brit version. This story can’t just be put in the American version: those are two very different cultures.
If America can’t handle “Skins” then there is hope that an Americanized verison of “The Misfits” will never happen. Yeah!!!
I am curious if anyone remembers the MTV show that was similar to this but for college kids? Undressed? It sucked too. MTV is just…lame now. I’m 24 and I prefer VH1.
YES jinni I really hope the US doesn’t re-make Misfits. I can’t understand why Americans can’t watch anything without American actors in it..I mean The Office, Shameless and now Skins. These shows are brilliant because they are British and I think sometimes the dry Brit humour is lost on American audiences.
British Skins is so good because it’s not trying to be anything. American Skins is trying so hard to pull it off, and it’s so obvious. That being said, the first generation of Skins is excellent, but the second generation couldn’t live up to it. I’m starting to think the first two seasons of British Skins was just like a perfect storm.
Not sure how this would be a child pornography case but anyway. This version of the show is tame and cheesy but amusing in a trainwreck sort of way…it’s a hot mess I can’t stop watching. Hopefully it doesn’t get cancelled.
anyone remember the mtv show back in the 90s about the college sex culture? granted it was based on college freshman living in dorms, not high school students, but it was the same concept… incredibly cheesy but loved by high school age kids. this seems a lot like that show.
I watched this and it was insanely awful.
Degrassi covered these topic way better than Skins ever will – especially the original.
Joey, Caitlin, Wheels and Spike for life.
It sounds unintentionally hilarious.
I love the spider sheets and comforter!
The British version was great!I don’t know how MTV producers didn’t realize this would be a huge issue. I mean, they went after Gossip Girl which is pretty tame. I recognize that this show isn’t for everyone, but nothing pisses me off more than some puritans trying to decide what is deemed appropriate to watch. If you don’t want your kids to watch it, don’t let them. If you can’t control what you kids watch on tv, you have bigger problems than Skins.
I used to watch Undressed. Hehe. Loved that show. Until it got too stupid. I think I was like 12. Haha.
I’ll stick with Degrassi.
@lem You mean Undressed. This show TOTALLY sounds like that show. (I’ve always thought that about the British version as well)
That said, I freaking loved Undressed when I was in college. Totally cheese tastic. Totally hilarious.
I thought the show Skins was to illustrate the path to ending up on Teen Mom. From the snippets I’ve seen, I am sufficiently disgusted.
GOD can you take down the last picture on here?
This is my favorite gossip site and unfortunately I KNOW THAT GIRL on the bottom. She plays a spoiled brat in the show and in real life she’s MUCH worse. Evil, evil b*tch. At least she was when I knew her a few years ago.
Actually I discovered a very practical reason why they re-do shows rather than importing the original…and as usual it comes down the bottom line and that’s MONEY.
Producers get more money for licensing their own versions of the shows rather buying episodes to import them.
I watched part of the first season of (Brit) Skins a couple of years ago, and I actually liked it. To be honest, if the adults at large new what teens really thought and did, they’d be appalled. This really is not that estranged from typical teenage sub-culture. I was teen not that long ago, and trust this kind of stuff does go down.
The problem that I do have, however, is that if Skinds is executed in typical American fashion especially through a network like MTV, it’s going to hyper-stylized and over-sexed which is par for course of MTV. It’s like rather than developing well-rounded, insightful, and dynamic material they make it ALL about sex much to the injustice of potentially good material that could be responsible in dealing with teen issues. In this, shows like Degrassi and The Secret Life of an American Teenager were exponentially better. They dealt with sex, drugs, and various issues in an honest, realistic yet socially responsible manner.
MTV can go to hell, personally. They haven’t been progressive or original since the mid 90s, and they do more harm than good. So you want a sexy show with sex. Fine. Does it have to be so cheap and vapid?
The bad acting and horrible script should be enough to get it pulled.
I just discovered the British version of Skins last year. I thought the first season was really good. The rest was ok; not as good as the first but eh.
Anyway, I watched the American version out of curiosity and it is horrible. There’s too much “Look how BAD and TEENAGED we are! We’re having SEX and smoking WEED!” Just trying to shock. And even though the British version has that same kind of stuff, it’s more about the troubles of the kids and their friendships/relationship then just “We have WILD!!! parties!!!”
American version doesn’t have that (yet, though I don’t plan on sticking around to see if it does). And the dialogue is absolutely awful. They’re trying to make up for the fact that they can’t curse like in the British version by putting in very lame words no one ever says.
Ok, whew, lol. Sometimes remakes rile me up. 🙂
EDIT: @ViktoryGin – Totally agree. A much more eloquent way of saying what I was trying to say, lol.
… my so called life …
I’ve been annoyed every since I heard they were doing an American remake. I’m glad I’m not alone!
I loved the British version! Series 1 + 2 were excellent! Series 3 was uneven, but hit it’s stride in the latter part of the season. I have yet to see series 4 (maybe I’ll netflix it), but overall I’d say the second generation cast is head and shoulders above anything the Americans could put out. And of course the first gen is the gold standard 😉
Will they just stop doing American remakes? Remember the US versions of Coupling and Life on Mars? No? Probably because they SUCKED.
What’s wrong with tuning into BBC America???
BTW, I loved “Undressed” when I was a kid! Yeah, it was cheesy and I was way below their target demographic but whatever. Hahah!
ITA with everyone who thinks this sounds like undressed! That was this first thing that came to mind when I initially heard about this show. BTW, I kind of liked Undressed when it originally aired mostly because I was young and pretty much had no taste. But, I’ve seen a few reruns lately and can now confidently say that undressed was in fact terrible. The acting and writing were just ridiculous.
It sounds like skins is more of the same. So, basically MTV hasn’t had an original idea in at least ten years. Remember when they used to play MUSIC? Whatever happened to that?
I have a more basic question – how does MTV manage to stay on the air. There must be tax implication write-offs somewhere because it can’t be quality that’s keeping MTV alive.
accordingly H&R didn’t actually pull out. their ad was neve intended to run, but was. so them saying it won’t be shown again isn’t ally pulling out is it? besides WHY would the advertise to that show? that isn’t their demographic.
i do understand why thy made this with an American cast rather than just showing the british one because of the language barrier, there are a lot of thing that the brits say that just don’t translate well for us. doesn’t mean it’s right, but it’s the truth
I thought MTV is a music channel. I never knew they air shows like Jersey Shore and Skin. I first learned this Snooki thing here in CB. Gee, I think I live under the rock. Are there any other crap shows they got? They produce cheap starlets. Look at snooki, she said shes NY Bestseller Author now. Ugghhh.. who are those people who bought her book??? And soon here are these teenie cast of Skin. What will they be? young Porn stars, future Playmates? and theyre getting famous because of this controversy.
Worse if these crapy shows are aired on primetime slots.
the british original one was great especially the first two seasons.This american version wasn’t really needed and I’m not even interested to watch it
If Jersey shore is a hit I dont see why this could not.They are shooting for the same demographics.
I liked the last night’s episode. So is Tea gay or not? I like that she hooked up with Tony.
Must rent the Brit version!
British shows are 100% better then American/Canadian shows. Well..to me anyway. 🙂
I think it’s the taboo of seeing teenagers being sexually active, promiscuous, & experimenting with drugs & alcohol… that pushes a lot of people over the edge. Would’ve been much less trouble if they’d based it around college aged students.
I’ve only found vague information regarding the ages of the actors themselves… I think they’re from ages 15-19.
The network could have saved itself one hell of a pain in the ass (being flogged by the ‘parents council‘ with their rod of decency & justice) if they had just hired ‘young-looking actors that were of age, for the roles.
But then they wouldn’t be causing a controversy to give them free PR. (hearing someone talking about how ‘dirty‘ & ‘shocking‘ something is… most just can’t resist wanting to see for themself.
First of all, I didn’t realise Kate Hudson was in this show (bottom pic; blond extensions in blue dress);
Second of all, why, oh WHY does American media insist on ATTEMPTING to REPLICATE SUCCESSFUL British shows? Without fail, the American versions are NEVER as good as the British ones! AbFab, anyone? The Office? I could go on, but I don’t want keyboard cramp. 😉
This pisses me off. The British show was epic and so true to teenage life in England, obviously this wasn’t right for American life. And they shouldn’t have just slightly altered the dialogue to make it ‘fit’.
Don’t got shit on British Skins (first cast ofc)
This is the modern version of My So-Called Life
NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve been obsessed with the British version of this show for a few years now (I’m Canadian, discovered it through word of mouth) and I’m furious that the Yanks decided to take it over.
The Brits did it better. They always do.
I tried to watch the first episode of this out of curiosity but I didn’t make it past the first 20-25 min. It was so bland and stiff, the actors are horrible. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters and the dialogue was so off. What’s sad is that supposedly MTV hired young writers to capture youth better and how they act/talk- FAIL
The trouble with American remakes of anything foreign is that America tends to dumb it down, which only reinforces the rest of the world that we are morons. Because heaven help us if we’re have to think too hard while watching a show or movie.
Personally, I’m glad people are finally calling MTV on their crap shows. How did it take this long?
American audiences are STUPID. Plain and simple. We would have a hard enough time trying to decipher our own language as spoken by the British, let alone comprehend any story line or dialogue that isn’t easy enough for a kindergartener to follow.
And British humor? Forget it! Way too much sly wit and subtlety for Americans.
Hollywood and the tv networks suck.
poor and idiotic version of British hit, I don’t understand why mtv couldn’t just buy the original??
Americans have much worse sense of humor and they really shouldn’t copy Brits because it won’t work out.
British version is soooo much better! Of course.
@ obvious:
i do understand why thy made this with an American cast rather than just showing the british one because of the language barrier, there are a lot of thing that the brits say that just don’t translate well for us. doesn’t mean it’s right, but it’s the truth
Language barrier? Aside from slightly different slang and an accent there is no language barrier!
In the UK they speak ENGLISH! Seriously, anyone who can’t figure out what they’re saying because of their accents is a MORON and deserves to watch only the subpar crap forcefed on American TV!
I say this as an American — heaven forbid one uses their listening skills or perhaps turn on close captioning…
EDIT: And I’d like to point out after watching a couple of episodes of the UK version you adapt and can figure out what even Chris is saying! (he has the thickest accent)
I absolutely LOVE the original version. I started boycotting MTV when I heard they “remade” it. Horrible.
(Love Degrassi, too.)
chasingadalia – Yeah, Degrassi is awesome. Can’t wait for new episode next month. (Adam Torres rocks 😀 )
I have a pretty filthy sense of humor, and not much offends me, but I found this show offensive. I watched probably the first ten minutes before I turned it off. I felt like I needed to clean my TV down, it was that filthy. Mind you, I’m a 33-year-old woman. No teenager should be watching this shit. Thank God I grew up in the 90s, when My So-Called Life outclassed this POS show.
it´s not, americans are just hypocrites. and sorry if anyone gets offended but c´mon, like teens are not having sex…that is all about, it´s not the age of the actors.
you should watch the original version. the last season was kind of bad, but the first two are great…and teens in Britanin are like that.
marisa, I loved My so called life, but it was the same..just cuter..not to offend anyone.
you should watch the brit version of Skins. it´s great and sex it´s not a big deal, it´s just a normal stuff people do, even teens..like now.
and yeah, why on earth does the council start an investigation on the morons that brought jersey shore to the screen? nice example thet are showing there
ever heard of latest news about 3rd graders having oral sex in their class without their teacher noticing it?
how come these kids know about sex esp in public at tender age?
its because the information is everywhere…rihanna, lady gaga, jersey shore, now skins – the media.
this is also the responsibility of the parents to control external influences if they want their children to be better individuals.
This american version of Skins is just lame.
and soooo childish.
they try way to hard to be looked COOL. lol lol lol
Iggles (52) – Language barrier? Aside from slightly different slang and an accent there is no language barrier!
In the UK they speak ENGLISH! Seriously, anyone who can’t figure out what they’re saying because of their accents is a MORON and deserves to watch only the subpar crap forcefed on American TV!
Actually, there’s quite a lot of slang that’s regularly used that we’d be clueless about. Yes, they speak English, but with tons of slang, phrases, & humor that Americans may not be able to understand. I’m sure a lot of the UK audience wouldn’t understand a lot of American slang. Many English shows just don’t translate well sometimes.
But that does not mean we’re all morons who should be subjected to shows who’s target audience has a single-digit IQ. =
@Pato (54)- “it´s not, americans are just hypocrites. and sorry if anyone gets offended but c´mon, like teens are not having sex…that is all about, it´s not the age of the actors.”
I agree that being so uptight about sex, (when our country’s media shoves it in our face at every possible turn) is hypocritical.The only thing I can see possibly being an issue is if the show is using explicit sex scenes (where the characters & the actors themselves are underage) to market their show… selling ‘sex scenes’ starring minors.
@Munchies (56)- “ever heard of latest news about 3rd graders having oral sex in their class without their teacher noticing it?”
OMG. I hadn’t heard about that! I just looked it up, the article that I found said they were second graders… Where the hell did they learn how to do that… I mean, if they knew how… Not to mention I can’t understand how the teacher could be in the room & not notice something like that.
Hakura – Let agree to disagree. I watched the UK Skins and I do not think the slang they use render it incapable of American audiences understanding.
American tv series and movies are REGULARLY shown throughout the world! C’mon, it just sounds ridiculous to say Brits (who are also from an English speaking country) would have a hard time understanding and relating to American exports.
If they can do it, so can we. I didn’t hear many people complaining that Harry Potter was hard to follow…
Hakura, there are some slang phrases in British version but you can easily get the meaning from the context. and I’m saying this as a person whose first language isn’t English and I was learning only at a regular school where they don’t teach slang.
skins uk is brilliant. give it a try, for real. i loved it.
Download the British version of Skins. This looks like they’ve read the original script and just dumbed it down. I know there are money issues behind American remakes of British and Aussie shows, but the remakes are never as good as the original.
I’m glad that someone else thinks this show stinks! It’s not even the sex or drugs, it’s the WRITING! It’s just completely ridiculous. And what HS do they go to, where they can wander freely about, leave campus, return, go smoke pot in the restroom (boys & girls together), be the only ppl eating in the “NutBush Cafeteria” (what a clever play on words) & this one asshat, what, Tony? rules the school, making ALL the girls (& boys)*swoon*, infuriating adults & all with an pseudo-ironic smirk, telegraphing to the world his disaffected superiority all while saying the most ridiculous dialog. What’s so objectionable about the show is not it’s racy content; it’s the piss-poor plot & dialog.
Out the show is the
Hello. This is what they wanted. They bought the show knowing it would be incredibly scandelous since…well the British show doesn’t exactly hold back. They hired young, underage actors so people would make a fuss. It’s not like MTV actually thought they were making terrific television. They just want controversy to draw in views. I mean, if you are a young teen, and you hear about a show losing advertisers because it is too racy and scandelous, you’re going to want to chek it out.
I’ve started watching the British series and there definitely is a bit of a language barrier. The characters don’t talk in “BBC English”, they talk like British teens