Skins: where did it all go wrong?

Just a warning, if you're not familiar with Skins, this one's gonna be pretty hard to follow.

To my mind, the first two series of Skins represent  some of the best British screen writing of the 21^st century. We had the first series that acknowledged that some young people take drugs and have unprotected sex and neither overdose nor get pregnant or riddled with STIs. It was a welcome change, as every other television program, at the time presented these as inevitabilities of anyone under the age of 20 socialising. The second series had a more focussed story based around original protagonist Tony, as he struggles to regain some part of his life, following a bus accident that left him brain damaged. This was a very effective story to have running for the whole series and the moment when the original Tony starts to surface again is very well executed.

So what went wrong? Why do I now hate this series?

The simple answer is that they got too ambitious. They should have stopped after two series. The third series, with new protagonist Effy got off to an alright start, but quickly revealed that it was uninspired and lacking in any new ideas. The love story of Naomi and Emily was good, but the way that they seemingly relied on a running of sub-plot of “Cook is irresistible to everyone” through being a moron and getting in fights was really stupid. The overall feedback that can be given for this series is a message to the writers of “come on, you can do better than this.”

The fourth series is where everything truly goes to pot. Opening with Effy and Freddy reuniting and Effy revealing that she’s been on holiday. Err shouldn’t she be in prison or on community service?…for splitting another girl’s head open with a rock. Oh wait no; she’s a popular character so she’s protected from consequences of her actions in the previous series. This is a product of another thing going wrong here. The writers let the real world popularity of the character get involved with the story. They didn’t want to risk Effy not being present, even though her presence makes no sense, simply because they were worried people would change channels if she wasn’t there.

They did exactly the same thing with Cook, but in a far worse way. It’s a far worse way, because things go so well before they do it.

Basically, towards the end of series 4, the consequences of Cook’s actions finally catch up with him, when he’s arrested for putting someone in the hospital and charged with GBH. After pleading not guilty (even though he blatantly is) he is released on bail, he is left with his mother, a previously unseen character who serves as the antagonist for the episode. And boy is she a good antagonist. She’s a selfish, childish and petty post-modern artist who seems to find a way to blame anything bad in her life on someone else, usually Cook. Through this, we start to get an idea of why Cook acts the way he does. We realise that he is a victim of someone who seemingly teaches her kids that there’s always someone else to blame for anything you do. We see Cook plead not guilty to a crime he very obviously committed and then we are shown why. He has been raised to believe that blame for his negative actions can always be attributed to someone else. It’s how his mother acts and it’s how he’s started acting. The episode ends with Cook changing his plea to guilty and apologising for wasting the court’s time. This is not him admitting defeat, this is Cook taking note of the damage his mother has done by acting the way she does and resolving to act differently to her. As a first step, he admits what he did and accepts that he’s to blame for it and deserves a to be punished. This is damn good character development. We now know where Cook came from, why he acts the way he does and we leave the episode with the knowledge that although he has been sent to a young offenders institution, he has moved forward and leant to accept responsibility for his actions.

So anyway in the next episode, we learn that he’s escaped from prison. Yeah well done guys; Cook leant his lesson and got sent down; now make sure he’s available for the next episode, as he’s a popular character. This move reversed all the character development that Cook went through; if he was just going to break out, why the hell did he plead guilty?

The worst part about this is that it could have been turned into another piece of good character development so easily. Cook bursts in and says he escaped, but we could have learnt later that he, after just a few weeks in prison he had psychological break down and he’s been released on licence. We could have had a reveal scene where one of the other characters notices that Cook’s wearing a leg tag and then points out that he’s been disappearing before a specific time every day, indicative of a curfew. Rather than reversing his character development, this would have helped it showing a vulnerable side to him and exposing the façade he operates under. He talks tough and gets into fights; but when things get real and scary and he gets thrown in prison, he can’t handle it, but he’s too proud to admit that so he’d rather his friends thought he escaped.

But no, he escaped and that’s that because why try to present an actual character when you can just have a collection of bad jokes and catch phrases?

But the thing that really sank Skins, the thing that really made me hate it was the laziness of the explanations throughout series four. Effy does weird things, why? Because she’s crazy. Cook does stupid things, why? Because he’s crazy. Freddy gets murdered by Effy’s therapist, why? Because he’s crazy.

They use the same excuse to justify everything that doesn’t make sense by saying that everyone is clinically insane or can go clinically insane when the plot requires it. That is utter rubbish and speaks to a lack of ideas. Should have quit while you were ahead guys.

Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars

So a confession to begin with; I haven’t read that many books recently. The reason that this is a confession and not so much a simple fact is that people like to think that reading a good old book makes you more intellectual. Following internet blogs and vlogs for your information and entertainment won’t cut it with the higher class of those who don’t need advanced technology to help them feel entertained.

But of course, in years gone by, I have read books through the night, Artemis Fowl and The Eternity Code and Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince caused me to sacrifice several hours of sleep. I remember feeling genuine edge-of-the-seat tension, when protagonist Artemis encountered a man who was capable of out-maneuvering him and genuine confusion when Snape Killed Dumbledore (this is not a spoiler; everyone in the world knows this).

But books of late seem to have lost their appeal. I began reading Game of Thrones, but then put the book somewhere I can’t remember and haven’t felt any desire to go looking for it. This wasn’t because I didn’t like the story or writing style, but mainly because I just couldn’t engage with any of the characters. Every time I read from the perspective of Ned Stark, I was aware that was reading about a fictitious man, I was consistently aware that he wasn’t real and couldn’t suspend my disbelief to the extent I could actually care about him.

I worried for a little while, that maybe my hobby of analytically dismantling various forms of entertainment had ruined my ability to enjoy a story that doesn’t have plethora of special effects and designated broadcasting slot.

 

Luckily for me, John Green has served to restore my interest in this reading for entertainment thing, with “The Fault in Our Stars”.

I understand that I’m relatively late to the party on this one, given how long this book has been out, but better late than never.

The main thing first off, that drew me to the book was the trailer for it’s film adaptation. I can’t say I have any particular connection to the plot, but it was the concept that drew me in.

To summarise, the protagonist of the story is Hazel, a terminally ill cancer sufferer. The story itself is a love story between her and the character Augustus Waters, a cancer survivor whom she meets at a support group.

Now that makes for an interesting starting point in itself; she’s terminally ill; she’s going to die and there’s no possible way of averting that. Most writers would try to be sensitive and follow the pre-established convention that all cancer suffers are bold heroes struggling and constantly fighting. Not only does Green go against this convention, he makes the opposing view part of his protagonist’s personality. In terms of things that writers in any form of entertainment, that’s a pretty ballsy thing to do. I mean, in series 5 of Doctor Who they had an episode with a C plot of how it’s alright and brave to be dyslexic; that’s how sensitive you have to be when writing for entertainment. I feel uncomfortable even now about the way I phrased that point, in case someone misreads it and assumes I’m attacking anyone with dyslexia. Anyone who writes anything for a living or for a hobby is automatically trained that you’re supposed to please everyone as much as possible, so treating terminal cancer as something that the central character has is a very interesting move.

It pays off very well, with Green penning a believable teenage girl, with her cancer coming up more as an everyday inconvenience to her than the defining part of her character.

Of course it’s not all great, some supporting characters lack personality and some are a bit plain and/or wet. Hazel’s father for example has a habit of crying a lot, which (while being noted by Hazel herself as annoying) gets a bit old in terms of how his character is put together.

I was originally going to point of that Augustus Waters (the love interest) is a bit pretentious, condescending and generally Edward Cullen-esque, but then characters in the book started calling him out on it and I realised that that part of his personality was Green’s way of making the point that someone who’s almost dies or been sick isn’t really any more qualified to discuss mortality and such than anyone else.

This book has been made into a film that is scheduled to be released this year. Before it comes out I thoroughly recommend reading this well told love story with an endlessly interesting and brave premise.