Skins US: 1x01 Tony.There isn't much that I feel I need
A solid soul and the blood I bleed
Animal Collective: My Girls
The first thing to appear on screen in the premiere of Skins US isn’t Tony (James Milo Newman), opening his eyes: It’s Eura Schneider (Eleanor Zichy), stumbling home barefoot after a party, through the deserted and snowy streets of some unnamed suburb. If I ever have the chance to ask people associated with the show questions, this is one: in an episode that is partly a shot for shot remake of the UK version, it seems like a deliberate choice not to start with the iconic picture of Tony, but instead with a fourteen year old girl that seems to be haunting the peaceful streets, a disturbance and oddity.
Tony goes through his morning routine, helps Eura to get inside, but Mr Jim Schneider doesn’t seem like the harmless, hopelessly inapt father and husband Jim Stonem was, his aggressiveness has a truly terrifying edge to it (“Lucky for you I gotta be somewhere”) and I wonder if this is going to be important later.
The original first episode isn’t one of my favourites over-all, but it always amazes me how brilliantly it introduces all the characters (the third season did something similar with Kieran, asking everybody for one interesting thing about themselves) – it’s an extremely efficient way to give an overlook over the characters and some of their defining features. On the way to school, Tony calls all his friends to organise a social gathering that will finally bring an end to his best friend Stanley’s virginity. Stanley’s (Daniel Flaherty) room is an even bigger mess than Sid’s ever was. Daisy (Camille Cresencia-Mills) plays the trumpet, and seems more annoyed than anything else at Tony (and his treatment of Michelle). Michelle (Rachel Thevenard) is equally unhappy to be involved in what Tony plans for Stanley and to be called Nips, Chris (Jesse Carere) lives in a tent inside his room which has a wolf-themed wallpaper, and Buck-tooth has turned into Overbite, Abbud (Ron Mustafaa) would rather accompany his gay best friend to a big lezzerama night than help get Stanley laid, and Tea (Sofia Black D’Elia), initiator of said “voyage of wonder and discovery”, is a cheerleader but not out to the other girls because “what would be fun in that?”
There is a point to be made about not comparing Skins US to the original series – the performances were presumably not based on the original performances, the storylines won’t be the same – but on the other hand, this provides such an interesting opportunity to figure out what makes each of these groups of kids work. It’s probably too early to predict this and there will be more material available next week with her episode, but it seems like Tea’s presence will considerably alter the dynamics of the group. She isn’t just a female Maxxie. From what we see in this episode, she is a genuine counter-weight to Tony’s power position within the group, and they have a connection based on their similarities. This is going to be interesting because the person that made Tony more humane and relatable was Effy, and now, possibly, Tea is going to have some of Effy’s features (this would also raise the question of which role Eura is going to play in this season). This is mostly speculation at this point, of course, but it would provide the necessary distance to the original.
One of the most drastic differences between the UK version and this episode is Cadie’s (Britne Oldford) introduction: Stanley (and we) meet her before the party, when he goes to see her in the kitchen of the high school, and this scene was one of my favourites this episode. There is the simple beauty of introducing a character by letting someone else say “she is not allowed to handle knives” about her, and then framing her entire first scene with an arrangement of knives dangling in the air (“don’t you love to see stuff hanging?”). Cadie isn’t precious, she isn’t quiet or aloof – she is strange, and obviously slightly mad, and once embalmed a hamster after it died and “hung him over the bed and I’d just lie there watching him twisting”. Cadie likes to cook, and the cute pet rabbit in a cage might end up in a stew once perplexed (but happy since he’s not in the position to be picky) Stanley has left the room, and she “only likes really great narcotics” (which, judging by Michelle’s statement that she “usually” takes Cadie to the hospital’s emergency room, is going to be her issue). I think the best way to explain the difference between Cassie and Cadie is to compare their respective lines after everybody else emerges safely from the harbour: the palpable difference between the frame of mind that articulates “at least we’ve got our health, that’s the important thing” and Cadie’s “You’re alive and that is cool. I guess.” – like she isn’t quite sure, and not really willing to pretend either.
Skins’ humour doesn’t translate, and Skins US doesn’t even try. When I first watched the show, Sugar Rush was the only other British show I’d seen so it didn’t completely surprise me that absurd things happened and ridiculous characters appeared in a show that could be so serious at other times. Then I watched Doctor Who and realized that this seems to be… British humour (if I am completely wrong about this, I’d love to hear other theories or whatever). It didn’t feel like Skins US attempted to use this for Jim Schneider (he just seems dumb and aggressive), and it’s even more obvious with the reinterpretation of Madison Twatter (now called Mad Mao Le Dong) – and not just because he lacks a moustache. He isn’t meant to be funny in an absurd way – he is threatening, and scary, and what is funny about the scene is the fact that Stanley, with his general inaptitude, has gotten himself into this situation and it gets worse and worse as he tries to talk his way out of it, until he ends up with his 900 bucks debt, 4 ounces of weed in a swamped market and his balls as collateral.
The party scene - Michelle taking over the dance floor with complete ease, regardless of the ridiculous music, people (named, mostly, Chad and Summer) and general circumstances, Cadie slipping away and taking drugs while Stanley watches jealously, and finally, the “real men” arriving (Chris remarks, stunned, when he sees the mansion: “people live here”. Daisy responds: “Not our kind of people”) and causing chaos and destruction - is essential in the process regarding these people as more than just new characters that have just been introduces: They are a group of friends getting into trouble together, but also taking care of each other.
Cadie and Stanley, meanwhile, are on the trampoline and even though their lines are almost similar to those of Cassie and Sid (it’s no good though, is it, Stanley. Because you love Michelle.”), Britne Oldford delivers these lines completely differently – and now I can’t wait to see where this show is going to take its characters.
Random notes:
Tony is the spider in whose net everybody else is caught; Tony is the sun everybody else orbits.
NoL’Étranger Nausea for Tony Schneider: He is reading Know Your Rodents, “an illustrated guide to twenty-three rodent species”.
"It’s girl on girl. That’s live porn. And Chris says we can probably convert them. It would be girl on girl on dude!"
Tony goes through his morning routine, helps Eura to get inside, but Mr Jim Schneider doesn’t seem like the harmless, hopelessly inapt father and husband Jim Stonem was, his aggressiveness has a truly terrifying edge to it (“Lucky for you I gotta be somewhere”) and I wonder if this is going to be important later.
The original first episode isn’t one of my favourites over-all, but it always amazes me how brilliantly it introduces all the characters (the third season did something similar with Kieran, asking everybody for one interesting thing about themselves) – it’s an extremely efficient way to give an overlook over the characters and some of their defining features. On the way to school, Tony calls all his friends to organise a social gathering that will finally bring an end to his best friend Stanley’s virginity. Stanley’s (Daniel Flaherty) room is an even bigger mess than Sid’s ever was. Daisy (Camille Cresencia-Mills) plays the trumpet, and seems more annoyed than anything else at Tony (and his treatment of Michelle). Michelle (Rachel Thevenard) is equally unhappy to be involved in what Tony plans for Stanley and to be called Nips, Chris (Jesse Carere) lives in a tent inside his room which has a wolf-themed wallpaper, and Buck-tooth has turned into Overbite, Abbud (Ron Mustafaa) would rather accompany his gay best friend to a big lezzerama night than help get Stanley laid, and Tea (Sofia Black D’Elia), initiator of said “voyage of wonder and discovery”, is a cheerleader but not out to the other girls because “what would be fun in that?”
There is a point to be made about not comparing Skins US to the original series – the performances were presumably not based on the original performances, the storylines won’t be the same – but on the other hand, this provides such an interesting opportunity to figure out what makes each of these groups of kids work. It’s probably too early to predict this and there will be more material available next week with her episode, but it seems like Tea’s presence will considerably alter the dynamics of the group. She isn’t just a female Maxxie. From what we see in this episode, she is a genuine counter-weight to Tony’s power position within the group, and they have a connection based on their similarities. This is going to be interesting because the person that made Tony more humane and relatable was Effy, and now, possibly, Tea is going to have some of Effy’s features (this would also raise the question of which role Eura is going to play in this season). This is mostly speculation at this point, of course, but it would provide the necessary distance to the original.
One of the most drastic differences between the UK version and this episode is Cadie’s (Britne Oldford) introduction: Stanley (and we) meet her before the party, when he goes to see her in the kitchen of the high school, and this scene was one of my favourites this episode. There is the simple beauty of introducing a character by letting someone else say “she is not allowed to handle knives” about her, and then framing her entire first scene with an arrangement of knives dangling in the air (“don’t you love to see stuff hanging?”). Cadie isn’t precious, she isn’t quiet or aloof – she is strange, and obviously slightly mad, and once embalmed a hamster after it died and “hung him over the bed and I’d just lie there watching him twisting”. Cadie likes to cook, and the cute pet rabbit in a cage might end up in a stew once perplexed (but happy since he’s not in the position to be picky) Stanley has left the room, and she “only likes really great narcotics” (which, judging by Michelle’s statement that she “usually” takes Cadie to the hospital’s emergency room, is going to be her issue). I think the best way to explain the difference between Cassie and Cadie is to compare their respective lines after everybody else emerges safely from the harbour: the palpable difference between the frame of mind that articulates “at least we’ve got our health, that’s the important thing” and Cadie’s “You’re alive and that is cool. I guess.” – like she isn’t quite sure, and not really willing to pretend either.
Skins’ humour doesn’t translate, and Skins US doesn’t even try. When I first watched the show, Sugar Rush was the only other British show I’d seen so it didn’t completely surprise me that absurd things happened and ridiculous characters appeared in a show that could be so serious at other times. Then I watched Doctor Who and realized that this seems to be… British humour (if I am completely wrong about this, I’d love to hear other theories or whatever). It didn’t feel like Skins US attempted to use this for Jim Schneider (he just seems dumb and aggressive), and it’s even more obvious with the reinterpretation of Madison Twatter (now called Mad Mao Le Dong) – and not just because he lacks a moustache. He isn’t meant to be funny in an absurd way – he is threatening, and scary, and what is funny about the scene is the fact that Stanley, with his general inaptitude, has gotten himself into this situation and it gets worse and worse as he tries to talk his way out of it, until he ends up with his 900 bucks debt, 4 ounces of weed in a swamped market and his balls as collateral.
The party scene - Michelle taking over the dance floor with complete ease, regardless of the ridiculous music, people (named, mostly, Chad and Summer) and general circumstances, Cadie slipping away and taking drugs while Stanley watches jealously, and finally, the “real men” arriving (Chris remarks, stunned, when he sees the mansion: “people live here”. Daisy responds: “Not our kind of people”) and causing chaos and destruction - is essential in the process regarding these people as more than just new characters that have just been introduces: They are a group of friends getting into trouble together, but also taking care of each other.
Cadie and Stanley, meanwhile, are on the trampoline and even though their lines are almost similar to those of Cassie and Sid (it’s no good though, is it, Stanley. Because you love Michelle.”), Britne Oldford delivers these lines completely differently – and now I can’t wait to see where this show is going to take its characters.
Random notes:
Tony is the spider in whose net everybody else is caught; Tony is the sun everybody else orbits.
No
"It’s girl on girl. That’s live porn. And Chris says we can probably convert them. It would be girl on girl on dude!"
Jesse Carere’s interpretation of Chris is very similar to Joe Dempsie’s but he is so immediately likable that it doesn’t really matter – let’s see how he handles the more dramatic material.
I was mostly surprised by the fact that they would actually BLEEP the fucks, instead of just cutting them out. It’s also interesting that shit, cock and ass seem to be fine in some contexts but problematic in others. In general, it was handled creatively: Tony, at one point, says “Gosh golly”, and Cassie’s “shitload” of pills turn into Cadie’s “busload”. I’m starting to wonder what Michelle is going to say to Tabitha in an upcoming episode.
NUTBUSH.
EDITH DAMP. COLLEGIATE FOR YOUNG LADIES.
Okay, so… Britne Oldford. Hannah Murray’s ability to portray Cassie the way she did is still endlessly stunning to me, and I could not possibly express how she does it and why it doesn’t turn into something clichéd and horrible, and is instead masterful and fabulous. Britne Oldford’s Cadie is very, very different from Cassie. She occupies a similar spot within the group (on the periphery), she has a similarly great distance from “the norm”, whatever that might be, but the characters function differently, they have different issues. BUT I AM EQUALLY AS STUNNED about the performance, and can’t wait for Cadie’s episode.
Also, she makes phallic sculptures out of food.
The other new scene that was added - everybody smoking weed in a staff toilet (no college green for these kids) - also worked very well, but maybe I've just missed good group scenes in Skins.
Abbud calls Daisy “scary”. She doesn’t get to do a lot in this episode (neither did Jal), but her facial expressions and the tone of her voice and lack of enthusiasm are enough to establish her as the reasonable, reliable, responsible on in the group (or, as the actress calls it, “the mother of the group”)
Tabitha = Harmony. Y/Y?
“We’re gonna get like so totally retarded on Drum and Base.”
“Mambo”
“Sick.”
“Tight.”
(Michelle’s “what did she say”?)
“TOO URBAN. TOO URBAN!!”
Daisy: His penis turns left?
Chris: Yeah, but only when it’s…
Tea’s reaction to that: sold on her character. HER KNOCKING OUT A GUY AT THE PARTY ALSO HELPED.
No matching clothes for Tony and Michelle? Disappointing.
I never noticed before that the woman Tony watches every morning is the wife of the ridiculous guy at the girls' college.
I’ve probably not once mentioned that Nicholas Hoult does an incredibly good job at playing Tony, and maybe this episode made me realise a bit that this might be one of the most complicated parts to play.
I’ve probably not once mentioned that Nicholas Hoult does an incredibly good job at playing Tony, and maybe this episode made me realise a bit that this might be one of the most complicated parts to play.
I'll wait a couple of episodes before I attempt to judge whether this sense of placelessness is an issue or not - Bristol didn't play an essential role in the original pilot, but having recognisable places definitely became important later on (park benches, the harbour etc.)
I actually did stay up to watch it live, just out of curiosity and because I had the opportunity to watch the first episode of the American version of Being Human before, and I found it almost unbearable – commercial breaks every ten minutes? It’s also slightly disconcerting that almost all the ads were for pregnancy tests, Jersey Shore and Teen Mom 2 or something like that. YOU KNOW WHAT MIGHT SOLVE SOME OF THESE THINGS? ADS FOR CONDOMS!
Final words:
Skins isn’t a show about drugs, nudity and swearing. These things may feature prominently in an episode, depending on the story and on the character, but they aren’t at the centre of Skins and their presence doesn’t define the show. What makes Skins different and more appealing than any other show currently airing that is portraying teenagers is the characters and their relationships. Skins isn’t always a serious show, but it takes the characters and how they change over time very seriously.
When rumours about an American version of the show started, what surprised me the most was the assumption that the US could not produce a likeable show honouring what makes Skins special and different because of the specific circumstances of television production: censorship, a zealous Parents Television Council that doesn’t know the difference between depicting sexuality and sexually objectifying characters, cheaper production costs in Canada than in the actual cities were shows are meant to take place. I grew up on American television, and I wouldn’t say that any of these limitations made Buffy, Daria or Freaks & Geeks into lesser shows – what I found more shocking and what made me lose all interest in shows depicting teenage life was the fact that at some point in the early 2000s, nobody seemed to be interested anymore in teenagers that weren’t blessed with a seemingly endless supply of money, or concerned about other things than reputation or popularity. It’s probably just a coincidence that Joss Whedon moved on to make shows about adults, MTV turned into what it is now and Freaks & Geeks was cancelled, leaving Judd Apatow and most of the people involved in the show to make movies about guys who’ve never really grown out of their high school selves. I’d given up on the idea that anyone could still tell meaningful stories about what it means to be in the complicated in-between of childhood and adulthood, and moved on to other things. And then Skins happened, and I found myself completely surprised by the fact that a show about a time of my life that was blissfully over for good could take me back so violently and beautifully at the same time. I’ve never been able to put my finger on what exactly the magic of Skins is and how the show makes the characters so relatable, regardless of whether any of the things depicted actually ever happened to you or not, but Skins tells universal tales about the human condition (friendships and what they mean to us, trying desperately not to lose ourselves in a relationship, how we deal with catastrophes, figuring out our own identity in relation to other people), and is too often not taken seriously enough because it also happens to be funny and entertaining (and features nudity, drugs and lots of swearing). Skins might be a British show, and this first episode of Skins US makes it obvious that some elements had to be adapted to fit (surprisingly, or rather, interestingly, the absurd humour, some things relating to the differences between American high schools and British colleges), but these themes aren’t specific to one country, and it’s ridiculous to believe that they can’t be tackled as seriously and as successfully in a different context. If – and I neither expect nor hope that this is going to happen – it turns out that the circumstances (censorship or the conditions MTV provides) really do hinder the telling of a truthful story, than Skins at least provides a revelation about something inherently wrong (it already artfully and creatively reveals hypocrisy, which is a valuable contribution) in the American production regime of television, but it seems from the premiere that the team of Skins has found ways to work around the restrictions, which also has a long and proud tradition (for some examples, google “Joss Whedon + innuendo”).
Webisode
Diary
Final words:
Skins isn’t a show about drugs, nudity and swearing. These things may feature prominently in an episode, depending on the story and on the character, but they aren’t at the centre of Skins and their presence doesn’t define the show. What makes Skins different and more appealing than any other show currently airing that is portraying teenagers is the characters and their relationships. Skins isn’t always a serious show, but it takes the characters and how they change over time very seriously.
When rumours about an American version of the show started, what surprised me the most was the assumption that the US could not produce a likeable show honouring what makes Skins special and different because of the specific circumstances of television production: censorship, a zealous Parents Television Council that doesn’t know the difference between depicting sexuality and sexually objectifying characters, cheaper production costs in Canada than in the actual cities were shows are meant to take place. I grew up on American television, and I wouldn’t say that any of these limitations made Buffy, Daria or Freaks & Geeks into lesser shows – what I found more shocking and what made me lose all interest in shows depicting teenage life was the fact that at some point in the early 2000s, nobody seemed to be interested anymore in teenagers that weren’t blessed with a seemingly endless supply of money, or concerned about other things than reputation or popularity. It’s probably just a coincidence that Joss Whedon moved on to make shows about adults, MTV turned into what it is now and Freaks & Geeks was cancelled, leaving Judd Apatow and most of the people involved in the show to make movies about guys who’ve never really grown out of their high school selves. I’d given up on the idea that anyone could still tell meaningful stories about what it means to be in the complicated in-between of childhood and adulthood, and moved on to other things. And then Skins happened, and I found myself completely surprised by the fact that a show about a time of my life that was blissfully over for good could take me back so violently and beautifully at the same time. I’ve never been able to put my finger on what exactly the magic of Skins is and how the show makes the characters so relatable, regardless of whether any of the things depicted actually ever happened to you or not, but Skins tells universal tales about the human condition (friendships and what they mean to us, trying desperately not to lose ourselves in a relationship, how we deal with catastrophes, figuring out our own identity in relation to other people), and is too often not taken seriously enough because it also happens to be funny and entertaining (and features nudity, drugs and lots of swearing). Skins might be a British show, and this first episode of Skins US makes it obvious that some elements had to be adapted to fit (surprisingly, or rather, interestingly, the absurd humour, some things relating to the differences between American high schools and British colleges), but these themes aren’t specific to one country, and it’s ridiculous to believe that they can’t be tackled as seriously and as successfully in a different context. If – and I neither expect nor hope that this is going to happen – it turns out that the circumstances (censorship or the conditions MTV provides) really do hinder the telling of a truthful story, than Skins at least provides a revelation about something inherently wrong (it already artfully and creatively reveals hypocrisy, which is a valuable contribution) in the American production regime of television, but it seems from the premiere that the team of Skins has found ways to work around the restrictions, which also has a long and proud tradition (for some examples, google “Joss Whedon + innuendo”).
Webisode
Diary
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