Skins - Freddie, 4.05

To be honest, I usually watch this series of Skins in a small browser window while I play solitaire next to it.

It's still shot beautifully, gorgeous cinematography, utilizing light better than most shows on TV, and it still has a cast of really gorgeous and talented young actors. The individual episodes are written well; none as stand-out as the earlier seasons' stunners like "Cassie" (s1), "Sketch," or "Everyone," but they are still plainly good stories.

My main complaint is the same as it was last series: the second generation characters are not as strong, and neither are their relationships with each other, as the first generation's. In the second series, if Jal had a heart-to-heart with Sid, it was completely natural because you knew these people were all best friends. However, this series, I found it weird when Katie admitted her medical problem to Thomas (frankly, I think it's weird when anyone interacts seriously with Thomas -- when did they become even remotely close?) and when the girls showed up at Cook's birthday party in series 3. There is no evidence that they know each other at all. I expected them to create and grow relationships throughout series 3 so that in series 4 the writers could play with that, but it didn't happen. Plus, we were left with an irritating finale that only focused on the least interesting group of the bunch -- Freddie, Cook, JJ, and Effy.

Scratch that -- not the least interesting. That award would go to one of the twins or Thomas. Or Naomi.

I have quite a few complaints about this generation I suppose...

"Freddie" does nothing to assuage my annoyances. It is a moving, but very average, love story, what with Freddie trying to save Effy from depression, interspersed with beautiful scenes of field-frolicking and the like (not to mention, lines like "I fucking love you so fucking much"). I appreciate this episode for what it tries to be, but unfortunately, I don't care enough about Freddie and Effy to be moved.

Thoughts:

• Freddie runs into Cook dressed as the Devil, appropriate for a whimsical carnival scene where Katie is an angel and saves Effy.
• I am convinced I would love this episode a thousand times more if I wasn't so annoyed with Effy. Because the scenes with Freddie and his granddad are brilliant. Freddie is such a good person, and it's heartbreaking that his efforts are in vain in the end.

What I'm Watching This Summer

Watching Now:

• Skins (Just a few more episodes left in series 4)
• Doctor Who (On series 4)
• Torchwood (On series 1)
• Heroes s1 (Regarded as the best season, so why not? Also, Christopher Eccleston. So there's that.)

Watching Soon:

• Treme (Need to catch up from episode 3)
• FlashForward (Need to catch up from episode 18)
• Secret Diary of a Call Girl (Not sure where I can watch this...)

Watching... Sometime:

• The Wire (Regrettably, not on Netflix, so I don't know what I'm going to do... Megavideo will be the death of me. Maybe I'll buy the DVDs, dunno.)
• Angel (Saw the first season, hated it. But I feel like I need to tough it out for Joss, the Buffster, and Cordy. So one day I will.)
• Six Feet Under
• Pushing Daisies s2

Watching Intermittently:

• The State

Skins - Effy, 3.08

Licensing must be so cheap because most of the artists are independent, and for a show that uses music so heavily, that's an awesome situation to be in.

Eight episodes into the third series and I'm still not feeling it. Because the group itself isn't close, I don't feel close to them either. The only people I find tolerable are JJ and Naomi, sometimes.

Skins - Everyone & Cook, 3.1-2

I watched the first two series of this show, wary of its very young cast and writers, with low expectations. After the first episode, I was left wondering why this motley crew were even friends - they were so different. After the second episode, I began to warm up to the characters, and appreciated the now evident structure the first series would take (story arch, while exploring each character individually). After the first series, I was completely and totally in love with everything and everyone. The musical-inspired Wild World at the end of the episode sealed the deal.

Not only was the acting spectacular, the writing, too, was outstanding. It was an exploration of character rather than intense plot (though that happened also) and that's what made it so compelling. It was also interesting to see what UK culture was like. A specific, stylized facet of it, at least.

It had all the clever twists and coincidences to keep it interesting, and the strong characters to keep you invested. The second series was just as spot-on, if not better. Now that we knew the characters, the second series was free to explore them further and examine their relationships. It truly solidified the group, and convinced me they really would be friends.

I started the third series today, which features a different set of actors (the show's "second generation"). So far this is what I think:

• I don't like Effy, never did. I miss Tony and Michelle and Sid and Jal and CHRIS and Maxxie and Anwar and Cassie and not Sketch. :(
• The twins look promising. The cute skateboarder guy interested in Effy does, too. And JJ. Cook seems like a more unlikable version of Chris. Not feeling the not-lesbian, either.
• At the beginning of the first series when I thought the group didn't fit well together, I was proved wrong quickly. They were already friends, and it just took a few episodes for their dynamic to show through. However, this series, only a few of them are already friends and everyone else just hates each other. I'm not getting the sense of community, at least, that I did before, and I'm wondering if this different dynamic will be detrimental to the first series.
• I really like the drone-y music under Cook and Freddie's conversation. Effective and unique.