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Skins Series 6.

So Skins is back for it's sixth season, and I think it's fair to say that the show has steadily declined since its premiere back in 2007. Skins was originally a fresh, new, British teen drama filled with sex, drugs and illegal activities; however, after two cast changes, the show seems to have lost the quality acting and the unique plots. In the past I found that I could not relate to the majority of Skins' story lines, but that was purely down to circumstance. Nowadays, I still cannot relate to them, but I think that is because they are becoming a lot less realistic as the scriptwriters struggle to find new material. Whilst all of this might sound very negative, the latest series isn't that bad, at least not as a standalone series, it is only when you think of it relative to the other series that you realise how much potential it had and wasted.

Whole cast

Series six carries on from the end of series 5 with the same cast and a continued plot. In the first episode we see the team head off for their summer holidays together, but as you can probably guess things aren't smooth sailing. Whilst some of the gang are having the time of their lives partying and getting high, others aren't. This first episode was exciting and new because it was away from England and away from the norm; however, some things that happened seemed out of character and didn't quite fit in with what had happened in the last series. Episode two was a great episode that was funny, filled with sex, had a large party - the full works, but then, right at the very end, a bomb is dropped, shattering reality and confusing everyone. There isn't even an attempt to explain what on earth happened at the beginning of the next episode. This was highly disappointing. The third episode introduced an entirely new character to the series and to be honest, I don't really see where he fits into the plot. I don't think his character is needed, or particularly wanted, so I'm intrigued to see exactly what this character is going to add to the series.

Who's this new fellow Frankie is talking to?

Skins is structured in a way such that each episode focuses mainly on one character with all the other characters slotting in. In the previous series, this has worked quite nicely so that none of the characters are neglected and even though each episode focuses on only one character there is still a continuous plotline throughout the series. From what I've seen of so far of the current series, they are still keeping to the current structure of honing in on one character per episode; however, the episodes all seem very disjointed and there isn't much connecting one episode to the next. From the first three episodes, I can already tell that certain characters are going to have very interesting episodes, and others not. It is already clear that this series is not going to be consistent in terms of plot and, now, also in quality and interest.

All in all, I am slightly disappointed that Skins is no longer as good as it once was; however, this series is still well worth a watch. If you've never seen Skins before, this definitely isn't the series to start with! Go right back to series one for some real quality British teen drama.