[Z]

Skins started out with a fairly realistic representation of teenage life; with dramatic embellishments to make it exciting, maybe exaggerating the drug usage etc. of the average teenager, but generally was great fun to watch, and you felt like you were growing up alongside the first generation of characters. They messed up with the second generation; and I find that unforgivable considering the actual characters were well conceived, but the plot went out the window. Series 1 and 2 were about a group of friends; Series 3 and 4 was about Effy leading on three best friends; and then a sideshow of a lesbian relationship, pushing Pandora, Thomas and Katie completely out of the picture. Katie Fitch was my favourite character of that series and she was brutally ignored for the vast majority of the two series'. The ending to series 4 was appalling, there were almost no conclusions to the story. I think the writers must have stuck their fingers in their ears to all of the 'we're sick of Freddie/Effy/Cook' criticisms of the show, because they persisted with making the three of them the main focus of series 4 as well. We weren't given a Pandora centric episode in series 4. I'd like to know why Effy was silent in the first two series, I don't particularly care that Cook's little brother is just like him.

There were so many things wrong with that series; and yet I still enjoyed watching it for the love of the original idea behind the show. I hope the new cast meet the best of both worlds... fantastic characters, portrayed as a group of friends, with a plot that goes somewhere and doesn't leave you feeling angry and as if there are a missing fifteen minutes to the conclusion of the series!