In principle, Skins has fantastic potential to be adapted to a new place, a new cast, a new style. In fact, that’s what Skins is all about. The series consists of a collection of brilliant character sketches of (really interesting) teenagers, who attend Roundview College, an A-levels, two year program in Bristol. Each episode delves into the life of one or two of the central cast exposing the depth of each, unique character. The format of the show is designed for cast turnover; every two years, a new class enters, new lives are put under the microscope, new stories discovered.
Remaining open to re-casting allows the material stay so much fresher. By continuing to explore new characters, new stories naturally develop. This stands in contrast to the American model, desperate to offer audiences more of the same, beloved characters, year after year. Clinging to old characters forces teen shows out of the high school paradigm. (This in itself is not inherently wrong, but is significant to take into account in relation to a show’s branding/identity.) Additionally, a desire to continue to dish up new and interesting plots, centering on the same old characters forces everyone to stray farther and farther from their original personas, in order to expose them (and audiences) to new situations.
90210 is a wonderful example of this. Take the character of Kelly who, over the course of the series, had an alcoholic mother, was nearly date raped, overdosed on diet pills, stole her ex-best friend’s boyfriend, won the “spring princess” crown, lived through a fire, joined a cult, took up cocaine, and eventually became a high school guidance counselor. While it is true that all of these events in isolation are possible and intriguing narratives, heaping the whole pile on a single character demonstrates the preposterous melodrama of the series. While no less shocking, or melodramatic, Skins spreads out the drama and the problems, the friendships and fun times, creating an innovative portrait of teenage life.
Instead of taking what was great (the format) and inventing interesting, American characters, the MTV remake literally remade, shot-for-shot, the British episode “Tony” (and the “coming up” trailer, so I presume the episodes that followed as well… if anyone bothered to watch them, I never heard about it). Walking as shadows of the original, magnetic cast, there was no space for anyone to develop real character. It was all reciting words.
Speaking of words, the re-makers stripped and censored the scripts, but shoved it otherwise basically word for word, down the throats of relatively amateur, American, teenage actors. Thus, we the audience were subjected to BRITISH SLANG coming out of AMERICAN TEENS?! Need I say more?
