Late to the Party: MTV's Skins Series Episode 1

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MTV Skins Episode One: A look back at what went wrong!

This is the American version of the teen drama. It is a adaptation of the British teen drama of the same name. The show premiered on January 17, 2011 on MTV in the U.S. and on Movie Central and The Movie Network in Canada. The original show was created by father-and-son television writers Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain for Company Pictures, and premiered on UK digital channel E4 on January 25, 2007. As with the UK series, the 2011 version features a cast of amateur actors and young writers.

On June 9, 2011, MTV announced that they would not renew Skins for a second season, with a statement that "Skins is a global television phenomenon that, unfortunately, didn't connect with a US audience as much as we had hoped," and I'm here to tell you why!

MTV's Skins is set in Baltimore Maryland and it's filmed in Canada.

Episode One: Tony

Well here we are with the MTV remake of Skins, the first episode is about Tony and it's nearly a shot for shot episode. The major changes are the cut back in language, it will have the kids say the words but they bleep it out because you can only say certain words on American TV. 

The episode starts with a shot of a house and we see a girl walk up to it, she is the Effy analogue and they changed her name to Eura. The music for the series is strong as always because Segal is a part of the process, the scene cuts to Tony opening his eyes and ti pulls up to reveal him much like in the original. His alarm goes off and he begins his morning routine of working out and then looking out the window. Now that this is on MTV we won't be seeing nudity but we do see some side boobage.  

Eura waves to her brother and he cranks on the loud music, now knowing the original I'm going to be very tough on this version. So far it has shown that this show should have been on a network that could get away with swearing and nudity. When Tony's father comes in and starts yelling but he isn't as awesome as Harry Enfield. Eura sneaks in her room as her father freaks out about the music, she quickly gets ready and as he leaves and shuts the door, Tony shuts the music off.

The actor that plays Tony also isn't as charismatic as Nicholas Holt but he is a lot more of a douche. When his dad keeps yelling about taking a dump, over and over it feels like a kiddie show, who says take a dump? Well Tony eats breakfast and leaves and then calls Sid, I uh mean Stanley! Well he is a lazy virgin much like Sid but he has long hair and talks like a cliche stoner. Tony then calls Jal, oh sorry I mean Daisy, what is with me today!? He then talks to Michelle and she has the same name and even same Nickname "Nips."


Tony says something like "Gosh Golly" and I assume it was meant to be ironic but it feels like that is something he would say. Tony then gets a call from Chris and this kid is no Joesph Dempsie! But he took a girl with huge teeth camping to bone her, I have to say when the British equivalent of a not so pretty girl is prettier than the American one that is bad! Tony then repeats his same lines from the British one and I will say the MTV Michelle is a cute and so is Daisy.


It cuts to a boy pray and we see Anwar, damn I did it again! It's Abbud and he says he can't hang out because of the biog gay night out but guess what? They changed Maxxie into a girl named Tea and Chris is also going to the big gay night out. Tony calls Stan's dad and tells him the Stan is going to be late for school and like the original his dad freaks out and wakes him up. It then goes to the first original scene, cheerleaders and this is where we meet Tea the lesbian cheerleader. 

Tony still tries to convince her that they need to get Stan laid and then Tony finally gets a hold of Stan and tells him he is getting laid. Stan is happy about this and masturbates to celebrate. We cut to Daisy as she reads some stuff that hits home to the teacher Angie, damn what is with me I did it again! Well the teacher is Tina and this maybe a spoiler but she gets her own episode and it's super awkward but more on her later! Tina is bawling her eyes out and the shows writing could be better if they could have the characters speak like they do in the UK Version.

Chris keeps trying to help Tina even if it means saying that her ex boyfriend a PE teacher touched him. He answers her phone and gets told by a teacher his homework is due. It cuts to Tony still trying to get Stan laid and Tea says if he can get stan to pop his cherry she may flash during the big game. The plan is very similar to the original and did I mention how annoying bleeped out swears are? Like the original we are lead to think that Stan will get Michelle but she says the only person dumb enough to sleep with Stan is Cassie, damn not again! Cadie.

She also has an eating disorder and she is crazy. Stan has to get some weed from Mad Mal LeDong, Mad Twatter was a better name. We then get the next original scene, Stan meets up with Cadie in Life Skills and she is kind of creepy. She embalmed her hamster as a child and then she talks about how she knows he is going to bang her and she resumes to cook her rabbit stew. Cadie is a bit crazier than Cassie, less spacey and this makes me sad.

It cuts to Tony at a prep school and he is auditioning for the choir and I could be wrong but I don't think he's singing. All the girls fawn over him t LaDong as he sings it cuts between him singing and Stan on the bus looking at a video of almost seeing Michelle naked and a creepy old guy tries to see it. Stan gets to the address to meet
LeDong and then we meet Tabitha, she is the Abigail analogue. She is more valley girl than Posh girl and Tony agrees to going to her party. Tony leaves and he is caught by a teacher as he says some colorful things to Michelle but the teacher tries to stop him and sets an alarm but the guards pass Tony and tackle the teacher, oh this is supposed to be funny...


Stan gets to LeDong's pad and meets some whores while his mother calls but he quickly hangs up the phone and then waits for LeDong. It then cuts to Daisy, Chris, Abbud and Tea in a stall smoking weed and then Tony finds them and asks who is helping Stan get laid and he says he is getting weed to sell to the rich kids. Abbud says that no one is buying this time of year and Tony calls Stan to stop him but he doesn't answer. Mad LeDong is an old man that is probably the worst cast change because Mad twatter was such a great minor character and this guy just sucks.


Stan tries to get an ounce and ends up getting four on a payment plan and then the creepy old guy grabs Stan's balls to show he doesn't screw around and I have to say it's creepier with LeDong doing that than Twatter. Tony finds Stan outside the party because he had a lay down and never checked his phone. Michelle appears and begins to suck Tony's face and then Stan walks backwards almost into Cadie and Stan says he got four ounces.


Tabitha introduces the four to her group of friends which include a lot of Summers. This party is about as white and nerdy as the British one so they defiantly nailed that aspect. Michelle begins to dance and Tony joins her as Stan watches, Tabitha sees how close Tony and Michelle are and she doesn't look impressed. Cadie pops some pills and then it cuts to Chris, Abbud, Tea and Daisy come to the party, they never show the gay night out they just mention how lame it was.


We hear some moans of pleasure and we see Cadie and Stan playing on the trampoline, they end up kissing once they land and Cadie says it's no good because he loves Michelle, apparently he didn't know that others could see him drool over her all the time. Chris begins to steal a few things and I should say his voice is kind of a annoying I know that is a nit-pick-y thing but I don't like it. Cadie mentions that if he wants to get it on he has to speed up because she took a bus load of pills.


The party inside gets crazy and a fight breaks out as Stan carries Cadie to collect his friends so they can bring Cadie to the hospital.Chris stole some keys and they drive off, aw no foreign exchange student! LAME. They bring her to the emergency room but she awakes and they go off to the park so she can pee. In the UK version it's Anwar that is peeing but in this one it's Cadie. Chris asks if anyone has skins for the weed and as Stan tries to get some from Tony's pocket the car ends up in the lake.


So they loose all the weed and the car they stole and have to walk back to their houses soaked. It then cuts to the lady that Tony saw earlier and her husband is bitching at her for flaunting her body and we see her husband is the teacher from the prep school. The last scene is of Tony and Stan in Tony's bed and he asks if he got laid and he says no and then it cuts to the credits.


There is no point watching the MTV version if you can get access to the UK Version, which you can easily find on Netflix. This show is a watered down carbon copy with a great soundtrack. The writing is okay but they don't have the freedom to write the way the show should be written. If an HBO or Showtime had gotten the rights to Skins they could have done a great job even if it was shot for shot. Well maybe one of those bigger networks would have written more original stories. This episode got great ratings when it came out but after that each week the ratings plummeted, sadly as the series went on and became more original it lost it's viewers. 


This was not a strong start for the remake and it could have been done so well. There are so many shows that can tell similar stories and get away without swearing but this show is not one of them because the UK Skins is in some ways truer to teen life at least in the way teens talk than some of the crazy parties but it's still a great show and should be seen while the remake shows that remakes generally suck!