Skins: Season Two, "Sketch" and "Sid"

Series Two, Episode Two, “Sketch”

The first two episodes of this season are doing very few favors for Skins. Before we get into the structural and character choices here that don’t work, I think we can all agree we need to deal with the obvious. A musical that’s essentially “9/11: The Musical” is in incredibly poor taste. Not that Skins isn’t aware of this. The show is intentionally being flippant and darkly comical about it. And no matter how politically incorrect it may be (the answer: incredibly so), it’s still hilarious because it’s so shocking and unexpected. But why do it at all in the first place? 

Because it can.

This is a mindset that also explains the focus on Sketch (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), a character who is stalking and obsessed with Maxxie. The show is striking a delicate balance. It wants us to be disgusted by Sketch’s actions and yet sympathize with her all the same. Because Sketch is a pitiable character, and the episode goes extensively out of its way to underline this. Sketch’s home-life is devastatingly sad. She lives with her disabled mother, who is incapable of doing just about anything without the help of her daughter. Sketch is stuck due to her mother’s dependence on her, and thus she’s desperate to escape her circumstances. This is why she projects onto Maxxie all these things just aren’t true or realistic. 

None of this hard to comprehend, and it’s largely well-handled. However, it also feels unnecessary. Why did the series require a new character? More importantly, why did it require this character? It’s a weirdly specific story and character to invest so much time in, especially considering this cast of characters only has one season left before they’re written out of the show. 

For instance, Anwar doesn’t a get a standalone episode this season. Instead, Sketch preys on Anwar’s vulnerability and desire for sex and companionship. Anwar becomes essentially comic relief to prop the story of a character we’ve just met and have been given little reason to care about. 

Grade: B-

Series Two, Episode Three, “Sid”

This is more like it.

After two uneven, uncertain efforts, Skins gets back on track. It does this by reemphasizing the balance that finds the series at its best: the combination of the mundane and the exceptional. Take the family dinner, which is an incredibly well-observed commonplace moment (if not a little forgivably clichéd). The episode is filled with several ordinary, everyday moments before it’s pierced with singular tragedy and shifts gears. 

On some level, Skins is about how our identities are formed partly by our complicated relationship with our parents. The way Anwar’s mother smothers him has made him into a doofy mama’s boy. The neglectful upbringing of Tony and Effy turned them into ungrateful wretches, while Cassie’s similar poor parentage caused her to become a basketcase. Jal fears she’ll end up like the mother who walked out on her family, while Chris buries his feelings about his own abandonment by his parents. 

“Sid” draws this theme out further by having Sid’s grandfather visit, demonstrating how the effects of upbringing have a ripple effect, passed down from generation to generation. Sid acts the way he does partly out of fear that his dad sees him as a fuckup, but it’s more complicated than that. His dad fears for his son because he himself was seen as failure in the eyes of his own father. 

Sid finally gets validation from his father, only for his father to suddenly die. Sid acts like nothing has happened, but he’s burying his grief because his father was one of the few constants in his life. This is especially true after he breaks up with Cassie after misinterpreting events witnessed over a webcam (in one of the sillier moments in the episode, which is slightly made up for by the breakup itself which is heartbreaking). 

Sid goes to a party, hoping to distract himself from his grief, but it only serves to isolate him further. He wants to be comforted by his friend Tony, but Tony has been so out of commission as of late that it seems like a hopeless cause. 

Then comes the signature moment of the episode. All of the sound on the soundtrack drops out except for the blaring of the song by the Crystal Castles and wordlessly the episode finds Sid collapsing into the arms of Tony. They’re surrounded by the dancing crowd, but it all sort of fades out as we hone in on this harrowing, intimate moment. 

The second season of Skins is, in part, about the loss of innocence. It’s about how we come to accept that eventually we’re going to have learn to live in this world on our own. It’s about how we learn about the impermanence of things in this world and this life. This recognition starts here and will become more pronounced in the back-half of the season.

Grade: A-

Stray Observations:

-Jal is part of the pit band for the musical and looks oh-so-enthused about it. Those skyscraper-shaped hats are the epitome of dorky.

-Sketch’s treatment of her mother in order to perform in the play is horrifying. The season has an incredibly difficult time engendering any sympathy for Sketch.

-The specificity of Sketch’s story makes it clear that this is a story that the writers intentionally set out to tell this season. I’m not entirely sure what to make of that. 

-Sid breaks up with Cassie after seeing his father’s treatment by his mother. Despite the general absence of parents in the series, it should be noted that one of the show's consistent psychological and thematic interests is the way people fear they'll end up just like their parents.

-Chris’s reaction to the play is priceless. More please!