History Series / Skins

* DenserAndWackier: While wacky from the beginning, ''Skins'' lost a lot of subtlety with time. Just compare the very beginnings of the respective opening episodes of the first and second generations. The first depicts Tony's morning routine: excessive, but realistic pranks on Jim Stonem and getting away with the them, being mean to people and flirting with an older neighbour. The second depicts Freddie's morning: skating on the street so recklessly he causes two accidents (including scenes where a guy drops ice cream on his crotch making it look like RagingStiffie, and the same guy falling into a trash truck after chasing Freddie), and Jim Stonem getting physically hurt while his daughter Effy couldn't care less about it. And while Tony is presented as an asshole for his part, Freddie and Effy are supposed to be seen as cool.

* BigGame: Subverted. Nick's RugbyUnion match is set up as one of these in his season 5 episode, [[spoiler: only for him to quit the team before it even starts]].

* LoggingOntoTheFourthWall: The third generation all have {{Twitter}} accounts, and Franky has a [[http://www.youtube.com/user/frankyfitzgerald/videos YouTube account]].

Abroad, the series airs on Creator/{{SBS2}} in Australia and BBC America in the United States (despite not being a BBC show). {{MTV}} launched [[TransAtlanticEquivalent an American version]] in January 2011. Most of the attention it gained [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity was on the back of the controversy it generated]], with MoralGuardians accusing it of breaching child pornography laws and pressuring advertisers to pull their ads from the show (and they mostly listened, with eight sponsors pulling their ad revenue). It also came under fire from critics for being what they saw as a poor imitation of the British show, especially in the acting and writing departments. Despite all that plus lukewarm ratings, it managed to reach the end of its first season before being [[http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/06/10/mtv-skins-canceled/ cancelled]].

** ''Skins'' is fond of playing with this trope. With Sid as the Archie, it initially appears that Cassie is the Betty while Michelle is the Veronica. Series 2 turns this on its head.

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Deconstructed with Cassie, as if the writers were exploring how miserable and messed up it would be for everybody if this trope was real.
** Beth from Tony's season 2 episode plays it straight [[spoiler: which makes perfect sense considering she is a manifestation of Tony's subconscious.]]
** Grace is definitely this for Rich, at least in the beginning.

* DuelingShows: ''TheInbetweeners''.
** Especially with series 3 episode 2 of The Inbetweeners. Skins has taken years to try and give drug culture a positive image, Inbetweeners successfully ruins that image in 25 minutes.

* DawsonsCasting: Largely averted, as most of the cast were at or slightly above playing age at time of filming.

* Dawson'sCasting: Largely averted, as most of the cast were at or slightly above playing age at time of filming.

* FollowTheLeader: Highly controversial Russian series ''Shkola'' (''School'') is basically ''Skins'' [[RecycledINSPACE IN RUSSIA]] with the SerialNumbersFiledOff, and profanity, sexual content and general [[CrapSackWorld crapsackiness]] cranked UpToEleven.
** It's actually much tamer than Skins - the profanity isn't as rampant and there are episodes without any sexual content at all. [[ValuesDissonance Inappropriate content is just a lot more strictly monitored there - and depicting daily life in the country in a less-than-pretty way is frowned on]]. Besides, it's not like Skins was the first show to parade around disaffected youth.
** Additionally, the [=BBCThree=] show ''Coming of Age'' is Skins [-WITH MORE BAD SEX JOKES AND ONE-DIMENSIONAL CHARACTERS!-]. It's widely considered to be crap, but still gets enough viewers to get renewed.
*** It's actually ''TwoPintsOfLagerAndAPacketOfCrisps'' [-WITH KIDS!-] Yeah, because somebody thought that was a ''good'' idea.

** Anka, the woman Anwar meets in Russia, claims she learned English from "best American TV show" but never names it. Some fans, however, may have been able to guess, as she later uses that famous phrase [[{{Friends}} "we were on a break."]]
** Also, earlier, she says [[{{Friends}} "Yaha!"]] and [[{{Friends}} "How you doing?"]] which are phrases from that same TV show.

''Skins'' (2007-13) is a British teen drama set in Bristol, England and commissioned by ChannelFour in an attempt to put more homegrown (read: sexy) talent on television. The show grew popular among its mostly 14-21 audience for its candid take on teenage life in the late '00s and early '10s, specifically with its party scenes in which actors/actresses were [[ThrowItIn left to their own devices as chaos ensued]].

Now with a [[Characters/{{Skins}} character page]]. Some Tropes have been moved there.

*** Not sure where the "Tony, Effy and Franky are the three main characters" interpretation comes from-I'm not aware of any confirmation via Word of God on this.
*** It's never been brought up, but all three of them are definitely at the center of each of their respective generations.

** Emily is clearly one toward Naomi as well; Cassie also appears to be one toward Sid romantically, if not sexually.

Skins (2007-13) is a British teen drama set in Bristol, England and commissioned by ChannelFour in an attempt to put more homegrown (read: sexy) talent on television. The show grew popular among its mostly 14-21 audience for its candid take on teenage life in the late '00s and early '10s, specifically with its party scenes in which actors/actresses were [[ThrowItIn left to their own devices as chaos ensued]].

* TheDanza: Josie Long playing Chris' career counsellor Josie.
** Humorously averted with the Fitches. Katherine Prescott plays Emily while Megan Prescott plays Katie.

** Sid's dad Mark starts out as distant, fiery and emotionally abusve. This becomes subverted later on though, after Sid's mum abandons them.

* ActorAllusion: In Season 2, episode 2 [[spoiler: Anwar]] [[ThinkUnsexyThoughts recites Hugh Grant's filmography since 1992 during sex so he'll last longer]]. Upon finishing, he says that he never can make it to "About a Boy," the 2002 film starring Nicholas Hoult.
** And there's even one with the guest stars.
--->'''T Love (Will Young):''' Don't you think you should be leaving?
--->'''Freddie:''' Right now?
*** ([[DontExplainTheJoke For those who don't get it]], ''Leave Right Now'' is probably Will Young's most successful song.)
**** Also, in Chris' episode he says: "Piss on a cloth.... Works better than clearasil.' Ironically, he continued to advertise for Clearasil after Skins.

** The [[FanNickname Triangle of Doom]] has Freddie as the Betty and Cook as the Veronica to Effy's Archie. JJ also liked to fancy himself as a [[ThirdOptionLoveInterest Cheryl Blossom]] for a time.

** According to WordOfGod, Effy is short for Elizabeth. The name of Tony's ManicPixieDreamGirl in his S2 episode is Beth. She is later revealed to be a manifestation of his subconscious. Make of that what you will.

** Mini, Nick and Rich have become more and more likeable since their respective episodes.

** All but confirmed by WordOfGod - Jamie Brittain is on record as saying that the latter half of the season didn't go as planned (the finale was supposed to be entirely Naomi's episode, rather than the Everyone it turned out to be, for example).

** The pattern held for the second generation as well; Series 3 was much lighter in tone than Series 4, probably the darkest ''Skins'' season yet. Thankfully, [[WordOfGod Jamie Brittain]] has said that they do not plan to continue the pattern with the current generation; however, the first episode of series 6 ended with [[spoiler:Grace in a coma and Matty a fugitive. Then Grace died the very next episode.]]

* DawsonCasting: Averted with the main cast. Played ([[JustifiedTrope justifiably]]) straight in series 6 with [[spoiler:Poppy, the 14-year-old Alo has sex with without realising she's underage, who's played by a 19-year-old.]]
** The American version found out the hard way why so many {{teen drama}}s employ this trope -- MoralGuardians accused the show of being [[PaedoHunt child pornography]] for putting its 17-year-old actors in risque situations.

* DirectedByCastMember: Harry Enfield directed two episodes of series 2. Daniel Kaluuya, aka "Posh Kenneth," also wrote Jal's S2 episode and Thomas's S3 episode.

* EnforcedMethodActing: When [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR27UsXgdbU&feature=related JJ blows fire]] in his S3 episode, when he's in the shed with Freddie, Effy and Cook. While Ollie Barbieri was learning the trick, Luke, Kaya and Jack were put under the impression that the fire would be added in with special effects, so their shock when it happened was completely genuine.

*** Not sure where the "Tony, Effy and Franky are the three main characters" interpretation comes from-I'm not aware of any confirmation via WordofGod on this.

* FakeNationality: The Polish student from the pilot episode. It's obvious from even from her pretty much [[http://www.film.org.pl/prace/polskie_akcenty.html "niezrozumiale"]] (incomprehensible) "Ostatnio! Prawdziwa chłop przybywa." that Polish is not the first language of the actress. Judging from her actual skill (OrSoIHeard) in Italian, it's not her second either.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Very common. For starters, the show has a tradition of casting well-known British comics and comic actors as the parents; of 18 main characters in the first two series (well, 16 if you note the two pairs of siblings), 15 (13) have at least one comic for a parent.
** A couple of the main characters are this too; more than a few people know Tony as "him from ''AboutABoy''," and Dev Patel is now far better known for ''SlumdogMillionaire'' than for being Anwar.
** Geeks are about to get this with Luke Pasqualino (Freddie), given that he's been cast as a young [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 Bill Frakkin' Adama]].
** More than a few people recognized Dakota Blue Richards from ''Film/TheGoldenCompass'' when Generation 3 was revealed.
** Fans of ''Series/TheVicarOfDibley'' will recognize Sid's dad as Tristan, the handsome BBC director who Geraldine fell for in "Songs of Praise". Others will know him as angry, foul-mouthed, political spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in ''Series/TheThickOfIt''.
*** Now Peter Capaldi has been confirmed by WordofGod as the Twelfth Doctor, expect this to be taken to a whole new level. UpToEleven...or is that Twelve?
** Speaking of Dibley, in Pandora's episode, [[Series/TheVicarOfDibley Hugo Horton]] (or [[Film/SenseAndSensibility John Dashwood]] for Austen fans) appears in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo as the cranky neighbor who is revealed to be in a sex tape with Pandora's mum when Effy and Cook fall into the house next door.

** Naomi's episode in S3 has Emily and Keiran make clear her interest in politics and her run for president

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: If you want to see the original uncut episodes, yeah. Due to music costs, the dvds cut all the licensed music. This includes replacing Tony's singing On The Street Where you live with an original song, and completely removing the climactic Wild World music finale of series one. A petition for the original music is underway at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/region-1-dvd-box-set-of-skins-generation-1-uk/

** Several at the end of Series 4, due to it being ScrewedByTheNetwork:

*** The fact of the matter is we only know definitively about the future plans of [[spoiler: Thomas and Pandora]] as well as [[spoiler: Freddie's [[UnusualEuphemism lack of them]]]]. As of [[spoiler: Skins: Fire, Pure and Rise, we find out that Effy's going to prison after partaking in illegal insider trading; Naomi and Emily do stay together though, with Naomi becoming a famous comedienne and Emily working in New York...until Naomi's untimely death due to cancer; Cassie ends up back in London and after her father runs off, she becomes the legal guardian of her little brother while also becoming a model; and Cook is still running from the cops.]] It was also suggested that [[spoiler: Naomi will be going to some sort of university]] - though even that's unclear - and WordOfGod has said that [[spoiler: Naomi and Emily end up getting married]] [[note]]He was lying though.[[/note]]. And it's assumed that [[spoiler: JJ is staying in Bristol to help Lara take care of her baby]], though again, not confirmed. Other than that, though, there's nothing. [[spoiler: Katie's fate]] is left completely open. Part of the problem is that the creators were likely banking on the ''Skins'' movie (which planned to focus on Gen 2) to resolve these loose ends, but now they've decided to use three two-parter episodes based on the characters Effy, Cook and Cassie to wrap things up completely.

** Generation 3: [[spoiler: Nick and Mini start the series as a couple. Franky met and developed feelings for Matty. Rich and Grace become a couple. After Mini was reluctant to sleep with Nick, he cheated on her with her best friend, Liv, which ultimately results in Mini and Nick breaking up a few episodes later. The next episode, Liv hooked up with Nick's brother Matty in a drug-fuelled night of passion, and then they became a couple, but Nick holds a torch for Liv until she rejects him in his episode. Feelings are still shared between Franky and Matty, and Liv eventually gets sick of their obvious feelings and breaks up with Matty. Matty and Franky try and have sex only for Franky to FreakOut hinting at possible past abuse, and they come to an understanding of sorts. Also, Mini has developed a blatantly-obvious one-sided crush on Franky as of the S5 finale.]] In series 6, Franky and Matty are an official couple for all of one episode, and during that time their relationship is definitely strained, before it finally collapses in on itself with [[spoiler: Grace dying and Matty running away from the scene, which obviously leaves Rich depressed]]. Mini has given up her crush on Franky, and her and Alo begin a friends with benefits relationship that ends with Mini [[spoiler: pregnant and the two keeping the baby as a happy couple]]. Meanwhile, Nick has gained feelings for Franky, but is unsure to act on them considering the circumstances, especially after [[spoiler: Franky hooks up with the abusive Luke]]. Once Franky leaves him though, her and Nick eventually hook up, but their relationship appears to be almost completely sexual. Liv, who used to be interested in both Nick and Matty, appears to have a crush on new kid Alex, but this is shut down by him after he reveals that he's gay, and the two become best buds instead. At the end of the series, [[spoiler: Matty returns, and is fully invested in getting Franky back, however she wants nothing to do with him considering how he was involved with Grace's death]] In spite of this, the finale reveals that [[spoiler: Franky cares for both of the Levan boys, but honestly believes that no good can come from her being with either of them]], which leaves Nick and Matty reestablishing their bond as brothers, while Rich [[spoiler: finally is able to get the closure he needs from Grace's death after the two share a surreal, and final, kiss in a pool]]

* LyingCreator:
** [[spoiler: Matty DOES have ties to a character in Season 5, Nick (his brother).]]
** The writers said in an interview toward the beginning of S3 that Naomi was not gay.
** Many lesbian fans saw all the hyping of Tea as a super-confident lesbian, after she [[spoiler: started sleeping with Tony, repeatedly]], as this trope.
** Jamie Brittain said that the pattern of having a kind of light season followed by a [[DarkerAndEdgier Darker and Edgier]] season wouldn't happen for Generation 3. [[spoiler:S6 is probably the darkest season yet, with a main character in a coma as of the first episode, and dying in the second, a character that ran away and is wanted by the cops, a pregnant girl who really doesn't know what to do and can't even admit to herself that she's pregnant, problems with Russian mafia, and most of the characters being troubled psychologicaly by grief. And from what we've seen from the previews, it's not going better to be better in the last 2 episodes.]]
*** It doesn't.

* NamesTheSame: The second generation featured a James Cook and a Naomi Campbell. The latter is briefly given a little LampshadeHanging when she becomes angry on her first appearance on the show. Averted in Real Life in that the twin who played Katie was Megan Prescott, rather than her sister, Kathryn, who played Emily. T

** Franky seems almost physically unable to refer to herself as Francesca, and is embarrased when Doug says it.

* RealitySubtext: Ironically, while at the end of series 2, Anwar is the only member of the main cast who isn't 'going somewhere' with his life--but immediately after leaving the show, Dev Patel was cast as the lead in ''SlumdogMillionaire''. Not bad.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: E4 cut the budget for series 4, resulting in there only being eight episodes. For nine characters. Series 5 was also limited to eight episodes, although at least the creators were prepared that time. It was fixed with the upcoming Series 6, which has been confirmed for ten episodes.
* ScrewedByTheLawyers: The US version almost had this, when MoralGuardians started asserting that the show violated child pornography laws and threatened to get law enforcement involved. The show didn't actually [[http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-20/skins-is-not-kiddie-porn-mtv-show-breaks-no-child-pornography-laws/ violate any laws]], though, so all it resulted in was the loss of some gullible advertisers. Enough, however, for MTV to cancel the series, so they won.

** Additionally, the [=BBCThree=] show ''Coming of Age'' is Skins [-WITH MORE BAD SEX JOKES AND ONE-DIMENSIONAL CHARACTERS!-]. It's widely considered to be crap, but [[ViewersAreMorons still gets enough viewers]] to get renewed.

** In S6, when [[spoiler:Matty's]] StalkerWithACrush behavior becomes too much for Franky, she yells at him to drop the [[Literature/{{Twilight}}]] act.

** Jamie Brittain said that the pattern of having a kind of light season followed by a [[DarkerAndEdgier]] season wouldn't happen for Generation 3. [[spoiler:S6 is probably the darkest season yet, with a main character in a coma as of the first episode, and dying in the second, a character that ran away and is wanted by the cops, a pregnant girl who really doesn't know what to do and can't even admit to herself that she's pregnant, problems with Russian mafia, and most of the characters being troubled psychologicaly by grief. And from what we've seen from the previews, it's not going better to be better in the last 2 episodes.]]

** The theme tune is a possible ShoutOut to {{Rugrats}}. They sound similar, and it would be thematically relevant: the lives of babies vs. the lives of teens, and both shows were made for the same generation.

** Chris's comment in Michelle's S1 episode about how it's "like a fuckin' episode of ''TheOC'' in here!" could be seen as this.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers: The US version almost had this, when MoralGuardians started asserting that the show violated child pornography laws and threatened to get law enforcement involved. The show didn't actually [[http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-20/skins-is-not-kiddie-porn-mtv-show-breaks-no-child-pornography-laws/ violate any laws]], though, so all it resulted in was the loss of some gullible advertisers.