By Haile Lidow
Staff Writer
From claims of being borderline child pornography to angering irate parent groups, MTV’s “Skins” has caused much controversy. The new series, however, is still bringing in a record amount of viewers for the network, despite the fact that MTV has butchered the concept of the original British show.
The network has made a pathetic attempt to simply copy the characters and plotlines, and this has somehow resulted in a vulgar rendition of the brilliant and well-balanced original.
Differences between the two series are almost undetectable and ultimately irrelevant, as they serve no greater purpose. For instance, a new lesbian character named Tea has replaced original character Maxxie (a gay teen boy). In replacing Maxxie, MTV has declared its primary concern to be attracting viewers with titillating storylines, not substance.
The script is practically a verbatim replica of the original “Skins,” with awkward Americanization of English slang. For example, “spliff” becomes “marijuana cigarette.” This disingenuous translation of not only the dialogue but also the plot presents a culturally dependent problem in an unrelatable way.
American and British teenagers have different social experiences because of the differences in culture. Instead of adapting the issues that British teenagers experience to the ones that Americans experience, the show loses all respective audiences by presenting the characters’ lives in an unbelievable manner that is both forced and contrived.
American audiences can easily appreciate the British “Skins.” In fact BBC’s “Skins” has gained many American viewers.
However, where the British channel E4 put time and effort into creating psychologically complex characters and valid, well thought out storylines, MTV simply copied the script and made a lazy attempt at “Americanizing” it by adding cheerleaders and lesbians.
By copying the original script instead of adapting the concepts, “Skins” falls into the same pit that other shows have fallen into. Take “The Office.” In its first season, the show was almost cancelled because the American actors were simply reading the original British script. By season two, the network modified the scripts to fit the change of culture. As a result, “The Office” became well-loved by American viewers.
“Skins” could be an incredible new series. But it is one for HBO or Showtime, not MTV, which leads to the second problem. MTV is constrained by being a basic cable channel, which has stricter requirements, and by its largest audience, preteen girls. The British “Skins” delves into issues that are in no way appropriate or even allowed for a basic cable channel.
MTV has pushed the boundaries of its restrictions, but the terrible acting in “Skins” has caused storylines that were formerly relevant and genuine to become vulgar and uncomfortable.
Had a network like HBO or Showtime taken on the project, these issues would probably be presented in a much more realistic and believable manner. It is admirable that MTV’s programming has changed from music videos to original reality series’, but by trying to take on one of the most innovative, controversial and insightful scripted dramas on TV, it set itself up for failure.
There is always hope that the writers of “Skins” will take after those of “The Office” and learn from their mistakes quickly enough to salvage the series, but MTV’s “Skins” is off to an unsteady, even embarrassing start. New episodes air weekly on Mondays at 10 p.m. on MTV.
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