Michelle...we don't really know anything about her except the fact that she's Tony's girlfriend who has no idea that she's getting effed over by him.
So in the Cadie episode, we heard Cadie say to Tony that karma's going to bite him in the ass (well different words, same meaning) and I guess it finally did because Michelle got the clap from Tony.
So that was basically the episode. Like that's it. Michelle's a boring character again, just like the past 2, honestly only Chris', Cadie's and Tea's episodes were good. But I mean I guess it was a good feminist episode. The girl who got cheated on stands up for herself la di da....the story that happens in literally every single show. Predictable. Literally.
Wonder what's going to happen between Stanley and Michelle now? And if Tea and Tony are going to go public? We shall see...
Daisy's next. It better be good after this shitastic and underwhelming past 3 episodes.
So over it.
Letters From the Height of Summer (Dear Bird) -- Kowalski
"We're STD compatible..."
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One last thing to add: I really really really like Michelle's hair. Both the color and the style. The same goes for her outfits. Okay that's it. Done.
So this week focuses on the slightly mysterious Abbud. We actually don't know anything about him. And I don't think I have ever heard him speak, except for that one time when he asked Tea to dance. THEREFORE, I am pretty amped to see his background and all that. After last week's boring Stanley episode, I'm ready for something interesting.
Episode summary from MTV:
What happens when you go on a class field trip into the woods for a little self-discovery? You create your own "trip"...by any possible means. But no amount of drugs, no buzz will make Abbud forget that he's completely in love with his best friend. He longs for the day when those feelings are reciprocated. Sadly, it looks like that day may never come.
So we have ourselves a little adventure in Canada which is a nice break from wherever the hell Skins is supposed to take place in. Haha. They "totaled a moose." Nice. I'm still kind of confused what the teacher did to the moose?! Am I that naive or is anyone else confused with me?
Anyways, it's really cute that he likes Tea. :) Except she's his best friend. And lesbian. Those significantly lower his odds down to 0. Oh yeah, and she has that thing with Tony as well... Ah. The perils of horny teenagers on Skins. And she doesn't want a relationship with Betty. Who and what does she want?! It's so confusing, she's so confusing, I wish that she could just get it together and stop leading a bazillion people on.
NO DRUGS soooo the boys go hunting for shrooms and end up licking a toad and throwing up EVERYWHERE. Watching Chris lick/tongue that toad is absolutely hilarious and disgusting. And it's still moving in the shot. Gross. I seriously think Chris is my favorite character because he has so many dimensions but uses humor as his outlet. And the sex advice that he gives Abbud is hilarious, so wrong, but hilarious. "Target the sick and the weak!" Oh yeah, and him and Tina. Cute. :) Or kind of not, because that's like sexual harassment, but I think that they're kind of adorable. And I like how he kind of cockblocks Dave for Tina. He's so immature yet he's mature around Tina. But then again, Tina is one of the most insecure adults ever. So perfect match I say.
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Overall, this episode wasn't really about Abbud at all. It was kind of just an all around trip that didn't focus on him at all. Once again, I don't know anything about him except the fact that he likes Tea. Oh, and he almost died. And I discovered that Chris is my favorite character, the only good part about the episode.
Skins. Boring again! Hope next episode gets better with Michelle, although she doesn't seem that interesting either. You're so tame now, I want the old Skins back! Or maybe I should just start watching the UK Skins now. I'm annoyed now too because I think all of the characters are actually not that great at acting. This episode only exemplified it. Skins, I'm like Tea, I can't decide if I like you or not.
But I like this song...:)
STRFKR -- Millions
"Cool. I usually get put in the room. The one with no windows?"
Synopsis from MTV: Stanley is torn between his feelings for Cadie and Michelle and Tony again tries to help him out. Meanwhile, Stanley and his dad work on their strained relationship.
First off, the chorus recital was HORRIBLE! Tony and that rich blonde ditz, Tabatha, cannot sing for shit! And then they decide to have a make-out session on stage afterwards. And then that leads to sex...
Okay, so basically this episode was about Stanley. A little boring, he's really awkward and I guess we caught a glimpse into his most unlucky day. Stole his Dad's car, drove through a private military camp, doesn't have a license, the car blew up, and Michelle hates him because of Tony, surprise surprise. On top of that, he blames his best friend, Tony for all of it. Well it is his fault...but him and Michelle are fine after their awkward beach slow dance. Oh yeah, and his Dad is the hugest douche ever. But they kind of get over it in the end because they bond over doing dumb stuff and drinking beer. The end.
A fairly boring episode, Stanley isn't as interesting as a character as Chris or Cadie, but he has his moments. Mostly he's the victim in the stories, the fall guy who is just there to make the people around him look better. I'm excited to see the next character, this was just boring. Sorry, Stanley, you lose. Again.
At the end, Stanley's clothes. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. His pants are like 3 inches too short and since he's so tall and lanky and it makes him look really awkward.
Phantogram -- Mouth Full of Diamonds
"I think my parents got that call from school too. My Dad just yelled at me a lot and told me to be less weird."
So Skins again, not going to give too long of a rant like a usually do in the beginning of each post so I'm just going to jump straight into the episode:
This episode focuses on Cadie, the kind of psycho drug-addled rehab girl who was supposed to sleep with Stan in the first episode.
Synopsis from MTV about the fourth episode: "Cadie's released from the hospital. Great. Except that Cadie's no better. Her friends want her meds. Her parents want her to be normal. But Cadie's worst problem is love -- an illness that can't be cured with pills."
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This episode is a series of psych consults mixed in between different snippets of her day. She's a very misunderstood girl, both by the world and by herself because she doesn't know what is and what isn't real. Drugs rule her world so much that she doesn't know anything without them, she depends on them to make her happy and normal. But when she starts falling in love with Stan, we see a different side of her. She decides to not take drugs anymore for her "boyfriend" aka Stan.
But her interactions with the other characters are seemingly interesting. When she tells Tony that he can't always do whatever the hell he wants because it's not always going to go his way is ominous and true. And when Tea tells Cadie about how Stanley's using Cadie (again) for drugs this time we see her withdraw into her drug addled world. And she ends up having a sex tryst with Michelle's mom's boyfriend?! Well Stan to the rescue, sort of, but then she gets into a fight with Stan about how crazy she is. And then just pops more pills.
Her parents only add more fuel to the fire. They want her hopped up on drugs in order to "normalize" her, but is that really what she needs? They don't even try to care for her so how is she going to be normal when she's so alienated from her own family? And when her mother, the perfectionist beauty pageant queen said that EMOTIONS AREN'T REAL, we can see that no wonder Cadie behaves the way she does. A part that I am still a bit confused about in the episode is her the hunting situation with her Dad. So he's alive right? But then they show a scene of her "shooting him" while hanging from a true and then jumping to a scene with a psychologist about how her dad is dead. Ensue the weirdo circus story. Confused, I think yes.
Overall, does Cadie know what she's doing when at the psych consults? Is she just craving the attention that each psychologist gives her since she doesn't have any other support system like her totally fail parents and her "friends"? Is she that socially inept that she doesn't understand the meaning of happy or is she purposely saying things in order for her to get more medication. It doesn't seem like she takes them regularly since we see hoards and hoards of pill canisters in her cabinet, covered with pretty stickers no doubt. But then again she seems surprised when the psychologist asks her about it and tells her that pills AREN'T going to keep people from disappointing her. At the end we see her pop pill after pill in ordered to "be happy."
Other storylines:
Cadie likes Stan.
Stan likes Michelle.
Michelle likes Tony.
Tony likes Tea.
The music from this episode was weird, nothing to rant or rave about but just really whatevers. I liked this song though.
So not going to lie, I feel like a dork/traitor/idiot/loser for being excited to watch this week, but honestly I super heart last week's episode with Tea so I'm kind of curious what's next. Oh yeah, and hopefully the music is BOMB again (a couple of Lawrence Arabia songs, which I am totally in love with thanks to Skins, oh yes, and The Drums <3). Seriously in love the music that they've been playing! ( Oh yeah, and MTV is being pretty damn gracious by putting a lot of FREE songs on their site to download! Super cool!):)
Quick breakdown of the characters since we still don't know a lot about each character's background which will obviously come in the latter episodes but in case you want to know...
Tony Synder (episode 1)
Tea Marvelli (episode 2)
Chris Collins (episode 3)
Michelle Richardson --> Tony's "girlfriend"
Stanley Lucerne --> The virgin
Cadie Campbell --> The drug crazy suicide/rehab girl that Stanley was supposed to sleep with
Daisy Valero --> The Asian girl, I'm guessing Pilipino?
Abbud Siddiqui --> The Indian looking guy?
Eura Synder --> (Tony's sister)
So this week centered around Chris, we kind of don't really know anything about him. Yeah, we know about Tea and Tony mainly from the past 2 episodes and a LITTLE BIT about the other characters, see above. I remember about Chris is when he called back his teacher's ex-boyfriend, her name is Tina, like a boss. Damn. Super legit. Also, kind of excited to see how the relationship between Tea & Tony evolves...
Well quick synopsis about this episode: $1000, house party, and his mom has left him...forever?
CHRIS:
Drugs galore
So Chris took some Viagra and has had an erect penis for 15 hours. Crazy shiz dude. I read that MTV had to pull some scenes from this episode because they were "too mature" and I think that it involved a penis pump. So I guess erection pills are ok but a penis pump isn't? (Well penis pumps were covered on another similar show, Degrassi, which has PG-13 ratings (definitely not MA status) so I don't get what the big deal is about it is on this show)
Party central
Chris + Tina aka HIS TEACHER! He's got the hots for his teacher. And he's so adorable and sweet when he's talking to her and asking her to stay at the party. Love it. :) Is he substituting his mother's misplaced love on Tina? Anyways, she freaks out at his "third leg" hahaha.
Side note at the party about the other characters
Tea + Tony: Tea blows off Tony when he tries to talk to her..their relationship is getting complicated and it hasn't even started yet.
Later on at the end when Tea exposes herself, Tony gets all uncomfortable...Can they please get together or like figure things out? I like them. :)
Stanley + Michelle: Stanley's still a virgin...even though he told all his friends he's not because he's still supposedly sleeping with Cadie. And he's in love with Michelle...and freaks out when he sees her naked on the bed and is asked about the symmetry of her breasts.
Cadie + Stanley: But does Cadie like Stanley? Or does she just pity him because she knows that he can never have Michelle. She asks him on a date. Cute. :) Maybe he can get over Michelle?
Tony + Michelle...more interested in the fish in Stanley's room than boning Michelle. What is up between the two of them?
Mommy issues
Where the hell is his mom? From the summary that MTV gave us online we already know that Chris' mom is leaving him for good, not just for a couple of days...how is he going to cope with it? And why did she leave?
He starts to realize that his Mom really left him when she sees that all of her stuff is gone and reality sets in...but he can't really admit to himself or his friends...
He knows that she's still around somewhere because she left flowers by Peter's grave. We see that Chris leaves his blunt on Peter's grave so what does that mean? Has to be something significant like is he going to quit drugs or did his brother die from drugs? Hopefully we find out sooner rather than later.
No more money!!
His Mom left his $1K...with a note that said she'd be back in a few days.
Blew all his cash throwing a party...he can't even pay the pizza guy the morning after :/
What is he going to do about the money situation?!!! And we see that he's desperate when he's trying to sell back the stereo system...Yikes! But to escape the reality that he essentially has NO MONEY he decides to drug up.
And the homeless guy in his house is really creepy and he gets kicked out of his own house. I feel so helpless for him already.
HELP HIM
Friends
Donating the clothes, that was too cute. Especially with his midriff t-shirt and mismatched shoes.
We see Daisy trying to help him out with his problems and how he kind of tells his problems to her to release all his pent up anger. And we learn about the best day of his life involving his brother Peter. I wonder what happened to him.
Tina
The only one who can really help him. He's staying over at her place and she bought him a fish. So sweet. :) There's so much sexual tension between the two of them I wonder what's going to happen.
Dad
His Dad has the perfect little suburban life unlike where Chris used to live. We find out a little about his Mom? She's "getting help" for another one of her "episodes."
Did she go crazy because Peter died?
Problems: we hear a kind of muffled background noise of a fight between his Dad and his stepmom about how he doesn't want to help him. I wonder what happened?
Overall:
Chris jokes around a lot and acts like he doesn't take his life seriously but inside there's so much turmoil with his parental issues, drug behavior, money problems, and his feelings for his teacher. He is such a complex character and a 40 minute show can't even begin to explain the problem that is his life. I'm excited to see more, how these issues will resolve and whether or not he will retreat into a drug filled fantasy OR face reality.
Quick question: DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE SKINS IS SUPPOSED TO BE LOCATED??? IT WAS FILMED IN CANADA BUT THEY DON'T REALLY TELL US WHERE.
This week the music was pretty good, I really enjoyed this song, a little different than the other music that was featured so far, so here we go:
Luck-One & Dekk -- Coulda Been Me (ft. Randa Smith)
So last week Skins was a little lackluster so hopefully MTV learned a few things from the vicious things that the fans raged about, aka make it more raunchy, BUT the freaking Parents Television Council went APESHIT over the first episode so MTV might have to censor it and make it even less raunchy. UGH. Catch-22 much?
But you know what, PTC being little biatches only makes the show seem better and gets it free publicity...
Okay so each show, I'm assuming focuses on one character, hence the title of this episode, Tea, and Tony from the last episode. Tea is a closeted lesbian to her parents and most of her friends and head of the cheer squad. Nice. First 3 minutes we already have a sex scene. This episode is already nicely pre-empted so let's see how the rest of it goes.
TEA
Dysfunctional family. Check.
Crazy busy and she's just in the family being neglected by everyone around her. And the only person in her family she can talk to is her dementia riddened Grandma and even she falls asleep on her. Poor Tea. At least she found someone to relate to, someone else who knows exactly what she's going through.
Daddy's girl. So she's dating a guy to help out her Dad with his business mob/mafia thingy. It's really sweet because her Dad tries so hard to keep the family together. :)
Her date: Tony. Haha. They're really cute together, as friends and all. :)
Their dance scene: SO WEIRD. But they hooked up! What?!! Crazy business. Anyways, I really like Tony. :)
Tea's lesbian tryst with Betty. Kind of upset that she got rejected she puts up a front like she doesn't care but she ends up being stressed over the fact that she was being called a scaredy cat. I guess she's not as tough as she thinks she is.
She gets the girls. She gets the sex. But she never gets the relationship, the love that she really craves. A girl that's her equal. It's really sad actually.
But it all worked out in the end with Betty. And Tony? Who's she going to choose, if she's going to choose anybody?
Crazy drug dealer man stalking Tea. But her Dad is so freaking legit dealing with the drug dealer and all. <3
I have to admit, this episode was toned down a bit, I think I'm going to start appreciating it as it's own entity rather than a spin-off of another popular television show because then I won't have to keep making comparisons with something I've never even seen before. I really like the characters Tea and Tony because they're so mysterious and unpredictable and I think they're both really good actors/actresses. Sounds terrible but is it sad that I want to see more of this show? Is that sad? :(
So I absolutely abhor posting screen shots because it requires me doing a lot of work even though it makes posts all look significantly better, anyways so for Skins, since it has THE BEST MUSIC, really probably the only good thing out of the show so I'm going to post some music that was featured on the show instead, my personal favorite from the episode:
So we have another British implant on American television and can I just say how excited I am? I posted up a yt video of their theme song "Lina Magic" by 3D Friends and in it you can see the clever advertising that MTV used. Mostly scornful messages by haters who don't think that the US version of Skins will be as amazing as the UK one. I don't doubt that for a second, but I never watched the UK version so I'm pretty freaking excited to say the least to watch the American version.
Wait let me go back to the network that this is playing on: MTV. Music Television. Not so much as known for the music videos that it used to have on 24/7 but for being the brainchild of such shitastic shows such as Jersey Shore and the extremely awful Hard Times of RJ Berger. So if Skins is anything like that, I'm definitely not going to continue on with the next episode...WOW. MTV, Hard Times was one of the worst shows I have ever seen. In. My. Life.
So right now, Skins has two (bad) things going for it.
American version of the insanely popular British Skins. Can it match up? Or is it going to be amazing, kind of like the American version of The Office? Or will it go down the drain with other British remakes like Viva Laughlin...
On one of the strangest networks on television, which shows everything from teen moms and "guidos" to jackasses. Where is Skins supposed to fit in here?
So ready or not, let's get started. :) I want to see if this show can deliver all the drugs, sex, and scandals that it's set out to do.
A) The teenagers in this show are strange. It's an American show yet these teenagers aren't acting what people define as an "American teenager." They're like this svelte Euro-American mixture which gives them this air of arrogance, smugness and charm that most teenagers lack. They're like out of the awkward teen phase (for the most part) but not yet mature adults. It's extremely strange.
B) Tony, the main character in the first episode, popular, wiseass, jerk, and loaded with teenage angst character. All positive attributes but is it believable, I mean, he's wearing tight jeans, a cropped leather jacket, and gelled hair...and the fact that HE'S TOO PRETTY, not to mention his pre-puberty choir voice (but the song that he sings is pretty freaking hilarious)!!!!! Metrosexual anyone? Kind of reminds me of Christian from Clueless. Anyone feel me on this one?
C) That "Life Skills" class they have is the SHIT! I wish they had that at my school. It's like a Home Economics but filled with sexual symbolism left and right. Did you know all those peen shaped vegetables in the display? But the live rabbit. Ergh.
D) On Wikipedia it said this was filmed in Canada (like almost all the movies in Hollywood) but they don't actually deem a destination for where the show is supposed to be set.
E) They use weird slang. Is it Britsh? Because I'm not sure it's American either...I think I need to put on closed captioning or something...
F) The clothes are out of control weird. I get they're trying to be hipster and cool, but while red tutu dress and combat boots work for 6 foot tall models on the covers of Vogue, they don't work on strung out teenagers...trying to hard to be cool...something I despise!
Can I just say this first: THE MUSIC IS FREAKING AMAZING. Well, yes, this show is debuting on MTV but I'm already loving the music. No lame Top 40, but instead some nice alternative dance music (is that even a category??).
Now comes the bad news:
A) Boring. *yawn*
B) I can see why they're so many haters out there.
C) The trailers, pictures and reels all look so much more badass than the real show.
D) Lastly the plot is typical...they're trying to be out there by saying DRUGS AND SEX but...I didn't see any of it. I saw a PG-13 teen movie in 45 minutes.
But here's the truth. Yeah, I'll keep watching it (maybe reviewing it...not sure about that one) and maybe it'll get better. Well it better get better, it has a lot to live up to. I'm going to watch the British version as well, compare it side by side perhaps?
