Skins: MTV Americanizes Teen Debauchery

At her party, Tabitha introduces her friends thus: “Tony, meet Shannon, Zeek, Zach, Chad, Summer, Shannon, Summer, Chad, Brad, Randy, Candy, Brandy, Sandy, Mandy, Summer, Zach and Chad.” I don’t know who this actress is, but she’s masterful. The party is already better than Gossip Girl and no one has even gotten murdered or framed for murder or returned from the dead or had a parent return from the dead, and not one single social-climber has shown up as a doppelganger trying to impersonate Serena van der Woodsen. Tabitha’s friends aren’t feeling the weed. I mean, look at the ragamuffins trying to sell it to them. For all they know, it could be laced with poverty.

Later, after a fight breaks out, a distraught Tabitha cries the party is getting “too urban!” It’s a code word, of course, but the American version isn’t likely to take the idea too much farther – American television is notoriously bad at discussing class differences. Outside of shows like Sons of Anarchy, King of Queens, and the George Lopez show (now in syndication), the assumed norm is upper middle class. If Skins had stayed in Baltimore, this dynamic may have been more prominent – but as of now, we have to rely on the characters to tell us, not show us, that the show is about lower to lower middle class teens.

So far, the show has managed to shock American censors and enticed the interest of advertisers looking to crack the teen demographic – but much remains to be seen.

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