TV is the New Reading

Teens in BBC America’s ‘Skins’ lead impossibly interesting lives

It’s been more than 20 years since I was in high school. Watching it on BBC America’s “Skins” makes it clear to me that high school is way more interesting now than it ever was then.

Of course, now they all have cell phones. In the world of “Skins,” so much storyline is carried on via cellphone. One kid, Tony, 16, rings up and his friends jump. Well, not really, but I guess it must happen often enough because when early morning calls to his friend Sid go ignored, he calls three other friends to go over and wake Sid up.

All of them tell Tony, essentially, to get bent, so Tony actually calls Sid’s father in the end and lies about a test Sid is missing so Sid gets thrown out the front door.

What’s so important? Well, Tony needs for Sid to have sex. He’s nearly 16 and still a virgin and this simply will not do. So in his spare time from torturing his family and being very cheeky in a visit to an all-girls school, Tony sets Sid up with Cassie.

But first Sid has to acquire $600 worth of drugs to get Cassie in the mood. Well, only $200, really, but the dealer insists on Sid selling an additional $400 worth. Cassie, poor dear, is a bit out of it anyway as she’s recently been released from hospital for an eating disorder and is kind of vague.

Meanwhile, Tony’s lusting after the posh school’s French teacher’s hot wife across the way, who does little to discourage him by dressing with the shades up. But Sid in fact is lusting after Tony’s girlfriend, Michelle. And Michelle is a little bit sweet on Sid as well.

Cut to the party – because of course there’s always a party. Everyone in high school is constantly having parties that inevitably devolve into drunken, drug-fueled orgies. It’s a wonder anyone’s house is still standing.

But in the end, Sid remains a virgin because Cassie, bless her, passes out, and while taking her to hospital, the group runs their stolen car off the motorway and into the river. The foreign exchange girl takes her top off and the $600 worth of drugs is lost in the river.

I can’t swear that all of these things happened to me in all of my time in high school, let alone all in one evening.

And you wouldn’t think there’d be time for it with all that going on, but in and among all of the hijinks, there was angst-ridden hormone-fueled adolescent yearning as well.

I’m too old for this show, but I think I’m going to keep watching it. For one thing, it’s far more interesting than “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” on ABC Family, if only because of the occasional nudity, dialogue and character development. That and while I’ve never met, known or been any of these people specifically, I’m intrigued by the subjunctive hyperbole.

That is, it seems to have been written by someone who woke up at the age of 23 and realized that his life in high school could’ve been so much more interesting if he’d simply misbehaved quite a bit more than he clearly did. Because really, if anyone involved with this show had actually behaved like this, they’d be writing it from prison.

“Skins” airs at 9 p.m. Sundays on BBC America, and entirely lives up to the MA rating it carries.

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