Well, as the new series has started I guess I should throw my hat into the ring regarding this well loved television phenomena. The internet will soon enough be alive with the sound of those who have opinions. And as I began to write this blog about a week ago and continued to forgo it for other activities such as, the gym (audible groan), and reading The Hunger Games (disappointed sigh) this fell by the wayside. Now it's time to finish it and move on with my life.
So everyone and their dog who claims to appreciate the rich intricacies of life and literature, and general entertainment also adore this show, Mad Men, it's synonymous with quality. I suppose that sounded quite cynical so I should correct my tone, it must be stated that I genuinely enjoy this tour of the plummy depths of 60s America.
It's probably not a surprise that as a history student I enjoyed this series. At University I found several of my modern modules divided into sectors of America in the 60s, this predominantly focused on The Civil Rights Movement, but I spent a lot of time researching the entire period. The themes and events that defined it, in all honesty nothing quite grasped my attention quite as strongly as America in the 60s and it was a time I gradually learned to respect and enjoy. I learnt about the defining events in the 60s, The Civil Rights Movement, Counter Culture, Vietnam, the Cold War, Women and 'The Feminine Mystique' and not forgetting the Assasination of JFK. I rounded off my degree by writing my thesis/dissertation on Malcolm X, a truly remarkable and intriguing man worthy of everyone's attention and respect.*
So for a glorious couple of years I immersed myself in books and 60s cinema, specifically 'The Graduate' and the original 'Batman' movie, all for purely historical research purposes and discovered a world that was pretty damn entertaining. Enter Mad Men to tie up everything I loved about 60s whilst introducing a new facet, the dawn of advertising and Madison Avenue.
I'll admit, I watched the first series and found myself incredibly uninterested in the slow paced reflective way the plot seemed to move. Everyone who is anyone will recall Don's speech about the Kodak Carousel, and even though I felt a ache in my heart, I brushed away the sensation and stopped watching. I can't defend my actions, but perhaps I gave myself insurmountable obstacles to prevent myself the time and effort of trying again. I dismissed it for years as something I simply didn't 'get'.
As the 5th series edged closer and the mounting hysteria about how good a show it actually was, I decided to reconsider my ignorance. Also with the help of TV.com and 'The Great Mad Men Re-Watch' I decided to give the show another go. I decided to simply read the recaps of season 1, and watch the final episode for that key scene with the Carousel and Peggy's phantom pregnancy. Note while I was watching season 1 with my boyfriend I told him she had been getting gradually fatter, but he hadn't noticed. Maybe I did have the propensity for subtlety and hadn't realised, or I enjoy pointing out fatties.
Thankfully season 2 and 3 were much more enjoyable, I'm not sure why but something seemed to click into place. Perhaps Betty's accusations against Don and the active disintegration of thier marriage. Perhaps Peggy's upwards momentum and poor Joan's downward spiral. I know for a fact Roger Sterling's constant promise of being consistently cutting and hilarious was a pull. I also found myself strangely rooting for Pete and his boyish yet dependable ways. And of course there was the unforgettable incident with the John Deere lawnmower in season 3...
But something seemed to happen during season 4, something clicked. The whole thing, although far removed from it's original outing became something more. Was it Don's alcoholism and spiral into despair? Was it the new offices and the triumphant return of Joan? Was it Peggy's dipping of her toes into the counter culture taking place around her? I can't quite put my finger on what became some ultimately compelling about the show but it definitely occurred in season 4. My main point would probably by that for some reason the show adopted a sense of humour. Not outrageous joke after joke humour, but those occassional asides that caused me to laugh out loud and chortle for several minutes. Perhaps it was because the show spent so much time building up this world, this alien environment for the viewer, that when those moments of humour arrive, once you've invested in the characters and the world, their actions just make you laugh.
I think this culiminates in my favourite scene throughout the entire run. Peggy and Don's relationship has always been a cornerstone for the series and in this clip it's reflected quite hilariously. Then there is the whole rule which Don learns quite roughly, about never getting off with your secretary. Then there is another rule about windows in walls dividing offices, great for peeping.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2eQhOW8zRo
Then of course there is the inexplicably excellent episode 'The Suitcase'. After my boyfriend tired of season 1 as I did I never asked him to watch Mad Men with me again but that specific episode is special. It simply encapsulates a relationship that has never pushed or strained or over exposed throughout the series. It was perfection.
So if anything, as I read over this blog, I think my highest reccomendation of this show would be to watch season 4. It just clicks, something makes the whole world seem more real. Don is not the infallible man of mystery he spends most of season 1 trying to pass off, he's a broken lonely figure and he's trying to work out who he is himself. As a whole, if it hasn't been known or said about a zillion times across the world over. Mad Men is an excellent drama, depicting the lifes of fleshed out and intriguing characters. The fact it takes place in the past removes nothing from the very real and tortuous emotions the characters go through. It's an intrigue and a delight and I can't say much more than that.
* Peggy mentions Malcolm X in an episode briefly asking a co-worker in season 4 if he knew Malcolm X had died. He asked if she read the new between the adverts in the paper dismissively. But the fact Peggy/the writers acknowledged his existence gave me a warm glow.
Thursday 22 March 2012
Tuesday 6 March 2012
Final Fantasy XIII-2
I'm going to review this stupid game in the arse. I'm going to review it so hard it cries and runs back to it's mummy and daddy games, FFXIII and FFX-2 and weeps all night long about how I defiled it's innocence. I'll be that maniac thrown laughing in a white prison cell with pink flowers adorning my hair. You'll hear me throughout the city, I'll be cackling so hard, lock your doors, I'll be out again reviewing before long. Beware, this reviewer is out to get you.
I didn't hate this game, in fact I probably wouldn't want to make it cry because it tried so hard to be something special. It wasn't, don't get me wrong, it's that guy at the party who looks so unbelievably godlike, his hair is perfect, his eyes glimmering, the alcohol induced haze makes him shimmer in the dim lights, and you decide to have a bit of fun with him. Then in the morning between the lynx drenched sheets, and the football poster adorned walls, you discover he's actually a bit of a wanker, see this doesn't work. I can't use this analogy because if this game was a sex, it would definitely be female. It's pink, it's dreamy, it's cute, it's fun, and it's completely forgettable. Like any girl a guy would pick up at a party. But I'm not a guy at a party, this is a game, I'm supposed to be reviewing. And, as with most things, I got side tracked. The thing is, I remember the hazy enjoyment of the game, I remember liking it. But I stopped playing it a week ago and I can't honestly remember why I actually liked it.
Ok, so it has a tough act to follow, in fact all it had to do was simply create a game which wasn't one massive tunnel, and it would succeed where FFXIII failed. And here is where Final Fantasy XIII-2 earns it's stripes, when compared to it's predecessor, FFXIII, it's a good game, when compared to any other game recently released, especially in the RPG genre, it's a terrible game. Now what does that say about my sentiment toward FFXIII? I hated it, I despised it, I waited five long years for my final fantasy installment, my rag tag bunch of heroes out to save the world, all the while being totally wonderful and interesting people. Well, no, instead we were supposed to save something called Cocoon, and let me tell you something, I knew nothing about Cocoon, I had no desire to 'save' it.
Did it have people like Hippaul running around? Was Ilia's Grandma trying to make her a dress for her birthday? Was there anyone worth saving there? Uh no. Did I know anything about how we'd gone from point A to point Q? No. I could have found out if I read the primers but I didn't. It's a game, you're supposed to immerse me in the world and make me care. I didn't care about Cocoon and I definitely didn't care about any of the main characters or their overly melodramatic issues. The whole story was contrived, it was hollow, it was dreadful. I hated the story. And once I hate a story, it makes it very hard for me to care about anything else. Luckily FFXIII gave me the 'Auto-Battle' system, a criminally pointless way to dispatch enemies, and a giant colourful tunnel of enemies to face then cutscenes to watch. All of it pointless and depressing, not because it was tugging on my heartstrings but because it was absolutely pointless and not what I wanted to do.
Let's just acknowledge this right now. I didn't care for FFXIII-2, I didn't care that it was being made, so there was zero expectations. So immediately when I picked up the game and played it there was nothing stopping me in my tracks as we watched a beautiful if nonsensical beginning sequence. Don't get me wrong, XIII-2's story is about as pointless as anything Enix has produced in recent years, but there was something else there. A small iota of humour, coming from Mog, Serah wasn't a hateful ice queen and Noel, well, he was something. The three of them together presented a team I could root for. Something I never cared for with the previous team. I actively hated Snow, Vanille, Lightning, Hope, Fang, even Sazh at points. Give me a moogle with a slight sense of humour and I'm yours. Well for the most part.
So the characters are likeable, thank god! Then there is the immersion, XIII-2 dealt with linearity in a very direct manner, it decided you could travel through time anywhere you liked. Well not anywhere, or any time, this isn't Inspector Spacetime, but you can go to a multitude of areas in different times and it immediately cuts out that whole tunnel shit. You can decide wherever the hell you want to go. I'll admit, it's stupid you can't go into the past and stop the whole debacle taking place but it would ruin the story to apply such logic to the scenario and for a moment in time, a very long moment, as I played through the game, I hung logic on a hook by the door and delved in.
The battle system is somewhat improved by the fact that you can change your party leader, instead of the main character dying and it being game over, both your main characters have to die. But it's not an issue if you do die, because you just get spat out right next to where you began the battle. Fear of death has been eradicated, go in all guns blazing, if you keep losing, try elsewhere, but for the most part you can get through most battles by sheer force, minimal technique, and an ample supply of potions. The battle system has also been given a new layer by introducing a third party member monster link thingy, it's easy to grasp and you can catch monsters and have them work as your third party member, each monster having their own job and crystarium and such. You can only carry three so there are constraints but you can also catch as many as you like, even Lightning can be subbed in as a Ravager if you pay for the DLC with her in and then fight her seventeen times and wait patiently for her to join. That's something that irks me, I paid for her, but I have to fight her multiple times to get her to join my godamn party, that's ridiculous! So the battle system is improved in certain aspects, which I approve of, the Feral Link ability makes each monster unique and gives them all different reasons to be subbed into your party for different fights. It's cool.
Now for the DLC. What Enix have provided us with, once again, is an unfinished game, there are aspects of the story that are completely unexplained, there are chunks of development ignored and this is because it's all coming out later as DLC. Let me just tell you Square Enix, people, once they are finished a game, will put it down and move onto the next one. No one is going to wait around for the DLC to see what happens next, especially after giving us such a downer of an ending. It's just not logical, or fair. I know, I left it by the door, but I also managed to collect 152 out of 160 damn fragments and then, gave up, when I realised I'd have to complete the bestiary to get the last one and there is no way I'm doing that. Giving us an unfinished game that only took just under a couple of years to produce is fine, I'll cave on that point, but don't expect me to come back and play FFXIII-3 when it inevitably comes out as a stop-gap to the 'never-going-to-happen-Versus'.
I liked the game because it was fun, it was vibrant, it was stupid, it was easy, and it was a nice old waste of time. The whole Mog abilities are utilised well, the jumping around and missions are all very entertaining. I care a little bit more about what's going on. The maps are bigger and more interesting to explore and the characters, as I've mentioned, are not completely hateful. Then there's the puzzles which add a nice distraction from bog standard game play and there's the stupid place with the chocobo races which was a genuinely entertaining time sink for half an hour. Oh, and a special shout out has to go to those red chocobos who consume your Gysahl Greens as you ride them, the heavy metal chocobo theme song is played and the chocobo runs along like it's head-banging in time to the music, my god that is an entertaining waste of time, hilarious! I don't know if this was serious or one big hilarious joke by the company but it certainly made me laugh.
So overall, not a completely hateful game. In comparison to FFXIII it was a good game, it was the game they should have released but didn't for some reason, why did they have to make a game to fix the mistakes they make in FFXIII in the first place? Why did they still provide a short and unfinished game? It just doesn't make sense to me any more.
Square Enix have lost the magic. I thought it was just me, growing up and not finding the wonder in Final Fantasy any more, but for the first time in my life I've realised, it's not me, it's them. And until they sort out of their issues and their impending bankruptcy, I'll find my JRPG fix elsewhere. Last Story here I come!
I didn't hate this game, in fact I probably wouldn't want to make it cry because it tried so hard to be something special. It wasn't, don't get me wrong, it's that guy at the party who looks so unbelievably godlike, his hair is perfect, his eyes glimmering, the alcohol induced haze makes him shimmer in the dim lights, and you decide to have a bit of fun with him. Then in the morning between the lynx drenched sheets, and the football poster adorned walls, you discover he's actually a bit of a wanker, see this doesn't work. I can't use this analogy because if this game was a sex, it would definitely be female. It's pink, it's dreamy, it's cute, it's fun, and it's completely forgettable. Like any girl a guy would pick up at a party. But I'm not a guy at a party, this is a game, I'm supposed to be reviewing. And, as with most things, I got side tracked. The thing is, I remember the hazy enjoyment of the game, I remember liking it. But I stopped playing it a week ago and I can't honestly remember why I actually liked it.
Ok, so it has a tough act to follow, in fact all it had to do was simply create a game which wasn't one massive tunnel, and it would succeed where FFXIII failed. And here is where Final Fantasy XIII-2 earns it's stripes, when compared to it's predecessor, FFXIII, it's a good game, when compared to any other game recently released, especially in the RPG genre, it's a terrible game. Now what does that say about my sentiment toward FFXIII? I hated it, I despised it, I waited five long years for my final fantasy installment, my rag tag bunch of heroes out to save the world, all the while being totally wonderful and interesting people. Well, no, instead we were supposed to save something called Cocoon, and let me tell you something, I knew nothing about Cocoon, I had no desire to 'save' it.
Did it have people like Hippaul running around? Was Ilia's Grandma trying to make her a dress for her birthday? Was there anyone worth saving there? Uh no. Did I know anything about how we'd gone from point A to point Q? No. I could have found out if I read the primers but I didn't. It's a game, you're supposed to immerse me in the world and make me care. I didn't care about Cocoon and I definitely didn't care about any of the main characters or their overly melodramatic issues. The whole story was contrived, it was hollow, it was dreadful. I hated the story. And once I hate a story, it makes it very hard for me to care about anything else. Luckily FFXIII gave me the 'Auto-Battle' system, a criminally pointless way to dispatch enemies, and a giant colourful tunnel of enemies to face then cutscenes to watch. All of it pointless and depressing, not because it was tugging on my heartstrings but because it was absolutely pointless and not what I wanted to do.
Let's just acknowledge this right now. I didn't care for FFXIII-2, I didn't care that it was being made, so there was zero expectations. So immediately when I picked up the game and played it there was nothing stopping me in my tracks as we watched a beautiful if nonsensical beginning sequence. Don't get me wrong, XIII-2's story is about as pointless as anything Enix has produced in recent years, but there was something else there. A small iota of humour, coming from Mog, Serah wasn't a hateful ice queen and Noel, well, he was something. The three of them together presented a team I could root for. Something I never cared for with the previous team. I actively hated Snow, Vanille, Lightning, Hope, Fang, even Sazh at points. Give me a moogle with a slight sense of humour and I'm yours. Well for the most part.
So the characters are likeable, thank god! Then there is the immersion, XIII-2 dealt with linearity in a very direct manner, it decided you could travel through time anywhere you liked. Well not anywhere, or any time, this isn't Inspector Spacetime, but you can go to a multitude of areas in different times and it immediately cuts out that whole tunnel shit. You can decide wherever the hell you want to go. I'll admit, it's stupid you can't go into the past and stop the whole debacle taking place but it would ruin the story to apply such logic to the scenario and for a moment in time, a very long moment, as I played through the game, I hung logic on a hook by the door and delved in.
The battle system is somewhat improved by the fact that you can change your party leader, instead of the main character dying and it being game over, both your main characters have to die. But it's not an issue if you do die, because you just get spat out right next to where you began the battle. Fear of death has been eradicated, go in all guns blazing, if you keep losing, try elsewhere, but for the most part you can get through most battles by sheer force, minimal technique, and an ample supply of potions. The battle system has also been given a new layer by introducing a third party member monster link thingy, it's easy to grasp and you can catch monsters and have them work as your third party member, each monster having their own job and crystarium and such. You can only carry three so there are constraints but you can also catch as many as you like, even Lightning can be subbed in as a Ravager if you pay for the DLC with her in and then fight her seventeen times and wait patiently for her to join. That's something that irks me, I paid for her, but I have to fight her multiple times to get her to join my godamn party, that's ridiculous! So the battle system is improved in certain aspects, which I approve of, the Feral Link ability makes each monster unique and gives them all different reasons to be subbed into your party for different fights. It's cool.
Now for the DLC. What Enix have provided us with, once again, is an unfinished game, there are aspects of the story that are completely unexplained, there are chunks of development ignored and this is because it's all coming out later as DLC. Let me just tell you Square Enix, people, once they are finished a game, will put it down and move onto the next one. No one is going to wait around for the DLC to see what happens next, especially after giving us such a downer of an ending. It's just not logical, or fair. I know, I left it by the door, but I also managed to collect 152 out of 160 damn fragments and then, gave up, when I realised I'd have to complete the bestiary to get the last one and there is no way I'm doing that. Giving us an unfinished game that only took just under a couple of years to produce is fine, I'll cave on that point, but don't expect me to come back and play FFXIII-3 when it inevitably comes out as a stop-gap to the 'never-going-to-happen-Versus'.
I liked the game because it was fun, it was vibrant, it was stupid, it was easy, and it was a nice old waste of time. The whole Mog abilities are utilised well, the jumping around and missions are all very entertaining. I care a little bit more about what's going on. The maps are bigger and more interesting to explore and the characters, as I've mentioned, are not completely hateful. Then there's the puzzles which add a nice distraction from bog standard game play and there's the stupid place with the chocobo races which was a genuinely entertaining time sink for half an hour. Oh, and a special shout out has to go to those red chocobos who consume your Gysahl Greens as you ride them, the heavy metal chocobo theme song is played and the chocobo runs along like it's head-banging in time to the music, my god that is an entertaining waste of time, hilarious! I don't know if this was serious or one big hilarious joke by the company but it certainly made me laugh.
So overall, not a completely hateful game. In comparison to FFXIII it was a good game, it was the game they should have released but didn't for some reason, why did they have to make a game to fix the mistakes they make in FFXIII in the first place? Why did they still provide a short and unfinished game? It just doesn't make sense to me any more.
Square Enix have lost the magic. I thought it was just me, growing up and not finding the wonder in Final Fantasy any more, but for the first time in my life I've realised, it's not me, it's them. And until they sort out of their issues and their impending bankruptcy, I'll find my JRPG fix elsewhere. Last Story here I come!
Skins
So I'm branching out a bit, not just films or awards, or recognition for such things. I think it's time to let it all hang out and declare my undying love for a British institution which is largely ignored due to it's juvenile core. Skins began at the same time I first began college at the tender age of 16 and as I watched the protaganists engage in hyper-sexualised drug addled alcohol fuelled lives I immediately did something most adults, never even thought of, I recognised it wasn't what my life was like. It's not in anyway realistic, so let's just leave that at the doorstep and trot onto more important things.
I am of the honest belief that Skins in the past season or two has reached a zenith of perfection. Well, not perfection, it's rare to see anything which radiates perfection, but Skins, for all it's impossibility, has become in this current series reached an excellent run. If we accept for the most part that Skins is essentially a television drama, it's not trying to be in anyway realistic, then we can accept those aspects of realism that seem to be injected in among the massively dramatic and piled on issues that our characters are faced with.
This year our cast are faced with the death of a close friend, a pregnancy, a drug circle, a very twisted fraternal love triangle, a big ole holiday to Morocco, there have been dabblings with lesbianism, and of course a trip on a boat with a funeral thrown in for good measure. As long as we accept that these things could happen it's also quite nice when the characters doing small things which reek of reality. Like one character plans to travel to Paris to meet his girlfriend who was stuck in Switzerland, these plans don't formulate, but much like teenagers with wild ideas and best intentions they discuss them. There is also his attempt to simply ring the Swiss care home where she is, these small additions make us notice that, most likely these things would happen in reality. Also simply having sex with a thirteen year old and regretting the consequences, something which is merely glazed over in the first generation.
Anyways, all I have to say, aside to skewer those who continuously moan about realism, is that overall it's an interesting, entertaining, youthful show. Thigh slappingly hilarious in particular when the previously mentioned 18 year old realises he has just had sex with a very attractive thirteen year old. This show is written by teenagers, acted by teenagers, the big decisions are made by the people who it's meant to be about. So take a moment and acknowledge that if they make a mistake in the direction they take, the decisions that are made, or even the way they handle something, it's just reflecting on how teenagers think. Then the characters are dressed atrociously but somewhat tastefully, I mean for the most part covered, in an idealistic colourful manner which teenagers would most likely indulge in given the budget. The music is a new pathway for teenagers stuck on Katy Perry and Rhianna, something I'm endlessly grateful for, as it's once again, different! Plus it sets the tone in some scenes better than stock piano keys most dramas fall back on.
So this recent run reaching a somewhat zenith is a tall order for someone who has sat through all previous seasons increasingly more intrigued than the last. Everyone has their preferred group of friends, and let's not forget, every two seasons the cast is completely replaced, something daring and different no other show would dare do through fear of alienating it's fan base. How many American highschool dramas about people of the same age continue into the college years and get so dull and tedious over the years? This keeps the show fresh and free to expand it's creative tendrils to every aspect of teenage life, something which might seem desperate to carve drama out of, but in actuality is giving everyone a voice, and also presenting some interesting character studies along the way. The fact that I can still watch this show at the ripe old age of 21 and still find the excitement and drama within says alot about my comittment to something most people my age have written off, but I also think it's a sign the show has that lasting power. I don't watch much on television on a weekly basis but I do make an effort to continue with this because it's under my skin.
And as I keep ignoring the fact that I particularly enjoyed this season I should go out on a limb and say, it's the most realistic and touching to date. Some of the characters are a bit on the ridiculous side but we'll just let that be. A character is killed off in ridiculous circumstances but finally we get to see the cast deal with a real acknowledged death, unlike in previous incarnations where a cast member is merely killed off in the last couple of episodes for increased dramatic effect. We see how the people deal with this death, there's denial, there's ignorance, there's the whole kidding yourself into believing she's still alive, there's self destruction and the list goes on... and on. But it still provides an intriguing level of story telling, as we explore how death truly affects teenagers, fair enough, it doesn't affect everyone like this, don't get me wrong, it's ridiculous how they go on, but it's still intriguing and fulfills my point that teenagers are really wonderful, if self-absorbed teenagers, thoroughly entertaining though.
Once again I've decided to ramble and gush rather than actually write a real review as I promise myself I would but this is how I personally feel about this show. It's good, and when it's bad it's still much more entertaining than anything else on television. As long as you can get past that adult rolling of the eyes and just enjoy the youthful exuberance then you'll see something unique, almost special, and as you'll remember what it's like to be truly passionate about something. You'll remember those teen years where everything was the best and most important in the whole world, friends, parties, living life to it's absolute full, music, passion! And you'll realise what an old fuddy-duddy you are when you think you could have rolled your eyes at the drama but instead find yourself immersed in Skins colourful world.
I miss those hazy exciting teen days, it's not about the drugs, or the sex, or the alcohol, because let's be honest, most of us didn't get much of any of that, it's the excitement, it's the passion, it's the dreams. Then there is the indescribable lows that are depicted as the teens find their worlds falling apart they react incredibly dramatically and self-destructively as if their whole world is falling apart, which for the most part it is. They ignore that British stiff upper lip-ness we all fall back on and full experience than emotions than beating them down and ignore them. I could learn a thing or two from them to be honest. Being a teenager is all about the fact that you could get excited about the most fascimile things, you could wear whatever you wanted, you could do whatever the hell you liked, no responsibility, the world was your oyster and adulthood and it's cynical ways hadn't started weighing on you. As I sit with adulthood hanging around my neck like a giant albatross ready to drown me in the unplumb’d, salt, estranging sea, I'll take an ounce of life.
Well shit...
Hilariously enough the day after I posted this blog Channel 4 announced they were cancelling Skins after one more season next year to say goodbye. This will probably bring back the actors who have nothing to do from the entire series to tie up the loose ends everyone so passionately complained about.
So there it goes, my impassioned entry about how much I thought the show was amazing fell on deaf ears. Or maybe the internet heard, and Channel 4 decided to spite me. So basically this is it, thanks Skins for the good times. I'll miss you, more than most.
I am of the honest belief that Skins in the past season or two has reached a zenith of perfection. Well, not perfection, it's rare to see anything which radiates perfection, but Skins, for all it's impossibility, has become in this current series reached an excellent run. If we accept for the most part that Skins is essentially a television drama, it's not trying to be in anyway realistic, then we can accept those aspects of realism that seem to be injected in among the massively dramatic and piled on issues that our characters are faced with.
This year our cast are faced with the death of a close friend, a pregnancy, a drug circle, a very twisted fraternal love triangle, a big ole holiday to Morocco, there have been dabblings with lesbianism, and of course a trip on a boat with a funeral thrown in for good measure. As long as we accept that these things could happen it's also quite nice when the characters doing small things which reek of reality. Like one character plans to travel to Paris to meet his girlfriend who was stuck in Switzerland, these plans don't formulate, but much like teenagers with wild ideas and best intentions they discuss them. There is also his attempt to simply ring the Swiss care home where she is, these small additions make us notice that, most likely these things would happen in reality. Also simply having sex with a thirteen year old and regretting the consequences, something which is merely glazed over in the first generation.
Anyways, all I have to say, aside to skewer those who continuously moan about realism, is that overall it's an interesting, entertaining, youthful show. Thigh slappingly hilarious in particular when the previously mentioned 18 year old realises he has just had sex with a very attractive thirteen year old. This show is written by teenagers, acted by teenagers, the big decisions are made by the people who it's meant to be about. So take a moment and acknowledge that if they make a mistake in the direction they take, the decisions that are made, or even the way they handle something, it's just reflecting on how teenagers think. Then the characters are dressed atrociously but somewhat tastefully, I mean for the most part covered, in an idealistic colourful manner which teenagers would most likely indulge in given the budget. The music is a new pathway for teenagers stuck on Katy Perry and Rhianna, something I'm endlessly grateful for, as it's once again, different! Plus it sets the tone in some scenes better than stock piano keys most dramas fall back on.
So this recent run reaching a somewhat zenith is a tall order for someone who has sat through all previous seasons increasingly more intrigued than the last. Everyone has their preferred group of friends, and let's not forget, every two seasons the cast is completely replaced, something daring and different no other show would dare do through fear of alienating it's fan base. How many American highschool dramas about people of the same age continue into the college years and get so dull and tedious over the years? This keeps the show fresh and free to expand it's creative tendrils to every aspect of teenage life, something which might seem desperate to carve drama out of, but in actuality is giving everyone a voice, and also presenting some interesting character studies along the way. The fact that I can still watch this show at the ripe old age of 21 and still find the excitement and drama within says alot about my comittment to something most people my age have written off, but I also think it's a sign the show has that lasting power. I don't watch much on television on a weekly basis but I do make an effort to continue with this because it's under my skin.
And as I keep ignoring the fact that I particularly enjoyed this season I should go out on a limb and say, it's the most realistic and touching to date. Some of the characters are a bit on the ridiculous side but we'll just let that be. A character is killed off in ridiculous circumstances but finally we get to see the cast deal with a real acknowledged death, unlike in previous incarnations where a cast member is merely killed off in the last couple of episodes for increased dramatic effect. We see how the people deal with this death, there's denial, there's ignorance, there's the whole kidding yourself into believing she's still alive, there's self destruction and the list goes on... and on. But it still provides an intriguing level of story telling, as we explore how death truly affects teenagers, fair enough, it doesn't affect everyone like this, don't get me wrong, it's ridiculous how they go on, but it's still intriguing and fulfills my point that teenagers are really wonderful, if self-absorbed teenagers, thoroughly entertaining though.
Once again I've decided to ramble and gush rather than actually write a real review as I promise myself I would but this is how I personally feel about this show. It's good, and when it's bad it's still much more entertaining than anything else on television. As long as you can get past that adult rolling of the eyes and just enjoy the youthful exuberance then you'll see something unique, almost special, and as you'll remember what it's like to be truly passionate about something. You'll remember those teen years where everything was the best and most important in the whole world, friends, parties, living life to it's absolute full, music, passion! And you'll realise what an old fuddy-duddy you are when you think you could have rolled your eyes at the drama but instead find yourself immersed in Skins colourful world.
I miss those hazy exciting teen days, it's not about the drugs, or the sex, or the alcohol, because let's be honest, most of us didn't get much of any of that, it's the excitement, it's the passion, it's the dreams. Then there is the indescribable lows that are depicted as the teens find their worlds falling apart they react incredibly dramatically and self-destructively as if their whole world is falling apart, which for the most part it is. They ignore that British stiff upper lip-ness we all fall back on and full experience than emotions than beating them down and ignore them. I could learn a thing or two from them to be honest. Being a teenager is all about the fact that you could get excited about the most fascimile things, you could wear whatever you wanted, you could do whatever the hell you liked, no responsibility, the world was your oyster and adulthood and it's cynical ways hadn't started weighing on you. As I sit with adulthood hanging around my neck like a giant albatross ready to drown me in the unplumb’d, salt, estranging sea, I'll take an ounce of life.
Well shit...
Hilariously enough the day after I posted this blog Channel 4 announced they were cancelling Skins after one more season next year to say goodbye. This will probably bring back the actors who have nothing to do from the entire series to tie up the loose ends everyone so passionately complained about.
So there it goes, my impassioned entry about how much I thought the show was amazing fell on deaf ears. Or maybe the internet heard, and Channel 4 decided to spite me. So basically this is it, thanks Skins for the good times. I'll miss you, more than most.
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