On January 17th, a new teen drama called Skins debuted on MTV. Over 3.3 million people tuned in to watch. Skins is an adaptation of a British teen drama, also called Skins. Their version of Skins has been on TV in the UK since January 2007, and is currently in its fifth season. Each episode of Skins is named after one of the characters, and tells the story of that character. While all the cast are in these episodes, each episode mainly focuses on the character it’s named after.
Many of the characters names in the American version have been changed, except for Tony, Michelle, and Chris. For example Sid has been renamed Stanley, Effy renamed Eura, Cassie renamed Cadie, Jal renamed Daisy, Anwar renamed Abbud, and the biggest change, Maxxie renamed Tea.
Currently the American version of Skins has received a lot of criticism and controversy over the subject matter. Many people say it’s too racy because of its depiction of teens having casual sex and using drugs. Advertisers, like General Motor’s, Mars Candy, Taco Bell, H&R Block, Foot Locker, Kraft, L’OrÈal, Schick, Proactiv, and Subway have pulled their ad’s. The Parents Television Counsel has even sent a letter to the Department of Justice, asking it to charge Skins with child pornography.
Many viewers who have seen both versions of Skins don’t understand the controversy over it. The first episode of Skins, titled “Tony”, was scene for scene the same as when it aired in the UK. The only difference was that the American version was toned down and tamer than the UK version. The UK version showed full frontally nudity, and in almost every episode, you would see a naked female.
There are rumors of cancellation, due to the dropping number of viewers each week. Future episodes will look, and in many ways resemble the UK versions, but will be toned down in the American version.
Besides the nudity, you almost always see some smoking. In the America, if a character is smoking, people would say that the show promotes smoking.
Another big difference came in the January 24th episode titled “Tea”. Tea is a lesbian cheerleader in the American version; and in UK version, Maxxie is a gay dancer. Many believe the reason they changed her character from a male to a female is because in the UK version Tony performs oral sex on Maxxie. On the other hand, in the American version, Tea simply has sex with Tony which is more accepting for TV audiences in America.
The episode that aired on January 31st is the reason why activists want charges of child pornography against MTV and its producers. Like the first episode of Skins, this episode was just like that in the UK, but toned down more. Yes, it showed underage kids partying. In the
start of the show Chris had a boner from taking to many Viagra’s, but it didn’t show Michelle fully nude as it did in the UK. It also didn’t show Chris naked, while in the UK you never see him fully naked. Audiences do see full body shots of him covering himself, as to not see his privates. In the American version, you see one butt shot of him running down the road naked, but any other time you see him close up, it’s from his chest up, leading you to believe he is naked.
Activist groups wanted charges of child pornography brought against MTV because the actor who plays Chris is only seventeen. While the number of viewers is dropping each week, MTV is blaming the low viewership on the show not having a strong leading episode.
As for advertisers, MTV isn’t worried. MTV said it might have to reconfigure the length and content of the commercial breaks. We’ll see if MTV’s new approach for commercials works out and if audiences increase. Future episodes will look, and in many ways resemble the UK versions, but will be toned down in the American version.