Flicking through the channels I saw the part of the Season Two episode where Michelle takes her new stepsister and most of the Skins gang out to a seaside holiday for her birthday. It looked pretty dire, especially the part where Dev Patel is tricked into skinnydipping while the rest of the boys keep their trunks on. But, I have never understood British humor, and seeing that Skins is set largely in Bristol I just didn't want to get involved in it. And yet somehow we started watching Series One, and what do you know, we were instantly hooked after one episode with Nicholas Hoult as Tony, and then the second show with Cassie acting really, really crazy and absent due to her eating disorder.

There's really no US show like it. There are better US shows of course, but few try for the heights of Skins (nor, for that matter, that plumb its really abysmal depths)... I don't think, for example, that one instance of parent-child relationships runs at all true in Skins. All the adults are figures of fun and most of them are louche, disgusting, embarrassing.

That's neither here nor there. What is with all the mothers, though, who run away from their children, leaving the dads to hold down the fort? There are only 8 or 9 characters in Skins, and how many of them have their own mothers? What's that saying about UK society? Here it would be a culture of absent fathers and wayward children, in Skins the note is set early on when poor Chris wakes up and finds that his mother has left him 1,000 pounds and then made herself scarce. She just couldn't take it? Jal's mother too?

Never caught on to Sid (Mike Bailey). He too must be an acquired taste like Worcestershire sauce or summat. And Maxxee, the gay boy with a supportive lug of a dad, yeah extremely convincing! But all in all a great show with three outstanding actors in it....

I adore this show more than I could ever express, however all my friends who have heard me talk about incessantly for 3 weeks now probably have a good idea. It's raw, it's real and it's so funny and genuine. The characters are so great, you can't help but fall in love with them. Season 1 is by far the best.

The versions that aired on BBC America and the DVD releases have been so emasculated by the removal of the original soundtrack and even the final scene of series 1, that I have to wonder why anyone would bother to watch them.

`Skins' is a comedy-drama that follows the adventures and misadventures of a group of community college students.
I classify `Skins' for mature audiences. A mature teen will enjoy the programs. Caution, there is adult language, drug use, and there are sexual situations. Also `Skins' is not a morality play - `bad' behavior does not necessarily have consequences outside the group of `Skins' characters.
The acting is wonderful, as good as entertainment gets.
Outstanding performances: Hannah Murray, playing `Cassie'. Joe Dempsie, playing `Chris'. I hated coming to the end of the second season, because it was so sad.
I cannot try to rank the characters. The performances of all are extraordinary.
My favorite character was `Cassie'...
You will laugh and cry at `Skins'. I recommend it very highly.

OK, so you take your wildest teenage escapades. And then you add them all up. And then times them by a factor of several. At which point you'll be somewhere in the vicinity of one episode of this series about British teenagers growing up in the city of Bristol. Nowhere near as flippant as it may first appear and nowhere near as far off the mark for some people I knew when growing up, this is still a flip out of a show where ridiculous caricatures promenade over the screen in cliched hysterical teenage style while at the same time these self-same characters command your attention as they run smack bang into all sorts of real life dramas such drug use/abuse, sexual awakenings and lessons in love. And that's the lighter bits!

The series revolves around a tight knit group and a few other peripheral members of the crew. The writers of this were certainly spot on regarding the way teenagers clump together for self affirmation and to find a sense of belonging. As the series progresses the characters are fleshed out and the episodes certainly pack a lot into them given how well you feel you know them all by the journeys end.

Of course this sort of stuff isn't going to be everyones cup of tea. These kids certainly can cuss with the best of 'em and the blantant drug use, open homosexuality and narcissistic cod philosophy of some of the characters will all grate with anyone with any puritanical leanings. Or with anyone squeemish about the above topics. Those with more open constitutions or those who can identify with many of the personality types and their motivations will probably get more out of it as will anyone who has known - and perhaps lost - friends and acquantances to the fast lane.

A collection of nicely realised vignettes highlighting a number of social issues all within a madcap not-quite-serious yet not-quite-joking style what won't appeal to all. But some beautifully drawn character and motivation studies of some tragically broken creatures holding it together through collective strength. And if you like this series definitely get series two as well where certain plot threads move ever deeper into the darkness as the solidarity of the group fractures and members get isolated from that group strength and suffer the consequencs. But that's another story.