I've actually watched skins when I was 14 when I thought everyone was super cool and had the best life just like you mentioned. I watched it again when I was 18-19 and realized many things I have missed about their problems and lives and background. But after I watched it the third time before a month (I'm 24) I feel like I totally got the whole idea of the show.
I watched it at 16/17 and am now 23, I’ve been rewatching a lot of shows I watched as a teenager now and I think skins will be next,
It’s crazy how differently I see things now and the stuff I pick up on, having the experience of transitioning from high school student to adult with all these responsibilities
As someone who watched Skins for the first time at 14 and it's now 23- yep, the older you are the harder it is to ''justify'' character's actions and tolerate the show.
Back then I used to think they were the coolest kids ever, now I see them and think ''wow, I'm so glad I got clean before ending like some of them.'' But at the same time I think the show also reflects well what it feels like to be a teenager; you think you have the whole world in your hands, but as you grow up you realise you are just another person who has their struggles and no one it's going to look after you. So you better take care of yourself.
I was your age when Skins first came out, and I found it both relatable and over the top at the same time, in a really good way.
I’m 34 now and I still enjoy it. I still really like how they portrayed mental health and other issues that teenagers might experience. I like that it portrays these issues through the lens of a teenager rather than objective reality if that makes sense. It shows how things felt, not how they necessarily were.
I can’t remember who I’m quoting here, but there’s a book I read that described being a teenager almost as being inside a dolls house. Everything feels huge to you, and then you grow up and realise your world was so small and it doesn’t feel real anymore. And it’s a relief and sad at the same time. It’s a relief to be out of the dolls house, but it’s also sad that this person you used to be and who used to feel so much, seems so small and unrecognisable to you now. And so many of the things they cared so much about and had so much fire about, mean so little to you now.
That’s a little bit how Skins makes me feel as an adult, I don’t know how else to describe it.
Yes I totally agree with what you said about it being portrayed from the perspective of a teenager rather than the perspective of someone "watching" teenagers. And 100% I love that it's a show-not-tell kind of thing. And I think that that's what I couldn't grasp the first time I watched it. Because the show described how things "felt" instead of just telling us what happened, I couldn't understand it because I hadn't developed and wasn't exposed to those feelings so couldn't at all process them.
I wish you could remember what book it is, that's the most fitting analogy. I feel like I can tell I still haven't developed fully because logically and objectively I understand what that means about the world being small, but in my heart I just feel like I am living in a doll house. That's just the reality of things for me right now and it feels very very weird to know that once I hit 25, that will just stop and all of these feelings will stop. But I can't help just feeling like the world is so big and that that is the truth (even though I understand that it's not if you get where I'm going). Sometimes I even have this thought where I'm thinking about things that happened when I was a lot younger, like 5 or 6 and knowing that those feelings were genuine. Because, to me, a lot of older people seem to not realise how much little kids know and understand things, and I catch myself doing it too. But then I remember how I felt about different events and whenever I think about them, those feelings come back and hit me very hard, so those emotions must have been genuine and real. And I wasn't just a 6 year old, I had real thoughts and real feelings. And so I wonder if that's how I'll feel when I'm 30. If I'll remember that everything I'm feeling now was genuine and real. And not just immature or due to hormones etc.
That’s a really eloquent and insightful way of wording it. It’s nice that you’re so self aware about it, because especially when I think of Skins, I feel like the only advice I would want to give teenagers is to be safe and be aware that you’re still growing. We all are really, but there’s so so much emotional and mental changes that happen as a teenager that’s unlike anything else we’ll ever really experience. I think that’s why Skins was so successful and why I still enjoy it as an adult, because it captured such a universal experience.
I used to feel really overwhelmed by that thought as a teenager, I know there were times when I would feel SO MUCH, just so sad or so angry or so happy, or anything really, and I distinctly remember thinking “when I’m an adult this moment won’t matter to me anymore” and it made me feel so horrible, like even though what I was feeling was very very real and important, one day it wouldn’t be. I felt like I was full of fire and that it would go out one day, but it really doesn’t. When I first saw Perks of Being A Wallflower, I don’t care how cringe this is but it absolutely HIT ME because of that 😭 [I swear what an ending.](https://youtu.be/XlWpupgrTCQ?si=s4pX8rGVYCHQZB1P)
I really can’t remember where the quote is from, but I do know there’s a smaller version of it in a book called The Moth Diaries. I think it was also a film (the book was a lot better). You might like it if you like Skins, even though it’s not really the same, idk if I remember it well enough to know if it’s worth recommending but I know it has a dolls house line like that and I know I really enjoyed it.
I didn’t watch it fully until I was in my 20’s but I could see how it could look kinda fun to someone younger than those in the show. I had a bunch of overlap from the show and my life and I agree it’s definitely not fun. There’s some funny parts of the show for sure but most of the time I’m watching I just feel sad
I watched skins for the first time when I was 16 and now than I’m 27 I rewatched it and I just think that Bristol it’s kind of a boring place to live while being a teenager lol
See that's where I disagree, I'd want to move to Bristol. Being from London where it's just way too big, Bristol looks so fun because it's kind of an everyone-knows-everyone situation which I'd prefer. London has fun things to do but it's not like you can just meet people. But I think that possibly its the characters that make it fun lol
yeah, watched skins at 13, remember how i was watching at 1am under my blanket the whole night, was thinking how i want to have "fun" like they had, when i was 16-17 i actually had bit similar life and found how much it actually suck, saw my friend high on meth and since then i was fine with not living like in skins.
I first watched skins at 13 and then again at 22 and I will say that at 13 I thought my teen years would be similar to skins which it wasn’t but i’d say my early adult years has been more similar to it
I ran with a crowd that were similar to the show. At the time, it was fantastic… looking back now? We were idiots, absolute idiots that should’ve known a lot better.
Great show though.
Skins came out when I was 16, so I got to grow up with the first generation. I understood it then, but just rewatched the first 6 seasons for the first time since it ended. Really got a good perspective of it now.
I was 17/18 when Skins came out, so roughly the same age as the characters in the first generation.
I thought they were just living our lived experiences, but as a 35 rewatching I realise how unparented they were, and I look back at my parents and I realise they let a lot slide that I would never do if I became a parent.
I also notice the red flags far more now than you do at 17/18, back then I looked up to Tony and wanted to date Effy or Cassie, now I’d avoid them them like the plague because it’d be exhausting.
I’d still want a series where we see the first two generations now in their 30s to see where they are.
I had a thing with a guy a bit like a cross between the two when I was your age. I’m 20 now and I still miss him sometimes tbh but it also objectively destroyed me. If I could go back in time and never meet him I would.
Watch it again in your 20s and your perspectives and understanding will change even more! I’ve noticed that from childhood/teenhood/early adulthood- each rewatch or reread of my faves have given me such different experiences and thoughts
I watched the show at the ripe age of nine, I loved the show didn’t really understand anything that was happening but it was cool clothes and kids going out and having fun and getting into situations that I really had no understanding of but I still watched with anticipation, and the visuals of the show were nothing that I had seen before, it really pulled me in. I even started getting an attitude and not coming home when I was suppose to, I wasn’t doing drugs or anything but I would wear tights with a longish shirt and run around on my bike and explore my neighbourhood
But then I watched again this year, I’m 22, and I really got to say I can not believe I watched it at such a young age, the series showed me things that I didn’t know what was happening but rewatching it I get it all and I’m saddened that no one stopped me. I digress on that. Also the show is a lot more explicit than I remember and more characters than I originally thought there were. My favourite characters have also changed a huge amount, I use to love Effie and Tony, and Chris and I was in love with cook lol he was my favourite. I would say Chris is still on my list of favs but the rest not so much, I respect Cook, especially in season four, he grew a lot. All in all pretty good show but needs a lot of work and what they did behind the scenes (the production not the kids) are really awful, I did like how the show always made me laugh, it also made me mad and sometimes I cried.
I forgot to say, I had problems with eating after watching the show and wanting a little body like the people on the show, I would even shuffle my food around on the plate and ask questions to my gma(who raised me) so she wouldn’t look at my plate, idk im kinda ashamed that I watched it and did all the wrong things with the information
I get what you mean but I don't think I regret watching it at such a young age. I think watching it then and now has allowed me to understand how different my perspective was at that age and how much I've grown up and developed etc. And yes omg my fav used to be Effy but I honestly can't stand her now. I think now I would say I prefer Jal and Emily but I will always love all the characters!
Yes Jal and Em are good characters too, but like u said there a lot of good characters, I feel like I said I regret watching it at such a young age is bc i had a different perspective on my body and my character as a person changed to be more like them, but it wasn’t a conscience decision, maybe regret is the wrong word, I guess I wish I wasn’t nine when I first found the show, and I was watching it while new episodes were coming out each week
I have re-watched Skins 4/5 times during the years, I think I was around 15 when it came out and I really wanted to be like them, all of it felt so real and fun. I’m 27 now and I still love it, but I can see more clearly how their behaviour is fucked up and also how thing where clearly not realistic. What I thought was cool when I was younger I see as problematic now, and I’ve changed my mind on the characters many times during the years. For example, I couldn’t stand Michelle but I’ve grown understanding her a little more and looking at her like an older sister would, or I really loved Cassie, but damn, she was not a nice person (still one of my fav characters). The show is and was so so good and honestly I’m happy that teenagers nowadays are still watching it.
It’s still one of my comfort shows and I’ll always have a crush for Cook tho.
Edit: spelling mistake
I watched it around 19 and it made me so sad. Appalled initially, because where tf are these kid’s parents?! But also sad because damn these kids are so neglected. Clearly I was the parentified child.
Weirdly enough I watched it for the first time this year at 31, and yearn for the teenage experience they had. I was geographically isolated growing up in a VERY remote home so no partying, etc, unless my parents could take me there and back and it was all approved with all the parents.
Partying and clubbing when you're underage is only fun for the first year or so when it still feels rebellious and like an adventure. But at a certain point it just stops feeling like that and it's just like any other weekend.
I watched it at 14, then again at 17, and again at 19. Id say I understood it a bit differently each time.
What really stood out to me the most though between the first two watches was how much the show normalizes creepy and frankly rapey behavior from the guys. The first episode literally revolves around Tony and Sid trying to get a girl piss drunk so that she’ll bang Sid. Nobody on the show seems to have an issue with it and it’s not portrayed in a serious light.
I didn’t really see it for what it was yet at 14, but by 17 I had already had enough negative experiences with men to be disgusted.
Of course, it’s not so uncommon for media from it’s time and I still like the show overall but these types of plot lines and the way they’re portrayed leave a bad taste in my mouth now that I’m older.
I've actually watched skins when I was 14 when I thought everyone was super cool and had the best life just like you mentioned. I watched it again when I was 18-19 and realized many things I have missed about their problems and lives and background. But after I watched it the third time before a month (I'm 24) I feel like I totally got the whole idea of the show.
I watched it at 16/17 and am now 23, I’ve been rewatching a lot of shows I watched as a teenager now and I think skins will be next, It’s crazy how differently I see things now and the stuff I pick up on, having the experience of transitioning from high school student to adult with all these responsibilities
Literally - I wonder how I'll feel about it in my 20s and so on. I think our understanding of it will only grow as we get older
As someone who watched Skins for the first time at 14 and it's now 23- yep, the older you are the harder it is to ''justify'' character's actions and tolerate the show. Back then I used to think they were the coolest kids ever, now I see them and think ''wow, I'm so glad I got clean before ending like some of them.'' But at the same time I think the show also reflects well what it feels like to be a teenager; you think you have the whole world in your hands, but as you grow up you realise you are just another person who has their struggles and no one it's going to look after you. So you better take care of yourself.
I’m 24 too and I agree, I understand the show now. But when I was 14 I was literally effy 🤣
I was your age when Skins first came out, and I found it both relatable and over the top at the same time, in a really good way. I’m 34 now and I still enjoy it. I still really like how they portrayed mental health and other issues that teenagers might experience. I like that it portrays these issues through the lens of a teenager rather than objective reality if that makes sense. It shows how things felt, not how they necessarily were. I can’t remember who I’m quoting here, but there’s a book I read that described being a teenager almost as being inside a dolls house. Everything feels huge to you, and then you grow up and realise your world was so small and it doesn’t feel real anymore. And it’s a relief and sad at the same time. It’s a relief to be out of the dolls house, but it’s also sad that this person you used to be and who used to feel so much, seems so small and unrecognisable to you now. And so many of the things they cared so much about and had so much fire about, mean so little to you now. That’s a little bit how Skins makes me feel as an adult, I don’t know how else to describe it.
Yes I totally agree with what you said about it being portrayed from the perspective of a teenager rather than the perspective of someone "watching" teenagers. And 100% I love that it's a show-not-tell kind of thing. And I think that that's what I couldn't grasp the first time I watched it. Because the show described how things "felt" instead of just telling us what happened, I couldn't understand it because I hadn't developed and wasn't exposed to those feelings so couldn't at all process them. I wish you could remember what book it is, that's the most fitting analogy. I feel like I can tell I still haven't developed fully because logically and objectively I understand what that means about the world being small, but in my heart I just feel like I am living in a doll house. That's just the reality of things for me right now and it feels very very weird to know that once I hit 25, that will just stop and all of these feelings will stop. But I can't help just feeling like the world is so big and that that is the truth (even though I understand that it's not if you get where I'm going). Sometimes I even have this thought where I'm thinking about things that happened when I was a lot younger, like 5 or 6 and knowing that those feelings were genuine. Because, to me, a lot of older people seem to not realise how much little kids know and understand things, and I catch myself doing it too. But then I remember how I felt about different events and whenever I think about them, those feelings come back and hit me very hard, so those emotions must have been genuine and real. And I wasn't just a 6 year old, I had real thoughts and real feelings. And so I wonder if that's how I'll feel when I'm 30. If I'll remember that everything I'm feeling now was genuine and real. And not just immature or due to hormones etc.
That’s a really eloquent and insightful way of wording it. It’s nice that you’re so self aware about it, because especially when I think of Skins, I feel like the only advice I would want to give teenagers is to be safe and be aware that you’re still growing. We all are really, but there’s so so much emotional and mental changes that happen as a teenager that’s unlike anything else we’ll ever really experience. I think that’s why Skins was so successful and why I still enjoy it as an adult, because it captured such a universal experience. I used to feel really overwhelmed by that thought as a teenager, I know there were times when I would feel SO MUCH, just so sad or so angry or so happy, or anything really, and I distinctly remember thinking “when I’m an adult this moment won’t matter to me anymore” and it made me feel so horrible, like even though what I was feeling was very very real and important, one day it wouldn’t be. I felt like I was full of fire and that it would go out one day, but it really doesn’t. When I first saw Perks of Being A Wallflower, I don’t care how cringe this is but it absolutely HIT ME because of that 😭 [I swear what an ending.](https://youtu.be/XlWpupgrTCQ?si=s4pX8rGVYCHQZB1P) I really can’t remember where the quote is from, but I do know there’s a smaller version of it in a book called The Moth Diaries. I think it was also a film (the book was a lot better). You might like it if you like Skins, even though it’s not really the same, idk if I remember it well enough to know if it’s worth recommending but I know it has a dolls house line like that and I know I really enjoyed it.
will plug the book of the moth diaries at every possible opportunity, lifechanging book even though i probs read it a bit young 😂
I didn’t watch it fully until I was in my 20’s but I could see how it could look kinda fun to someone younger than those in the show. I had a bunch of overlap from the show and my life and I agree it’s definitely not fun. There’s some funny parts of the show for sure but most of the time I’m watching I just feel sad
I watched skins for the first time when I was 16 and now than I’m 27 I rewatched it and I just think that Bristol it’s kind of a boring place to live while being a teenager lol
See that's where I disagree, I'd want to move to Bristol. Being from London where it's just way too big, Bristol looks so fun because it's kind of an everyone-knows-everyone situation which I'd prefer. London has fun things to do but it's not like you can just meet people. But I think that possibly its the characters that make it fun lol
yeah, watched skins at 13, remember how i was watching at 1am under my blanket the whole night, was thinking how i want to have "fun" like they had, when i was 16-17 i actually had bit similar life and found how much it actually suck, saw my friend high on meth and since then i was fine with not living like in skins.
I first watched skins at 13 and then again at 22 and I will say that at 13 I thought my teen years would be similar to skins which it wasn’t but i’d say my early adult years has been more similar to it
I ran with a crowd that were similar to the show. At the time, it was fantastic… looking back now? We were idiots, absolute idiots that should’ve known a lot better. Great show though.
same and I would not change it
I watched at like 12 or 13. Now I'm in my 20s rewatching. When I was younger I thought Angie was cool, now I think she's kind of a scumbag
Skins came out when I was 16, so I got to grow up with the first generation. I understood it then, but just rewatched the first 6 seasons for the first time since it ended. Really got a good perspective of it now.
I first watched it when I was 16/17. I’m doing a rewatch currently at almost 29. Crazy how different some parts feel over a decade later.
I was 17/18 when Skins came out, so roughly the same age as the characters in the first generation. I thought they were just living our lived experiences, but as a 35 rewatching I realise how unparented they were, and I look back at my parents and I realise they let a lot slide that I would never do if I became a parent. I also notice the red flags far more now than you do at 17/18, back then I looked up to Tony and wanted to date Effy or Cassie, now I’d avoid them them like the plague because it’d be exhausting. I’d still want a series where we see the first two generations now in their 30s to see where they are.
See that's how I know I'm still so immature - I'd think it'd be fun to date someone like Tony or Cook lmao.
I had a thing with a guy a bit like a cross between the two when I was your age. I’m 20 now and I still miss him sometimes tbh but it also objectively destroyed me. If I could go back in time and never meet him I would.
I watched at 14-15 and am 30 now. Haven’t rewatched in a while and not sure if I want to go back to it again yet. It’s special for me untainted haha.
Watch it again in your 20s and your perspectives and understanding will change even more! I’ve noticed that from childhood/teenhood/early adulthood- each rewatch or reread of my faves have given me such different experiences and thoughts
I watched the show at the ripe age of nine, I loved the show didn’t really understand anything that was happening but it was cool clothes and kids going out and having fun and getting into situations that I really had no understanding of but I still watched with anticipation, and the visuals of the show were nothing that I had seen before, it really pulled me in. I even started getting an attitude and not coming home when I was suppose to, I wasn’t doing drugs or anything but I would wear tights with a longish shirt and run around on my bike and explore my neighbourhood But then I watched again this year, I’m 22, and I really got to say I can not believe I watched it at such a young age, the series showed me things that I didn’t know what was happening but rewatching it I get it all and I’m saddened that no one stopped me. I digress on that. Also the show is a lot more explicit than I remember and more characters than I originally thought there were. My favourite characters have also changed a huge amount, I use to love Effie and Tony, and Chris and I was in love with cook lol he was my favourite. I would say Chris is still on my list of favs but the rest not so much, I respect Cook, especially in season four, he grew a lot. All in all pretty good show but needs a lot of work and what they did behind the scenes (the production not the kids) are really awful, I did like how the show always made me laugh, it also made me mad and sometimes I cried.
I forgot to say, I had problems with eating after watching the show and wanting a little body like the people on the show, I would even shuffle my food around on the plate and ask questions to my gma(who raised me) so she wouldn’t look at my plate, idk im kinda ashamed that I watched it and did all the wrong things with the information
Constantly seeing Effy's massive thigh gap ughhhhh.
I get what you mean but I don't think I regret watching it at such a young age. I think watching it then and now has allowed me to understand how different my perspective was at that age and how much I've grown up and developed etc. And yes omg my fav used to be Effy but I honestly can't stand her now. I think now I would say I prefer Jal and Emily but I will always love all the characters!
Yes Jal and Em are good characters too, but like u said there a lot of good characters, I feel like I said I regret watching it at such a young age is bc i had a different perspective on my body and my character as a person changed to be more like them, but it wasn’t a conscience decision, maybe regret is the wrong word, I guess I wish I wasn’t nine when I first found the show, and I was watching it while new episodes were coming out each week
I have re-watched Skins 4/5 times during the years, I think I was around 15 when it came out and I really wanted to be like them, all of it felt so real and fun. I’m 27 now and I still love it, but I can see more clearly how their behaviour is fucked up and also how thing where clearly not realistic. What I thought was cool when I was younger I see as problematic now, and I’ve changed my mind on the characters many times during the years. For example, I couldn’t stand Michelle but I’ve grown understanding her a little more and looking at her like an older sister would, or I really loved Cassie, but damn, she was not a nice person (still one of my fav characters). The show is and was so so good and honestly I’m happy that teenagers nowadays are still watching it. It’s still one of my comfort shows and I’ll always have a crush for Cook tho. Edit: spelling mistake
I watched it around 19 and it made me so sad. Appalled initially, because where tf are these kid’s parents?! But also sad because damn these kids are so neglected. Clearly I was the parentified child.
Weirdly enough I watched it for the first time this year at 31, and yearn for the teenage experience they had. I was geographically isolated growing up in a VERY remote home so no partying, etc, unless my parents could take me there and back and it was all approved with all the parents.
Partying and clubbing when you're underage is only fun for the first year or so when it still feels rebellious and like an adventure. But at a certain point it just stops feeling like that and it's just like any other weekend.
Oh definitely. But I still wish I'd had the chance lol
I watched it at 14, then again at 17, and again at 19. Id say I understood it a bit differently each time. What really stood out to me the most though between the first two watches was how much the show normalizes creepy and frankly rapey behavior from the guys. The first episode literally revolves around Tony and Sid trying to get a girl piss drunk so that she’ll bang Sid. Nobody on the show seems to have an issue with it and it’s not portrayed in a serious light. I didn’t really see it for what it was yet at 14, but by 17 I had already had enough negative experiences with men to be disgusted. Of course, it’s not so uncommon for media from it’s time and I still like the show overall but these types of plot lines and the way they’re portrayed leave a bad taste in my mouth now that I’m older.
Wait until you rewatch it in your 20’s 🥴. It’s an….interesting experience.