Skins recap, episode 8: the show that gets high school right—except when it doesn’t
In this week’s fairly heavy-handed opening sequence of Skins, we learn that Daisy is the member of the gang “who fixes everything.” We also learn that she works at the Skins equivalent to Hooters (finally, the secret behind her ever-present cleavage revealed! Well, sort of), and that a game of sexual broken telephone has left just about everyone in the gang with a case of the clap. Everyone, that is, except Daisy and Abbud, because they’re still virgins. Or, at least, they were still virgins, until they decided to re-enact the plot of No Strings Attached before our very eyes. Groan.
As always, our Skins reality roundup: where the show’s rendition of high school reality gets an A, and where it gets an F.
FO SHIZ: Skins gets it right
• Daisy’s dad thinks rap music is a bunch of racket. Sometimes, real dads and TV dads really are the same. Given the age of the main characters, of course, Daisy’s old man is probably about the same age as Jay-Z, but we’ll allow it because he’s a jazz guy, and jazz guys are almost always old fashioned.
• Daisy and Abbud are determined to have “meaningless sex” because, you know, they’re super-mature and worldly and that’s what maturldly people do, right? Classic. This is totally accurate teenage naiveté, especially since they’re obviously going to end up together.
BULLSHIZ: Skins gets it wrong
• Daisy plays the group’s resident Dr. Phil in an impromptu, no-holds-barred counselling session in the school band room. We only wish there was this kind of openness and transparency in teenage relationships (or adult relationships, for that matter).
• The gang successfully cleans up all evidence of the party at Daisy’s house in a matter of minutes, despite the fact that it looked like something out of Animal House. This is not just unlikely; it’s down right impossible.
• When they meet up, Abbud says to Daisy: “Hey. So, are you ready for the sex?” First of all, he would never say that. Second, he wouldn’t say it like Borat.
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Courtney Shea is a freelance journalist in Toronto. She started her career as an intern at Toronto Life and continues to contribute frequently to the publication, including her 2022 National Magazine Award–winning feature, “The Death Cheaters,” her regular Q&As and her recent investigation into whether Taylor Swift hung out at a Toronto dive bar (she did not). Courtney was a producer and writer on the 2022 documentary The Talented Mr. Rosenberg, based on her 2014 Toronto Life magazine feature “The Yorkville Swindler.”
