Skins - Season 6 Review

UK Airdate: January 23rd- March 26th 2012

Rivers Run Dry: After a somewhat excellent return to form for the show in it’s fifth year, the sixth and penultimate series of Skins seemed to have more in common with it’s show’s fourth and by far, worst series of them all.

This season opened up in a particularly chaotic manner with the gang heading off to Morocco and Grace winding up in a car accident after Matty tried to save Franky from a drug dealer, despite their relationship falling to pieces within the first few minutes of the opening episode. Unfortunately by the second episodes, Grace became the third major character to die on the show.

I have to admit that killing off Grace at the start of the series was an interesting enough move. The gang’s relationships certainly became fraught as a result with Matty on the run, Nick resorting to desperate measures to save his brother, Rich disappearing for a good portion of the series and the girls largely at odds with each other as well.

The introduction of Alex in some ways tried to bring the gang back together and while the character’s scenes were deeply entertaining, there were times when he did remind me a little of Maxxie. That being said, at least Alex’s friendship with Liv was the most entertaining of this series to watch. The rest unfortunately paled by comparison.

Franky’s increasingly destructive behaviour stemming from past issues should’ve been compelling to watch but with her constant toying between Matty and Nick, her horrible dalliance with Luke and the seemingly unhealthy co-dependant dynamic she adopted with Mini towards the end of the series, I found myself becoming increasingly annoyed with the character all the more. At least Liv had the sense to actually call Franky out on her annoying behaviour. It’s just a shame that nearly everyone else didn’t by contrast.

Then there was the coupling of Mini and Alo. I’m not going to criticise the baby arc too much because a lot of it was realistic but it did often take too long for them to get their act together and be there for each other and I think we all could’ve done without the plot where Alo slept with a teenage girl as well too and the less said about Matty and Nick’s rivalry for Franky, the better for all.

Of course, there were positives towards this season too. The gang’s attempts to deal with Grace’s death (and her nicely spaced out ghostly appearances) led to some lovely performances by our main characters, both Liv and Alex injected some much needed fun with their friendship in certain parts, the resolution to Franky’s childhood issues were gratifying to watch and the finale was a lovely way to cap off this generation’s story as well.

However, all that being said, I am intrigued by what the upcoming seventh and final series of specials will bring for all three generations of this show. It’s definitely time that this particular series came to an end but at the same time, I do hope that we get a satisfying conclusion to all of the characters we’ve gotten to know since the series arrival in 2007.

DVD Extras: Not a whole lot of excitement here to be honest. There’s some commentaries from cast and crew, some shorts, which are like deleted scenes as well as cast and crew interviews and a trailer but overall, nothing to shout about.

Episode Ratings From 1 To 10

6x01: Everyone = 7/10, 6x02: Rich = 9/10,
6x03: Alex = 8/10, 6x04: Franky = 5/10,
6x05: Mini = 7/10, 6x06: Nick = 6/10,
6x07: Alo = 8/10, 6x08: Liv = 9/10,
6x09: Mini And Franky = 8/10, 6x10: Finale = 9/10

Season 6 is currently available on DVD.