Skins

I think this show is good to let your kids watch because it gives messages for u not to make those wrong choices most tenns make!

Being a fan of the British show for a while now, I can honestly say that I hate this MTV adaptation. Sure, parents may hate on it for its messages and content but I don't think that's the issue. I may be in a minority of teenagers who don't make TV characters their role models but I don't think people should discredit the show just for that either. I'm optimistic that most American teens aren't dumb enough to do drugs and stuff just because they see it done in a show, but perhaps that's a bit too much. Still, one of the things that makes Skins so good (and really the original version, though the American show is based off it... and the first episode was practically copied) is that it's edgy and quite original. Obviously you wouldn't want pre-teens watching it because they're the age group to be really sensitive to what it means to be 'cool' and all, but for teenagers it's a good show to enjoy watching to see all of the mistakes we can make and shouldn't. As much as adults would like to deny it, teenagers really do swear and act really sexual in real life—I mean, you can even see that on shows like Glee for that matter—so I think it's great that TV these days is much more realistic than The Brady Bunch or anything off Disney Channel or Nickelodeon. I really think it's the frank realiism of parts of Skins that upsets parents, but it shouldn't make them dismiss the show as totally bad and morally corrupt for their children. In my opinion, it's better to expose teenagers to this stuff on television than make them find out how hard it is in real life. Obviously, not every teen is as hormonal and drug-loving as the characters on Skins but at least at some level they're relatable. It's a bit of a spoiler for the British show but one of the characters in the fourth series had a mental depression breakdown and that's what drove me to ask for help for my depression because I had been in denial for years and never spoke to anybody. Perhaps that's just something odd like me, but I think that problems in shows might just help teens to reflect on their own lives and all. Lastly, though all of the drinking and drugs are totally innapropriate seeing as it's all illegal for teens, the fact that the show depicts consenting teens over the age of 16 having sex really isn't an issue these days—it's not the 50s anymore so it's really not taboo—and the language isn't much worse than anything else on American television and they even censored the 'f-word', which is pretty extreme when you see the original and realize just how much more the British swear, even the adults towards their kids.

Most people only look at the surface of the show, and see only the fact that teens are running around hooking up, getting drunk, doing drugs, and being bad role models. But within, you have a group of friends who stick together no matter what and face problems just like the rest of us. The people who say that this isn't normal teen behavior really have no clue what's going on in their children's lives. A lot of kids these days are doing all that stuff, and Skins displays it in a highly realistic way. However, Skins only gets 3 stars from me, not because of the portrayal of these events, but you can never beat the original.