Lost in translation

You always remember your first. I guess that old saw also applies to TV shows.It was around this same time four years ago that an acquaintance suggested I go online and check out a little show called Skins. The fledgling series — about a group of hard-partying, drug-taking, sexually active teenagers — was only then starting to blow up, both in its native Britain and beyond.

Admittedly, it was a bit shaky at first. But despite the exagerrated cliffhangers, it was clear that the E4 teen drama was impressive in its emotional honesty and willingness to open forbidden doors. After six episodes, I felt like I knew the Skins kids — Tony, Michelle, Sid, Maxxie, Cassie and Anwar — very well.            

  So as I watched the pilot of Skins USA last week, I couldn’t help but jog back to 2007; I wanted to stay there. It didn’t help that this American version, an eager attempt by MTV to break into the scripted programming business, was a shot-for-shot retread of its British counterpart. Instead of Bristol, the action — or rather, the lack of it — now takes place in Baltimore.

Katie F*cking Fitch: Skins generation 2 (2009-2010) was also quite lovable and will be sorely missed.

The UK Skins was a cleverly constructed evocation of youth and rebellion that came complete with a refreshing selection of music. It was provocative not because of the nudity or the swearing. It was provacative because it cut out the moralizing and chose to let the nudity and the swearing be. There was no lesson to be learned after every episode, no implied warning to its impressionable viewers.

 On the other hand, Skins USA is not only derivative. It is prudish, which is an even worse offense. The States has historically displayed a lower tolerance for TV eroticism than Britain and, as proof, even Tony’s bedsheets are censored. In the UK incarnation, the duvet featured a print of a naked man and woman; in the American one, it was spiders. Conservative groups are so afraid of the relatively tamer program, even stating that the show, which features a cast of 15- to 19-year-olds, is vulnerable to child pornography charges. (There’s already a show about high schoolers minus the sex and profanity: Degrassi.)

Like I said, prudish.

 Anyway, I was never excited about this recreation because I felt that it was completely unnecessary. BBC America already aired Skins before. What was wrong with the original? It’s insulting that TV executives would assume that a non-British audience would be so culturally myopic that it wouldn’t tune in to watch a program set in Britain, about British teenagers, involving British culture.

The first, the original: The breakthrough cast (2007-2008) of the BAFTA- winning Skins included Nicholas Hoult (About A Boy, A Single Man) and Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire).

More than that, there’s this sense of loyalty you feel especially when you’ve been there since series 1, like I have. In some twisted, voyeuristic way, I feel like I’ve gone through life with the first Skins generation. When I see Nicholas Hoult, Dev Patel or Kaya Scodelario in other projects, I feel like I had a hand at their success.

When a second cast was about to be launched, after the pioneering one had “graduated sixth form,” I was conflicted. This new bunch of characters had huge shoes to fill and the idea of a new Skins was disconcertingly off, but  I learned to love them, too. Differently, of course. (The fifth series, starring generation 3, kicked off on January 27.) This could be the case with Skins USA — that maybe I just need to give the horrible acting a chance — but I’m a seasoned viewer and in my gut, I know otherwise.

There’s already a conga line of US adaptions of British shows that have failed to make it: Kath & Kim, The IT Crowd, Coupling and Spaced. I tried watching the American Being Human and again, the SyFy production didn’t feel right because I’m a fan of the UK hit. That said, there’s talk online of a possible US Misfits translation, and as predicted, fans are fuming.  

Got my hands up, they’re playing my song: In Skins USA, Jal becomes Daisy (and her clarinet becomes a trumpet); Anwar is now Abbud, and he still struggles to balance Islam with partying; and Effy is reincarnated as Eura, who looks a lot like Cassie.

Then again, more sober critics say that comparing US and UK shows is pointless, as it is like trying to get two parallel lines to meet. Whatever it is — be it a Brits-do-it-better kind of snobbishness or a low tolerance for derivative programs — I think people are angry at pointless remakes because they show how reluctant TV executives are at allowing creativity to breathe. 

Bryan Elsley, one of the Skins co-creators, is on board Skins USA which may protect the series from too much ruin. It could be that the Baltimore-set show will go the way of The Office, starting off as a carbon copy of its British cousin to establish the characters before finally doing its own thing. Skins USA, however, also shares the same network as Teen Mom and Jersey Shore. Its chances of becoming a trainwreck, unfortunately, are already high by default.

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