OMFG. I just heard that MTV bought the rights to start filming an American version of Skins. And that it will be filmed and set in Baltimore. WTF. On one side I am thrilled, the other , I am dreading how MTV might ruin this for me.This sounds stupid. No offense to my own country, but American television already ruined the original Skins when putting it on BBC America and censoring the shit out of it.
There’s no way the show will ever compare to the original because the censorship laws in America make it impossible to be realistic or true to the British version. Plus if MTV is writing it, then it’s just going to become some type of Laguna Beach version of it. The beauty of Skins is the fact that it’s raw, raunchy, and unpredictable.
The FCC makes this impossible to do so, needless to say I will not be watching it and I’ll stick with E4’s.[…]
3. why is it going to be set in baltimore? is it going to be “gritty” and “real” like The Wire, or are they just looking for somewhere cheap to film it? or are they looking for me to be a recurring character on the show? it must be that last one. CALL ME UP, MTV!!
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Baltimore doesn’t surprise me at all, given the original is set in Bristol. The show, for me ultimately, has been exploring the humanity and experiences of the everyteen. I’d imagine that London was too metropolitan or urban or what-have-you to be appropriately representational, much like Gossip Girl can hardly be considered representational of the American everyteen because of New York (and, you know, everything else).
Given my limited understanding of UK geography and socioeconomics etc., Bristol seems particularly middle class, neither too expansive nor small, and decently close to a variety of…things that can lead to more relatable storytelling (bodies of water, forested areas, and both urban and suburban areas). Given my limited understanding of Baltimore, I am going to guess it’s kind-of-sort-of similar, at least in the way that Pittsburgh is similar to Manchester (as in the Queer as Folk UK to USA translation).
Will it be good? In my opinion, probably not particularly. Of course, there are various degrees, depending a lot on how MTV intends to develop it. I could probably have found an original source, but I am lazy. There’s a lot of variability here: QaF:UK to QaF:USA was best when it stuck close to the original scripts and just completely fell to shit when that well ran dry. The opposite seems to be true of The Office:US, where it didn’t really take off until they stepped away from the BBC version.
I do, however, think it far more likely that the result will be similar to an attempt at Americanizing Absolutely Fabulous. Both shows are so inherently British that they would suffer from the conversion. The American sensibility is too puritanical, reactionist, and protective. And though the overt swearing/alcohol/drugs/sex/etc. is not inherently endogenous to successful storytelling, it does make both more compelling and perhaps more successful. Remove it from Skins and really, what do you have that you couldn’t find on The WB? It adds a significant hurdle to an already complex undertaking: making something as compelling when such a significant part is missing.
Do I think an MTV version of Skins will be successful? Yes. Probably entirely too successful. Tumblr and The Internet are hardly representative of the greater American consciousness, and the vast majority of the demographic will have very little familiarity or point of comparison. Plus, look at how successful some of the nonsense that MTV currently airs is. This is the sort of thing that demographic wants, and even an inferior version is going to do fantastic.
It’s definitely going to be interesting to see how this develops.
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