Same School, New Damage

The Skins series 5 preview arrived just as the show was resetting completely—third generation, entirely new cast, the Bristol chaos starting over from scratch. The reaction was predictable: old devotees dismissing these unfamiliar faces before they’d spoken a single word on screen, the more open-minded holding their judgment. Watching the preview, I thought the new kids looked raw enough to be interesting—Franky in particular, the kind of outsider the show does best, someone whose presence makes everyone else’s social performance look exhausting by comparison. Whether the writing would match the faces was another question entirely. Skins had already pulled this trick twice, and both times the second episode justified the first. I was willing to give it a few weeks.