Everything is better British: men, clothes, and now the television show “Skins.” The new Americanized version of the hit British series kicked off on Jan 17. With a ton of fans from all over the world already following the British version of the scandalous show, the MTV version had big shoes to fill. After the first airing, it was blatantly clear that the American version was not all that.
The concept of “Skins” revolves around a world of promiscuous behavior, drug use and the effects that these activities have on various teenage characters. This general idea is present in both versions; however, there is a clear difference between the extremely popular BBC version and the much-criticized MTV version.
It appears as though MTV decided to reshoot this show to bring the shock-value to America and gain as much popularity as the British version.
The British version of the show already had a huge following in the United States. People are not going to be surprised by the controversial content if they are already aware of it. Therefore, there was no shock value achieved.
This redundancy was completely unnecessary. For MTV to decide to reshoot the show with the same plotline and dialogue, just without British accents and vernacular, exposes MTV’s lack of original thought. It also sheds a negative light upon America as a whole by showing our tendency to take something that belonged to someone else and make it much worse.
The British “Skins” takes place in London, while the American show takes place in Baltimore, Md. Some activities that the characters engage in really do not make sense in this new setting. For example, in Europe the drinking age is 18, and this limitation is known to be followed loosely. However, in the United States, the drinking age is very strictly 21. For this reason, it is not feasible for high school juniors to be able to go to raging clubs and to be served ample alcohol, especially with such ease and so little discretion.
The last thing that the American youth needs is another show about teenagers engaging in immoral actions and getting away with them. There are countless other television shows and movies that already glorify these activities and this reiteration is not only unnecessary, but damaging. Although the show has already been produced elsewhere, the bad acting in the Americanized version creates cruel characters who lack a conscience, which alienates them from the audience.
This disconnect leads to a misunderstanding that creates a harmful message that makes the MTV version of “Skins” significantly worse than the BBC version.
