4.07 Effy
I said last week that I was excited about this ep until I saw JB was writing it. I was this close to offering a public apology. It was good. There were Tony references, I actually liked Effy again, Naomi laughed, there was a group scene etc etc. But then he made the psychiatrist a crazy bat wielding murderer and I'm giving up on Skins as a show.
Gen 1 was praised for its originality, and rightly so. But it would seem that they've taken this 'formula' and just applied it to the new characters. We did cheating, stalker and character death last time. So in S4 everything was more dramatic (cheating!stalking!suicidal!Sophia) and therefore, I can only assume, meant to be better. Failed then, didn't it?
Chris's death had such an affect for two reasons. One, it fitted into the story and two, I actually cared about the character. Freddie, (who I had empathised with at the end of 4.05 - almost to the point of liking him), throughout this whole episode was, for want of a better word, a massive cuntbag. "Why wouldn't you let me visit you?" Freddie, she was already suicidal, seeing your face would probably have tipped her over the edge mate. But, honestly, the whole whining at his girlfriend - who was clearly going through mental trauma - about how he didn't get to visit her, and how dare the doctor know how to fix her better than he did, and how she broke his heart and he was going to do a runner? Well, it didn't make me like him. And now he's dead I'm not going to change my mind just because he's dead.
When crazy doctor guy came out with the bat, my first thought wasn't "oh no", it was "oh how I've wished to be in that position". Second thought was "they're really going to do this. What the fuck?" It felt like a much more blatent plot device than any of the others we've had rammed down our throats. It's so ridiculous that I can't even bring myself to feel anything over it, because it was just a cheap way of creating drama. It was unnecessary; there's already enough drama to fill another series of Skins with the sheer scale and number of story lines that've been given to this cast, let alone fill one more episode.
The thing that gets me is that there are so many directions they could have taken this group of characters, and save for killing them all in a tragic bus/car accident (could still happen), then they've picked the worst option at almost every turn. Just because Skins is one of the few shows which has the ability to kill off characters on a regular basis due to the quick turnover of cast, doesn't mean that they should.
I really want next week to come quickly, just so we can draw a line under what has been a poorly constructed series of TV. Can't blame the cast, as I think that they've improved across the board and have done what they can with the material they've been given. But the writing hasn't been great throughout, and the decision making on plot? Well, that slipped to the point of total anarchy. It appears that everyone pretty much wrote what they wanted - there was no clear direction at any point through S4.
And for that, the blame sits with JB.
TL;DR:
Effy's blazer can be purchased for the princely sum of £8 from Primark. (Also, Freddie is too pretty to die, and there may have been tears.)