Skins (US)
MTV | MTV - Music Television | Release Date: January 17, 2011
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
50
SlateTroy PattersonJan 25, 2011
Season 1 Review: The show--a sporadically excellent adaption of a British teen drama--is superlative teensploitation, enabling youth to rejoice in the fantasy of their corruption, among other things. Read full review
50
Slant MagazinePaul SchrodtJan 18, 2011
Season 1 Review: Skins is, alas, many types of teen drama to many types of teens--a raunchy good time and an Afterschool Special on The Way Youth Live Now rolled into one. It's a viewing experience akin to going to a coke party only to be given a lecture. Where's the fun in that? Read full review
50
NewsdayVerne GayJan 17, 2011
Season 1 Review: Skins is a bit clunky and even dated at times. Nor does it feel all that grounded in the real world, where it badly wants to be. Read full review
50
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen GrayJan 17, 2011
Season 1 Review: Plopped down in Baltimore, the loose-living adolescents in MTV's seemingly line-for-line version don't actually feel American, no matter what their accents are, and the plots that always struck me as more teen movie than teen reality seem no more realistic than, say, "Gossip Girl." Read full review
50
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesChuck BarneyJan 17, 2011
Season 1 Review: What's more bothersome about Skins from a critical standpoint is the thin plotting, the aimless narrative, and the generally flat and artificial feel of the production. Read full review
50
VarietyBrian LowryJan 17, 2011
Season 1 Review: Assembled through an open call, the cast (many of whom are 17 or 18) is extraordinarily natural. Where Elsley stumbles--especially in the opener--is the exaggerated dialogue, often more borscht-belt comedian than actual kid. Read full review
50
New York PostLinda StasiJan 17, 2011
Season 1 Review: The scripts are nearly line-for-line copies of the Brit version. But the scenes are over the top, the kids are too good-looking and seem to have spent too much time at acting camp. Read full review
40
HitfixAlan SepinwallJan 17, 2011
Season 1 Review: Surely, there are talented American writers not long out of their teens who could have helped craft a new group of characters and stories that reflected their own experiences - and with enough sex and drugs and mayhem to please MTV's need for extra attention. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushJan 17, 2011
Season 1 Review: What in the original incarnation was shockingly cheeky, in its graphic and profane depiction of teens indulging in sex-and-drug debauchery, has been neutered and tamed in a remake that is unconvincing, amateurishly produced and very poorly acted. Read full review
40
Washington PostHank StueverJan 17, 2011
Season 1 Review: Skins is so determined to relate to hardened kids--without sermon, theme or context--that it accidentally discovers a new frontier in phoniness and filth. Even if I could warp time and watch it as my teenaged self, I'm pretty sure I would have been bored by it back then, too--even with all the sex. Read full review
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