Skins is getting better, sort of!

So, I have now watched three more episodes of the new season of Skins and it is slightly better now, I think.  Sort of?  Pretty much.  Anyways, here is a brief rundown of what happened in the last three episodes:

In the fourth episode, Effy is sad because her parents are always fighting and having affairs with David Baddiel, and Pandora is sad because Thomas, her boyfriend from the Congo, got deported for partying too hard :(.  The slutty twin is really into EXTREME PDA and this annoys Effy but who cares because Effy is such a slut.  Everyone is feeling very mopey so Pandora has a party with the girls.  Pandora's mom, who is an adult, is a an unrealistic caricature of a strict parent.  She makes them have a boring pyjama party but it turns into a CUHRAAAZY party because drugs.  Cook crashes the party and has sex with basically all the girls, even Pandora.  This makes Effy mad, and she is like "Pandora, you broke our friendship contract."  Then Thomas comes back and is like "Hey girlfriend!  I just got back from Africa after getting deported for partying too hard!" and Pandora is all "Whoops.  Shouldn't have had sex with Cook.  Why did I do that?  He is such a jerk.  Why hasn't anyone else noticed that?"

In the fifth episode, Effy starts hanging out with Freddie because (shocker!) Cook is such a jerk.  Freddie is like, "This is great because I actually love you and I am not a jerk.  I promise I will never fuck your best friend!"  But Effy is feeling very emo now so she stops talking again.  She goes swimming and is sitting on some sort of wooden island (not a boat) in the middle of the river when she gets a call from Freddie (swimming + cell phone = still works).  She doesn't answer so Freddie swims over there and they start making out in the water.  It is a very bitchy moment.

Meanwhile, Freddie's sister is on a reality TV show; it's sort of like American Idol but for British sluts.  She is like, "I want to win for my dead mother!" and Freddie is like "Ugh, so annoyed."  Freddie's dad is there, too.  Freddie's dad, an adult, is an unrealistic caricature of a mean parent.  He even punches Freddie, just because Freddie observed that his sister is using their mother's death as a sob story so she can become a famous whore!   Freddie is a nice guy, so he eventually decides that he wants his sister to win, and so he votes for her.  But she loses because Cook got everyone to vote against her!  He was mad at her because they had sex one time (of course!) and also something else happened!  Freddie is like, "Why are you such a jerk" and storms off to see Effy, but she has already forgotten about their bitchy moment in the water and is making out with Cook because of course that's what happened.

The last episode is all about Emily and Naomi, the lesbian and the sort-of lesbian.  Naomi is very smart and political; you can tell because she has a poster of Nelson Mandela in her room.  She lives in a commune.  Her mother, an adult, is an unrealistic caricature of a free-loving hippie mom.  At college, all the teachers (adults) are terribly misguided and ridiculous, except for this one Irish guy who wants Naomi to run for class president.  She doesn't want to, but agrees to once Cook threatens to make "wiggly-waggly" with her if she doesn't win?  So she runs for president and also hangs out with Emily, they have fun, but when they are at school Naomi pretends like she doesn't know Emily.  The nerve!  Cook is a jerk but everyone loves him for some reason, so he is totally going to win the election. Naomi is feeling sad so she talks to the nice Irish guy but he starts hitting on her!  What a creep!  Now she is all "Boo hoo, I'm going to cry in the shower now" but then she remembers how nice Emily is, so they go bike riding in the English countryside and have a great time.  It's very cute and they are totally together now.

But then Naomi does something mean and poor Emily is all alone again.  Back at school, Naomi overhears the teachers counting the votes.  Cook definitely won but the evil teachers tell everyone Naomi is the winner, and she calls them out on it even though Cook is such a jerk.  Cook wins and there is total anarchy.  A car is burned in the parking lot as Naomi walks calmly past.  She has a heart-to-heart with her mom, who is actually pretty nice.  Then she realizes she likes Emily even though Emily is a girl, so they make up and it is very cute.

Well that wasn't brief at all!  Anyways, here are some opinions I have:

• I think things may be improving slightly, which is good.  The fourth episode was pretty meh, mostly because the idea that "partying + DRUGS = good times" is getting very wearing and also Cook is a jerk.  The fifth one was better but the ending was oh so dumb, also because Cook is a jerk.  And I actually really liked the last one!  If I were a professional television critic writing in a reputable publication, I would say "it had a compelling storyline and a strong emotional core," which is unusual for this season.  Plus, I like this Emily character!  She is definitely the most likable of the bunch (Thomas parties too hard).  Also, the whole lesbian thing was handled very nicely; it was all quite smart and tasteful (also unusual for this season).
• The guest stars are still great!  Bob Fossil from the Mighty Boosh was in the Freddie episode!  And that lady from Peep Show was in the last one!  Yay!
• All of the adults are still unrealistic caricatures.  This is expected, of course.  Never change, Skins, never change.

Well, that is the end of my novel-length dissection of a trashy teen dramedy.  Whoops, that's my blog.

(Also, I'd like to apologize for the boring photos here; I'm having some technical issues so I had to get them all from the Skins site [they actually do quite an amusing job of pictorially recapping the episodes; here's one description: "Freddie finishes what he started and supports his sister in the final. He even wears a suit jacket. Bless. His dad is proud as punch, minus the punch (because he's very sorry about that)."  Ooh, he's wearing a suit jacket!  BLESS. HIS. LITTLE. SUIT JACKET-WEARING. HEART!] Otherwise I would have some great screengrabs of the Nelson Mandela poster and the burning car.  Oh well.)