Finnegan Loyal Fan



Joined: Jan 2010 Posts: 1,931

"2nd gen" as an "alternate reality" in which Tony never recovered Skins "second generation" (s3 & s4), which is not my cup of tea. Whereas Skins "first generation" (s1 & s2) is a morally edifying redemption story, s3 & s4 are just the opposite. So although I will respond to replies, the only aspect of Skins "second gen" that I'm interested in addressing is: How does Skins "second gen" relate to Skins "first gen"?



Questions:



That question breaks down into several subordinate questions:



(1) What light does Skins "2nd gen" shed on Skins "first gen"? In particular, on what seems to me the key critical/interpretive question of Skins "first gen:" Should Tony's being hit by a bus be taken literally or (as I've argued in various "first gen" threads on this board) as a metaphor for the emotional trauma of Tony's feeling love for the first time, and, in consequence, being unable to stand what he is, feeling a desperate need to be reborn as a new and more loving person?



(2) What light does the "second gen" understanding of the key event of Skins "first gen" -- Tony's being hit by a bus -- shed on the nature of the "second gen," and on how it differs so completely from the "first gen"?



(3) Why is Effie, the socially super-competent girl who "sorts out the soap opera" of "first gen" in s2e8, single-handedly resolving the romantic story-lines, unable to resolve her own romance problems, or even keep her sanity, in "second gen"? Why this shocking and unexplained deterioration of a rock-solid character, the adroit heroine of the "first gen"?



(4) Why has the Stonem family fallen apart? Together and solid at the end of s2, Tony's and Effie's parents are on the rocks at the start of s3. Effie's dad throws a traffic rage tantrum at the start of s3e1 -- he's totally stressed out, which he was not at the end of s2. In the same episode, Effie says she thinks her mom is having an affair -- which soon is proved true, whereas she was last seen snuggling affectionately with her husband in s2. They soon separate, Effie's dad moves out, and Effie's mom is absent from the family home for prolonged periods, leaving Effie without adult supervision or any family emotional support. This is a shockingly rapid and unexplained degradation of a family that seemed healthy at the end of s2. Why has it happened?



(4) Where the **** is Tony in "second gen"? Where is the guy who, Orpheus-like, descended into hell to save his sister, the person he loves best, in s1e8? The Tony of "first gen" would have come roaring back from Cardiff to save his sister from her descent into suicidal insanity on diverse occasions in s3 and s4. (And Nick Hoult is on record as saying he was available for "second gen" cameos.) Surely Tony would come back from university at least on holidays in any case. But we never see Tony, he never comes for Effie, even when she attempts suicide. That's totally out of character, and never explicitly explained. Unlike any other "first gen" character, he's the sibling of a 'second gen" character -- the emotionally extremely close and actively concerned sibling of the central "second gen" character. If the show isn't going to bring Tony back for Effie as she goes suicidally insane, it really needs to explain why. But it doesn't. Why, why, why?



Evidence



In s3e1, the opening "second gen" episode, Effie affirms, in response to Katie's question, that she has a really cool brother. Katie blithely remarks that all her friends once fancied him, but he "went mental," and the conversation moves on to other topics. But Effie's use of the present tense tells us that Tony is still alive.



The next and last mention of Tony is far more serious and detailed, in s4e7, "Effie." In



The most remarkable aspect of all this is that Effie and Dr. Foster call Tony's being hit by a bus "a bad thing." In s1 and s2 that event (even if taken literally) is the means of Tony's rebirth, something perhaps bad in itself but good beyond hope in its result. At the end of s2, Effie is clearly over the trauma of that event, rejoicing in and aiding her brother's recovery. But s4e7 depicts Effie's memory of Tony's being hit by a bus as still traumatizing Effie so intensely that it is the root cause of Effie's character degradation throughout s3 and s4. Dr. Foster spends three weeks to get her to talk about it after she attempts suicide. He clearly regards it as the core emotional problem rendering Effie suicidal. Effie's behavior with Cook later in s4e7 confirms that diagnosis is correct -- although Foster's methods and motives are both questionable (as his murder of Effie's boyfriend Freddie at the end of the episode underscores).



In sum, Tony's being hit by a bus at the end of s1 is no less the central event of Skins "second gen" than it was of Skins "first gen," the event determining the behavior and character development of the central character. And how that event is understood is as critical to our understanding of Skins "second gen" as it is to our understanding of Skins "first gen."



Inferences



However, all the evidence suggests that the outcome of Tony's being hit by a bus that is implied by Skins "second gen" differs radically from the outcome depicted in Skins "first gen." The implicit premise of Skins "second gen" seems to be not only that Tony's being hit by a bus was "real" rather than metaphorical, but that he never recovered from it. Skins "second gen" is a descent into hell with no exit, rather than a redemption story, because it is based on an alternative outcome of the central event of Skins "first gen." The "second gen" is an "alternate reality" in which Tony never recovered from being hit by the bus (and in which getting hit by the bus was not just a metaphor for feeling love for the first time).



That's why Tony is never seen in s3 or s4, why he never appears to rescue Effie -- he's either in an asylum or perhaps still in a coma, in no condition to rescue anyone from anything. That's why the Stonem family is falling apart at the start of s3, whereas they seemed is good shape at the end of s2. That's why Effie, in s3 and s4, can't save herself, even though she was able to save others in s2. That's why "second gen" is so radically different in moral tone form "first gen." Because Effie is still traumatized by Tony's bus accident -- and because she's alone, because Tony's not there for her as she was for him in "first gen."



That's also why the "second gen" understanding of Tony's "being hit by a bus" has no bearing on how we should interpret that event in the "first gen" drama. The "second gen" differs from the "first gen" chiefly being premised on a radically different view of that event and of its outcome. Moreover, that the outcome of the critical event implied by the "second gen" drama differs so markedly from the outcome depicted in the "first gen" drama is at least consistent with the hypothesis -- I would say it suggests -- that the nature of that event in the "first gen" drama also differs radically from the nature of the event implied by the "second gen" drama. The "second gen" implies that Tony never got well, and that the bus was real, not a metaphor for feeling love for the first time. That the first part of that "second gen" understanding of the event is wrong suggests that the second part of the "second gen" understanding of the event is also wrong.



In a nutshell, Skins' "second gen" gang goes to hell because they don't understand and don't share in Tony's recovery and rebirth. They don't get the message of s2, they don't see the redemption -- they don't see the love, they only see the bus. They don't see past the surface event to what it symbolizes, the don't see the emotional reality that the phsyical surface merely expresses. They don't see the love in the sex -- until it's too late. Effie only tells Freddy she loves him -- she only gets "hit by a bus" in the same emotionally metaphorical sense that Tony did -- after she had tried to kill herself for a second time, imitating Tony's bus accident; that's too late to stop Freddy from being murdered, or to keep Cook from either murdering or being murdered by Dr. Foster.



When I first watched s3e1, I bemoaned the absence of a symbolic opening shot comparable in profundity to the shot of Tony's duvet with which s1 opens, and with which s2 closes. There's only a shot of Freddy coasting downhill on his skateboard. I was wrong. Freddy coasting downhill on his skateboard is profoundly symbolic of Skins "second gen," and of how it differs from Tony's laborious rebirth in "first gen." As Virgil says: "Easy is the descent to hell ... but to return upward again ... that is a feat, hard work." The Orpheus myth, read by Effie to Tony at the start of Tony's dream episode (s2e6) provides the symbolic context for the image with which "second gen" opens.



There's no more "proof" of this than the evidence already cited above. But no other hypothesis is fully consistent with that evidence, with the dramatic difference between "first gen" and "second gen," which, s4e7 clearly indicates, centers on Tony's being hit by a bus. And as Conan Doyle had Sherlock Holmes say in A Study in Scarlet: “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”



The truth is that Skins is a covertly but intensely surrealistic drama, one in which dreams (s2e6) and metaphors (the Tony story-line in s2e1 through s2e7) are dramatized as ostensible realities, in which part of the drama (s2e1 through s2e7) arguably has multiple time-settings, and in which there are two "alternative realities" -- one the road to heaven, the other the road to hell. If Tony is reborn, the whole Skins world is reborn with him, as in s2; if he is not, then the whole Skins world goes to hell with him, as in s3 and s4.



It's a masterful piece of artistic ambiguity. The first two "generations" of Skins give us our choice, not merely of endings, but of whole moral climates and character trajectories flowing from different views of the nature and outcome a single critical event. What we see in Skins tells us more about ourselves than about Skins. If you fancy yourself a realist, you'll prefer "second gen." If you're an idealist, you'll prefer "first gen." Hell or heaven -- your choice. I've made mine, and I'll post no more about "second gen," save to respond to replies to this post. This is the only comment I intend to make about"second generation" (s3 & s4), which is not my cup of tea. Whereas"first generation" (s1 & s2) is a morally edifying redemption story, s3 & s4 are just the opposite. So although I will respond to replies, the only aspect of"second gen" that I'm interested in addressing is:That question breaks down into several subordinate questions:(1) What light doess "2nd gen" shed on"first gen"? In particular, on what seems to me the key critical/interpretive question of"first gen:" Should Tony's being hit by a bus be taken literally or (as I've argued in various "first gen" threads on this board) as a metaphor for the emotional trauma of Tony's feeling love for the first time, and, in consequence, being unable to stand what he is, feeling a desperate need to be reborn as a new and more loving person?(2) What light does the "second gen" understanding of the key event of"first gen" -- Tony's being hit by a bus -- shed on the nature of the "second gen," and on how it differs so completely from the "first gen"?(3) Why is Effie, the socially super-competent girl who "sorts out the soap opera" of "first gen" in s2e8, single-handedly resolving the romantic story-lines, unable to resolve her own romance problems, or even keep her sanity, in "second gen"? Why this shocking and unexplained deterioration of a rock-solid character, the adroit heroine of the "first gen"?(4) Why has the Stonem family fallen apart? Together and solid at the end of s2, Tony's and Effie's parents are on the rocks at the start of s3. Effie's dad throws a traffic rage tantrum at the start of s3e1 -- he's totally stressed out, which he was not at the end of s2. In the same episode, Effie says she thinks her mom is having an affair -- which soon is proved true, whereas she was last seen snuggling affectionately with her husband in s2. They soon separate, Effie's dad moves out, and Effie's mom is absent from the family home for prolonged periods, leaving Effie without adult supervision or any family emotional support. This is a shockingly rapid and unexplained degradation of a family that seemed healthy at the end of s2. Why has it happened?(4) Where the **** is Tony in "second gen"? Where is the guy who, Orpheus-like, descended into hell to save his sister, the person he loves best, in s1e8? The Tony of "first gen" would have come roaring back from Cardiff to save his sister from her descent into suicidal insanity on diverse occasions in s3 and s4. (And Nick Hoult is on record as saying he was available for "second gen" cameos.) Surely Tony would come back from university at least on holidays in any case. But we never see Tony, he never comes for Effie, even when she attempts suicide. That's totally out of character, and never explicitly explained. Unlike any other "first gen" character, he's the sibling of a 'second gen" character -- the emotionally extremely close and actively concerned sibling of the central "second gen" character. If the show isn't going to bring Tony back for Effie as she goes suicidally insane, it really needs to explain why. But it doesn't. Why, why, why?In s3e1, the opening "second gen" episode, Effie affirms, in response to Katie's question, that she has a really cool brother. Katie blithely remarks that all her friends once fancied him, but he "went mental," and the conversation moves on to other topics. But Effie's use of the present tense tells us that Tony is still alive.The next and last mention of Tony is far more serious and detailed, in s4e7, "Effie." In the opening scenes of s4e7 , Effie, committed to an asylum after having attempted suicide, is asked by her shrink, John Foster, about Tony's being hit by a bus. She doesn't want to talk about it, and when she does, Foster suggests she pretend it never happened. Effie half-internalizes this advice, telling Cook later in that episode that Tony's bus accident both happened and didn't happen. In denying this past event, Effie forgets who she is, remembering only after she tries to re-enact the event by standing in a road, trying to getting hit by the vehicles. Cook narrowly saves her from being hit by a van.The most remarkable aspect of all this is that Effie and Dr. Foster call Tony's being hit by a bus "a bad thing." In s1 and s2 that event (even if taken literally) is the means of Tony's rebirth, something perhaps bad in itself but good beyond hope in its result. At the end of s2, Effie is clearly over the trauma of that event, rejoicing in and aiding her brother's recovery. But s4e7 depicts Effie's memory of Tony's being hit by a bus as still traumatizing Effie so intensely that it is the root cause of Effie's character degradation throughout s3 and s4. Dr. Foster spends three weeks to get her to talk about it after she attempts suicide. He clearly regards it as the core emotional problem rendering Effie suicidal. Effie's behavior with Cook later in s4e7 confirms that diagnosis is correct -- although Foster's methods and motives are both questionable (as his murder of Effie's boyfriend Freddie at the end of the episode underscores).In sum, Tony's being hit by a bus at the end of s1 is no less the central event of"second gen" than it was of"first gen," the event determining the behavior and character development of the central character. And how that event is understood is as critical to our understanding of"second gen" as it is to our understanding of Skins "first gen."However, all the evidence suggests that the outcome of Tony's being hit by a bus that is implied by"second gen" differs radically from the outcome depicted in"first gen." The implicit premise of"second gen" seems to be not only that Tony's being hit by a bus was "real" rather than metaphorical, but that he never recovered from it."second gen" is a descent into hell with no exit, rather than a redemption story, because it is based on an alternative outcome of the central event of"first gen."(and in which getting hit by the bus was not just a metaphor for feeling love for the first time).That's why Tony is never seen in s3 or s4, why he never appears to rescue Effie -- he's either in an asylum or perhaps still in a coma, in no condition to rescue anyone from anything. That's why the Stonem family is falling apart at the start of s3, whereas they seemed is good shape at the end of s2. That's why Effie, in s3 and s4, can't save herself, even though she was able to save others in s2. That's why "second gen" is so radically different in moral tone form "first gen." Because Effie is still traumatized by Tony's bus accident -- and because she's alone, because Tony's not there for her as she was for him in "first gen."That's also why the "second gen" understanding of Tony's "being hit by a bus" has no bearing on how we should interpret that event in the "first gen" drama. The "second gen" differs from the "first gen" chiefly being premised on a radically different view of that event and of its outcome. Moreover, that theof the critical event implied by the "second gen" drama differs so markedly from the outcome depicted in the "first gen" drama is at least consistent with the hypothesis -- I would say it suggests -- that theof that event in the "first gen" drama also differs radically from the nature of the event implied by the "second gen" drama. The "second gen" implies that Tony never got well, and that the bus was real, not a metaphor for feeling love for the first time. That the first part of that "second gen" understanding of the event is wrong suggests that the second part of the "second gen" understanding of the event is also wrong.In a nutshell,. They don't get the message of s2, they don't see the redemption -- they don't see the love, they only see the bus. They don't see past the surface event to what it symbolizes, the don't see the emotional reality that the phsyical surface merely expresses.-- until it's too late. Effie only tells Freddy she loves him -- she only gets "hit by a bus" in the same emotionally metaphorical sense that Tony did -- after she had tried to kill herself for a second time, imitating Tony's bus accident; that's too late to stop Freddy from being murdered, or to keep Cook from either murdering or being murdered by Dr. Foster.When I first watched s3e1, I bemoaned the absence of a symbolic opening shot comparable in profundity to the shot of Tony's duvet with which s1 opens, and with which s2 closes. There's only a shot of Freddy coasting downhill on his skateboard. I was wrong. Freddy coasting downhill on his skateboardprofoundly symbolic of"second gen," and of how it differs from Tony's laborious rebirth in "first gen." As Virgil says: "Easy is the descent to hell ... but to return upward again ... that is a feat, hard work." The Orpheus myth, read by Effie to Tony at the start of Tony's dream episode (s2e6) provides the symbolic context for the image with which "second gen" opens.There's no more "proof" of this than the evidence already cited above. But no other hypothesis is fully consistent with that evidence, with the dramatic difference between "first gen" and "second gen," which, s4e7 clearly indicates, centers on Tony's being hit by a bus. And as Conan Doyle had Sherlock Holmes say in: “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”The truth is thatis a covertly but intensely surrealistic drama, one in which dreams (s2e6) and metaphors (the Tony story-line in s2e1 through s2e7) are dramatized as ostensible realities, in which part of the drama (s2e1 through s2e7) arguably has multiple time-settings, and in which there are two "alternative realities" -- one the road to heaven, the other the road to hell. If Tony is reborn, the wholeworld is reborn with him, as in s2; if he is not, then the wholeworld goes to hell with him, as in s3 and s4.It's a masterful piece of artistic ambiguity. The first two "generations" ofgive us our choice, not merely of endings, but of whole moral climates and character trajectories flowing from different views of the nature and outcome a single critical event. What we see intells us more about ourselves than about. If you fancy yourself a realist, you'll prefer "second gen." If you're an idealist, you'll prefer "first gen." Hell or heaven -- your choice. I've made mine, and I'll post no more about "second gen," save to respond to replies to this post. __________________ Rawley Revisited - If you love one person well enough to inspire emulation, you may save the whole world. Last edited by Finnegan; 12-26-2011 at 06:44 PM