Tea, the high school lesbian, main focus of MTV ‘Skins: Episode 2’
”You want to know what we do, right? ‘What goes where? Who licks what?’ So tedious. I screw girls — so what? And only the hottest, by the way.”
The relationship-avoiding Tea of ”Skins” (played by Sofia Black-D’Elia) after a late-night lesbian sex encounter with her high school classmate. (MTV)
The bawdy British import reportedly lost half of it’s viewers from the debut (3.3 down to 1.2 million). However, it actually attracted more viewers than its lead-in (a repeat of ”Jersey Shore”).
The drugs-and-sex teen fantasy reportedly also lost significant advertiser support in its second week — Taco Bell, Subway and others. Objections to the show’s content were raised by the Parents Television Council. That conservative media watch group regularly complains about positive portrayals of gay people’s lives, too. A few voices are calling the show “child pornography,” a rather over-the-top charge when taken in context.
Real or not, the controversy has drawn a lot of press. And the website for MTV has taken a number of steps to ward off underage viewers. In addition to the TV-MA rating, the site has blocked “embedding” of the show’s video content, and it now requires visitors to enter their birthdate before they can watch the show.
Buzz about this Americanized version has been mixed. Some marvel at the quality of the production, others complain that the edge has been scrubbed from the popular original. The raunchy British version seems like a celebration of illicit drug use, bad behavior and every four-letter word you can imagine; but all that actually serves as a shell for some remarkably intense drama.
The inclusion of Tea’s storyline is the first departure from the original which featured an out gay male character, Maxxie.
”I think it’s a situation where you have these two people who are very bored, with no one in their lives that really gets them, and on that level, it’s like a perfect attraction. But on another level, it’s a disaster because Tea’s a lesbian. It’s not a situation where it’s like she’s a lesbian and then she finds a guy and is like, ‘I’m not a lesbian anymore.”’
James Newman, who plays Tony on “Skins,”explaining a brief moment of hetero hotness that happened between his character and lesbian Tea. (MTV)
Is ”Skins” it too racy for it’s teenage actors and audience? Let us know below.
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