Skins

About the series

Contains story spoilers.

Skins begins with a group of Bristol teenagers whose friendships give them company without necessarily giving them good advice. Tony Stonem is confident enough to arrange other people’s lives, especially that of his less assured friend Sid Jenkins. His plan to pair Sid with Cassie Ainsworth sends Sid to a cannabis dealer who pushes him into taking more than he intended and demands repayment. At a wealthy schoolgirl’s party, Cassie collapses after taking pills and the group takes her to hospital in a stolen car. Later, the car rolls into the harbour with the drugs inside, leaving Sid with a debt and no stock to sell. The night’s apparent freedom has produced obligations that follow them back into college and their homes.

Cassie’s perspective changes the meaning of the same social world. Recovering from an eating disorder, she manipulates a weight check to leave treatment while her parents remain absorbed in their own interests. She tells Sid how little she believes other people care about whether she eats; his reply that he does care briefly offers a connection she wants to trust. Messages urging her to eat appear around her, and she assumes Sid is sending them, but he denies it and the episode reveals that the phone messages are not real. Her conversation with Sid also brings the dealer’s unpaid debt back into view. At the end, taxi driver Alan accompanies her to a restaurant and encourages her as she eats, providing support outside the group’s romantic confusion.

Jal Fazer has an ambition that demands sustained practice rather than another night out: she is preparing for the Young Musician of the Year final. Her college wants to present her success as overcoming disadvantage, a story she rejects because it misrepresents her background. At home, her brothers’ loud music interrupts her clarinet practice while their father Ronny initially shows little interest in her complaint. The other teenagers’ problems intrude when Jal and Sid are lured into an alley by an associate of the dealer. Sid is robbed and Jal’s clarinet is smashed; her brothers are beaten trying to intervene. Ronny quietly buys a replacement instrument, allowing her to perform, then has the dealer kidnapped. Family support arrives alongside a retaliatory action Jal is not directing.

Sid’s difficulty making his own choices becomes more painful when he is grounded for a failed history paper. He cancels a date with Cassie but sneaks out to Tony’s choir performance because Michelle will be there. Tony deliberately provokes Michelle’s jealousy with Abigail, then tells Sid he has done it to create an opening for him. Michelle is hurt, Sid is humiliated, and Cassie feels discarded when she discovers whom he chose to see instead. Tony later draws Michelle back toward himself while forcing Sid to watch. Cassie is taken to hospital after an overdose, and Jal refuses to let Sid stay when he arrives. Returning home, he learns that his mother has left. He ignores Tony’s call and finally finishes the paper overnight.

A class trip to Russia puts a different friendship under pressure. Maxxie Oliver is openly gay, and Anwar Kharral insists that his religious beliefs prevent him from accepting that part of his friend’s life. Their dispute continues even as Anwar pursues Anka, a girl he and Sid believe needs rescuing from an older man. They help her leave the house, only to learn that the man is her husband. When he threatens Anwar with a shotgun, Maxxie intervenes and visiting police arrest the husband. The class is ordered to leave, but Anwar still cannot offer the acceptance Maxxie wants. A later reveal shows that the apparent rescue crisis was part of a local scheme to swindle tourists, leaving the boys’ assumptions about their adventure as unreliable as their assumptions about each other.

Tony’s belief that he can control people is shaken when his younger sister Effy becomes the target of revenge. After she is arrested during a night out, someone pretending to be her brother gets her released before Tony reaches the station. He sees her leaving in a van and is attacked when he follows. Josh, whom Tony has previously humiliated, later tells him where to find her and drugs her before his arrival. Tony finds Effy unconscious and is subjected to threats designed to make him helpless. Sid, despite arguing with Tony earlier, comes to help and takes Effy to hospital. When their parents assume Tony supplied the drugs, Sid defends him. Tony thanks the friend he has manipulated and says he wants to stop being so self-centred.

The first season brings those unresolved relationships together at Anwar’s birthday. Maxxie will attend only if Anwar tells his parents that he is gay; when the boys finally tell Anwar’s father, he refuses to discriminate and invites Maxxie inside. Sid’s attempt to visit Cassie at her clinic goes badly, while she writes him a letter saying she is leaving for Elgin. Tony and Effy help Sid get out of the clinic, and Tony later passes Sid’s love letter to Cassie outside the party. Trying to call Michelle and declare his love, Tony steps into the road and is hit by a bus in front of Effy. Sid leaves to find Cassie and meets her at a familiar spot in the city, while Tony’s attempt at reconciliation has become another crisis.