Wednesday, August 29, 2007

My thoughts on last night’s episode of “Skins”

Eating disorders are being looked at more and more nowadays in TV programmes such as Hollyoaks, and in part 2 of 9 in the groundbreaking teen drama Skins yesterday, we follow Cassie, a Sixth former suffering from, amongst other problems such as low self esteem and self-harm, anorexia. We follow her day as she wakes up at one of the all-night parties that the show was so popular for, and gently kisses Sid Jenkins (the virgin of the Skins gang, and, in my opinion, one of the most handsome boys I’ve ever seen), before going home, where she sees her parents going at it (eww) in the kitchen. They pay her very little attention and when Cassie announces that she’s fit enough to leave rehab, their “Wow, that’s great!” reactions are entirely reminiscent of a teacher saying anything to get a hated student out of the way.

Anyone think she looks like Alison Lohman here?

Hannah Murray plays Cassie wonderfully. It could be so easy for a girl with mental illness, low self-esteem and an eating disorder to sink into the depths of farce, but she is completely realistic, despite portraying a character who’s obsessed with the words “wow” and “totally.” She is quite spacey and ditzy, but Cassie is also extremely intelligent (she can calculate mathematical sums quickly in her head), and above all, a kind person, and I was rooting for her throughout the episode. She’s just a breath of fresh air, lively, vibrant, in her own little world, and one of the few characters worth liking on this parade of smug teenagers with more STDs than Pete Doherty.

Cassie, like me, proceeds to get a bit of a crush on Sid, after he speaks to her during lunch, telling her that she should eat, and in a moment of brilliant girl power, she spills food on the twatty protagonist Tony (played by Nicholas Hoult, in a role more different from his breakout character in About a Boy than chalk is from cheese) because he is constantly saying that Sid smells and will never “pull”. Sid idolizes Tony and follows him about like a lost puppy, and also is infatuated with Tony’s slutty girlfriend Michelle. She doesn’t deserve him. And in being obsessed with her (and also coping with a mad drug dealer who wants to get him), he misses out on the jewel right in front of him: Cassie.

Throughout the show, Cassie receives texts saying “EAT!” from an unknown sender. She prays that it is Sid, and that it is him showing the interest in her, but in the bitterest of bittersweet moments, we discover that it was actually just her rehab driver. Or maybe, even, just a figment of her imagination. The episode yesterday was funny (the chavvy banter between the smug kids was fun to listen to), disturbing (watching two parents have sex in the kitchen where there baby son sits is not something I want to have to witness again), but
essentially, very poignant (witness Cassie desperately fingering a chocolate bar from a pile of many that she has stored, but can’t eat.) The show ends where her cab driver coaxes her into eating a burger, but the creators of the show don’t make it that easy for us; the show ends with the burger in her mouth. Swallowed or unswallowed, that is up to the viewers to decide, but all I know is that Cassie is one of the most wonderful creations in TV, and I hope she does get the happiness and good guy she deserves.





Here's a Regina Spektor music video set to clips of Cassie:


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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tony is not a twat. he's merely putting the pathetic Sid in his place. and Michelle isn't a slut either.

Cassie's annoying.

Anonymous said...

yeah i agree, it's Sid who's the twat.

that said, i love Cassie, and the music video is great!

Unknown said...

"she can calculate mathematical sums quickly in her head" [eyes], yeah cos that was such a hard sum.

She's obviously one to like, she may annoy some people but there isn't a mean bone in her. She is lovely, worthy of many kisses.

And Tony is great, Nick Hoult is a shit actor, but I just love how full of himself that he is. Many xxxxs to him too.

Unknown said...

The end of the series is mindblowingly good!

Anonymous said...

I love Cassie too!

Wait for the Maxxie episode, he's hot!

Anonymous said...

Hey Emma, do you still take requests?

Because I've got a few:

- Top 10 films about lesbians
- Top 10 cartoon characters
- Top 10 Keira Knightley performances

Emma said...

Has Keira given even 2 good performances?

radiocaf said...

Cassie is my favourite character and she will no longer be in the show after Series 2 :( Wikipedia said so :(.

And, this going on before I watched later episodes, Sid needs to wise up, she is right there in front of him and all he is interested in is Michelle (who i don't think is a slut, she just flaunts it a bit).

Anonymous said...

i love cassie she is so nice and the most stlish person in the world

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