Words. For Your Consideration...
""Skins" isn't "unscripted drama," it's drama drama. It demands something of its viewers that reality television simply cannot: the suspension of disbelief. It enters a pact with its audiences. It asks them not to merely gawk at the action but to trust the storytelling process enough to let the characters develop. It demands that we buy in not because we're watching average Joes (or C-list celebrity Joes) with cameras pointed at them but because, in the right hands, its stories and characters can convey certain "truths" about life more effectively through an imagined world than a "real" one.
Because many people are desperate to believe that real-life teenagers aren't nearly as messed up as the kids on "Skins," there's an inclination to write the whole thing off as smut, to call it kiddie porn and then call it a day. But in trying to figure out what to do about "Skins" — demand its removal from the airwaves, watch it and shrug, hope your kids have better things to do — we would do well to consider a question even more complicated than "what is pornography?" Namely: What is a true story? And when, if ever, will we really be ready for the message?"
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