 by Heather HoganColumns
Video
Currently Recapping
Popular People
|
"Skins" is coming to America, by way of MTVIt's official: Naomily is coming to America! Well, not Naomily exactly, but MTV did announce this morning that after two years of negotiations, they've landed the rights to remake Skins for an American audience.
Admittedly, Americans haven't always done a great job with foreign television imports (See: Coupling, Kath and Kim, Football Wives, and on and on). But before you start panicking about Skins' leap from Bristol to Baltimore, consider this good news: Bryan Elsley, co-creator of Skins, is going to write and produce the new Americanized version. Plus, MTV says it's committed to drafting teenagers to help write the show (just like in the UK). MTV's senior vice president of series development, Liz Gateley, said in a statement:
You hear that? MTV is going to preserve the authenticity of the British version. That should be interesting. I've never been in a discussion about Skins in which someone didn't say, "Dude, they'd never show this on American TV" in reference to, say, the alcohol or the drugs or the sex or the swearing. Or, you know, the girls falling in love and making out down by the lake. There's no word yet about whether or not MTV is going to a character-by-character replication of Skins, and if they do, which series they'll start with. My guess is that they'll start with third series reboot. Not only did it win the 2009 Audience Award BAFTA, it cornered the market on teen viewers, bringing in 61 percent of 16-34 year olds. (That's an orgasmic statistic for advertisers.)
It's OK to be worried; no one wants to see their favorite couple misrepresented by prudish Americans. But Spashley is no more. American TV needs a new lesbian teen super couple. Besides, do you have any idea how hard it is to track down and watch an entire episode of Skins on YouTube? Someone's always yanking down the good parts! What do you think of MTV's decision to remake Skins? Submitted by on August 24, 2009 - 3:00pm. |
Recent blog posts
New forum topicsActive TopicsNew Comments
|
Welcome to AfterEllen.com!
- Login
- Join Now!
News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual women in Entertainment and the Media
Ok, I'm not too thrilled to
Ok, I'm not too thrilled to hear about Skins getting "Americanized". I'd much rather MTV just play the actual series than remake it.
This made me laugh though
It's so true!
Agreed
Even though I LOVE Skins... I can totaly see MTV messing this up hardcore.
I guess we'll have to see what happend
indeed o.o
I wrote a blog about
I wrote a blog about this! I don't want it to be done for US again either! They will ruin it.
It's here > http://allthingslesbeau.blogspot.com/2009/09/skins-us-no-thanks.html
Umm this worries me a bit.
Umm this worries me a bit. I'm not sure an American version would even come close to being as awesome as the British one. I also have a pact with myself to never watch MTV unless its early in the morning/late at night and they're playing music videos. I'll most likely watch it any way. I hope we can have an American Naomily and they don't completely screw it up. I agree with you though, it is reeeaally hard to find the episodes online.
--------
"Great. Not only do I feel creepy but now I look like I'm 1,000 and that I've been smoking meth all my life." -Sara Quin
Btw the first picture made
Btw the first picture made me remember how gorgeous Lily Loveless is! Butterflies in my tummy...
--------
"Great. Not only do I feel creepy but now I look like I'm 1,000 and that I've been smoking meth all my life." -Sara Quin
it won't be the same
Oh, Dear
Yeah, um, I'm pretty sure it's going to suck since MTV has the rights. I'll stick to the UK version thanks. And there are other ways to watch Skins on the net besides YouTube. Try SurftheChannel.com
ETA: The fact that they are setting it in Baltimore also worries me. Balitimore has a pretty big minority population but I doubt that will be reflected on the show. I remember a few years ago when MTV made a show about Hawaii with an all white cast. I was like, WTF? So, yeah, FAIL.
Excited!
Excited!
-I speak in random thoughts
This is such a bad idea....
This is such a bad idea.... the beauty of skins is its Britishness + the fact that it isn't really censored... I still don't understand why normal AmericanTV doesnt even allow swearing...
Kathryn Prescott for AfterEllen's Hot 100!!
Oscar Wilde: "I can resist everything but temptation"
yeah
ughh MTV is gonna ruin it!
i thought they were just going to edit skins, kind of like how they show sex and the city reruns -- cut out the sex and the swearing.
and no one is ever going to be as good as naomily. i'd rather just buy the british version on DVD (if and when it's available).
and in our honesty, together we will rise. out of our nightminds and into the light at the end of the fight...
A wee bit skeptical...
Sell outs.
ugh
sounds like a disaster no one has new ideas anymore in the US it seems they are remaking everything now
"Hands upon my back again.
Survival is my only friend.
Terrified of what may come.
Remember I will always love you,
Even as I claw your fucking throat away.
But it will end no other way"
Bad idea
I'm sorry, but nobody can make 'skins' better than the british version.
I want my Naomily only with british accent, played by Lily and Kat.
lily loveless
lol that's so funny kaie =D
ooh where do you live?
This is such a joke
I'd like an example of an Americanised import that was better than the British original, cos I can think of none.
The other thing that bugs me enormously about all of this is exemplified by what MTV have stated:
What exactly about Skins in its current format does NOT speak to "American youth"? Do American teenagers not get drunk, fall in and out love, crush on people they can't have, act bitchy, get depressed, deal with peer pressure etc?
Funny how no one ever thinks over here in the UK that we need to remake the OC or Gossip Girl or Dawson's Creek or My So-Called Life or Friends or anything like that so that British audiences will get it (and we always have to sit through an obligatory Thanksgiving episode, a holiday we don't even have, yet somehow WE CAN FIGURE IT OUT.)
If you really love the show that much MTV, why not just air it uncensored at a reposnible hour to let a bigger audience see what you have seen. Instead of bastardising it.
I second that.
Thirded!
You took the words right out of my mouth!
If the American tv execs love the show so much, JUST SHOW THE F*CKING ORIGINAL!!!
American Hearing
American hearing is faulty and cannot process a UK accent. Hence subtitles on American releases of UK films.
Or perhaps it's a combination of American ignorance. "The kids won't understand what a lorry is or getting ON the lift instead of getting A lift."
Regardless, it won't be as adult as the original show. Hell, even on BBC America shows are censored for the delicate American market.
I was just watching an Australian TV show wherein they mention Dr. Phil and Oprah like they were as common there as they are here. How come we know nothing of UK or Australian programming here?
We suck.
Pleeease tell me you're
Pleeease tell me you're joking about there being subtitles on US releases of UK films? Because that's just ridiculous! If we can work out the many variations of the American accent, i'm sure Americans can do the same for a British accent. It's not THAT difficult, surely?
I fully agree there are references an American audience wouldn't get, but if i ever don't get something in a US film or TV show, i look it up! It's not like we don't have this thing called the internet now, which holds an answer to basically any question!
I simply don't see how creating a US version of Skins will work. It won't be able to use the same characters or storylines because we already associate those with the existing cast, and to Americanise them would just be ridiculous, and so unoriginal.
Effectively it's just a new show that's going to be based on Skins. It won't be able to be anything like Skins because American TV won't allow it. Therefore, why bother? By all means make some new show, but don't call it Skins and don't compare it to Skins. It'll be nothing like Skins!
I am SO not joking
Skins as shown on BBC America was subtitled in places. I am not joking.
Look, it's just a guess as to why stupid American TV execs won't show UK shows over here. The rest of the world gets our crap as is, and I want to experience other countries programming. But we get fuck all from Canada, UK, Australia, let alone any other country.
It sucks.
Wow. I never knew it had
Wow. I never knew it had subtitles. You've certainly opened my eyes to that.
I don't blame you for wanting programming from other countries, so you should! Not to say the US hasn't given us some TV gold, but on the flip side it seems like half the time the execs don't really seem to know what they're doing or what their audiences want.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see on this one.
Oh and i hope you didn't feel like i was getting at you before, i certainly wasn't, just at the situation. :)
Fourthed, you said it well.
Fourthed, you said it well. Almost every American remake is terrible and I think even turns people off the original. This can't be a good idea and they should just learn to show the original.
(Can I offer Queer as Folk as an exception though? I haven't seen the original but the US version was enjoyable. Also I think the British did kind of remake/Briticize Friends with Coupling, and that worked well.)
Hear hear!
http://www.channel4.com/pro
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/4od
get free, complete episodes of skins right here, and a bunch of other british and a handful of american stuff too. I'm from Scotland, so it MIGHT not work, but there's no reason for it to not. Scroll down to the bottom and click on e4 in the categories and then it'll be on the list. The rest is pretty simple
Have fun with skinsy stuffs
on demand
hhhmm...
I'm looking forward to seeing how this is going to turn out
I used to watch skins on sidereel.com after I found it on youtube and it sucked because it leaves out all the good parts, but now I watch it on bbc america
Ugh
It's not just that, to date, no American version of a British show has done well, it's that MTV, in particular, has NEVER done a serial drama well.
Ugh, this is going to be painful.
---
Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong. - Theodore Roosevelt
What about...
Whose Line is it Anyway? was a British import show, and that was great.
And The Office? That was from across the pond too. How much more successful can you get?
Maybe this isn't gonna be just another bad MTV show. This new Skins could be the kind of revolution that MTV, and its audience, needs.
Ok two shows
Two shows out of a whole of failed attempts at others. Not a very good turnover rate. And both those shows are comedies. Skins is a drama that features drug use, sex and swearing. None of which is allowed to be shown on MTV. Btw, MTV has no proven record of success with a scripted/serialized show. They haven't done one in years. And they have a very poor history of gay representation. Gays are portrayed as stereotypes. If they are even featured at all. I highly doubt the American version is going to feature a gay relationship. Not if MTV is making it.
Do not give up hope so quickly!
I doubt that Bryan Elsley will let his project go to waste on MTV. The channel certainly has its faults and has not given its best regards to the gay community, but again, Skins could be the revolution on MTV that changes that. And I think it's the perfect channel for the content of Skins, regardless of its history as a bad place for serialized shows.
"Gays are portrayed as stereotypes"
-But they're not treated as stereotypes on Skins. And I believe that they won't be stereotypes in this version. I'd like to think that Skins is a catalyst for MTV to bring authenticity, and real characters for the channel, or else they wouldn't be so ambitious as to try to bring it to the states with Elsley at the helm and his process of writing with teenagers repeated.
let's see it before judge
I just re-read this and
I just re-read this and Stunt, do you not remember what AE used to call Spashley? Lesbian hugging or whatever? and why do you make it seem like they'll include a gay teen in this waterdowned version of Skins?
AND if you are American with internet access and honestly cannot find a way to watch full Skins episodes online, that's just...well, pathetic.
Anyone remember MTVs Undressed? they had a couple of gay/bi characters, I think like 3 or 4 in the whole time it was on. ANyway that was based on 20+ yr olds in Universities which looks like Sesame Street compared to Skins(UK). I cringe at what they'll do with a teen series.
Im with u there
"AND if you are American with internet access and honestly cannot find a way to watch full Skins episodes online, that's just...well, pathetic."
i totally agree..im from Argentina...
and i have seen everyone of the Skins episodes.. series 1, 2 & 3
the same night it aired..so thats an excuse
i dont see why they need to remake a perfectly good show
here in argentina we dont remakes american or british shows
why do that?
it it aint broken..DONT FIX IT!
Lets be honest..an americanized version of Skins is gonna be without sex, drugs, parties, alcohol..basically..without FUN
i'd watch dawsons creek for that..SKINS needs to be left untouched
the only way i can accept something like this its if MTV uses the premise of the show and goes from there
creating new characters instead of messing with the ones we know & love
i dont want to see a Emily that goes straight after sleeping with JJ
or a cook that quits drinking and goes to AA
thats NOT what SKINS its all about
i reckon
Come on
Maybe.
I don't really know how to feel about this. I'll surely be watching series 4 of Skins when it starts up near January because I love love love Naomily, but I guess I'll give the American version a chance.
___//♫♪ let your girlfriend do what your boyfriend can't
interesting..
i hope it doesn't turn out like degrassi or something.. hee
i'm pretty happy with mtv though, they're bringing the original british SKINS to latin america.. stoked!! i can't wait
NO!
SACRILEGE!... that's all I have to say on the matter
well
i can acutally see mtv making this into a very bad sexualised version of the hills..... its very hard to recreate something that is the epitamy of bristish culture.
i think they could also come up with a completey different version of skins and if u didnt no it was called skins u wouldnt have guessed.
but im happy to give it a try.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Ths is gonna suck, mark my words.
-That lesbian stalker just went shiznat over her prey.-
youtube? pah! there are
youtube? pah!
there are much better ways to get your tv fix than youtube. seriously ladies, let me welcome you to the 21st century :P
------------------------------------------------------
Films, tv, games, travel, sport, books - everything you want to chat about on The Trial Run. Make new friends or meet old ones
Benefit of the doubt
I know this won't be as good as the British one because MTV glosses everything and makes things un-real. Generally things from the UK are hard to import because its a different audience. However, if you import things from the US to the UK they tend to go for it because we idolise or stero type the lives, even though we aren't 100 % sure.
Will be interesting to see if they will incorporate Naomily, because Spashley's final season was dreadful and turned a good series into something which was unbearable to watch.
can't wait
Don't be negative already, everyone!
Come on, this could be great! I know that it's such a natural reaction to turn our noses up at something like this for fears it will be awful, but I believe that the series has great potential. I think that with the co-creator of Skins on board and trying to make this series great for America, it'll remain as authentic and raw as it possibly can. With all the dumb and demeaning shows on MTV, this could be a beacon of light for its audience.
And if they bring the Naomi and Emily relationship (or a Naomi-and-Emily-like relationship) to America the way they had it in the UK, then we'll have a real, authentic, and visible teenage lesbian couple to watch on TV that many American teenagers have never seen before.
I just don't think we should be so hesitant to believe in this project.
What's the point?
I really don't see the point in remaking a series like Skins, what about the original series is it that MTV thinks the American public will have trouble understanding? Isn't the teenage experience kinda universal? You just know the remake is going to end up polished up, watered down and generic.
TBH the whole thing makes me a bit angry.