TV Review: Skins: Fire - Part 1
rating: 2
WARNING: This review will contain spoilers. Well that was a disappointment. My hopes for this episode were not high but sadly were still not exceeded. Following the Skins characters into adult life was never going to be a risk-free move but Im happy to say that, as of the first episode, its not as bad as the lowest points of Series 4 and 6. Its not even bad per se. Its more that its dull and sluggish. The episodes biggest problem is that its incredibly bland. The main story is about hedge funds and insider trading. And Effy only carries out a single illegal deal in the whole episode. Thats the height of the drama in the main story. Effy is told that a company is being taken over and then buys 300,000 shares in it. Its passable and mildly enjoyable to watch but theres no tangible drama to it. As well as that, its a story that just doesnt suit Skins. The broad shift in theme to the characters dealing with adult life runs contrary to the ethos of the programme. And Effy being a hedge fund trader is a prime example of that. A hybrid of Skins and Wall Street doesnt have much potential for drama. But then again, the function of Part 1 is to move all the pieces into place to kick off the heavier stuff next week so Ill hold my judgement on the dramatic proficiency (or lack thereof) of Skins: Fire until the story concludes next week.
While Effy's going all Gordon Gecko on us, theres a subplot of Naomi trying to become a stand-up comedian which doesnt really go anywhere. We see her working on some material and Effy takes two clients to her first gig where she completely bombs. And theres no significant mention of it beyond that. It may be a set-up for something in the next episode but it currently feels like it was just there to give Naomi something to do before the reveal that she has cancer. And on that subject, it feels like Naomi having cancer was really just in there as an explosion of drama before the credits. The trailer shows that its going be expanded on in Part 2 but the limited foreshadowing of it really doesnt help matters. A much better way of portraying it would be to drop larger but still subtle hints and have that be our Naomi subplot instead of the stand-up comedy story which was just cringe-inducing at times. Special mention has to go the ending, which is a serious case of mood whiplash as we transition straight from Naomi revealing she has cancer to Effy going to Jake's flat to have sex with him. It would have worked much better if the order of these scenes had been reversed since it wouldnt have shown Effy to be incredibly insensitive by seemingly abandon her cancer-stricken best friend to go and get laid, and would have been a much more powerful note to end on than two characters about to have sex. Story and plot issues aside, the pacings a bit too slow. This is largely because its a new story and environment three years after Series 4 and a lot of new things need to be established. Which worked in the first episode of each Generation because there were a lot of characters to fill it out. But here there's just Effy. It al hinges on her so the episode can't switch to something else to keep the pace up. The ponderousness of the whole thing is a bit of a disappointment but with any luck, that will be limited to this episode and Part 2 will move a lot faster since there wont be any more set-up needed. As for the secondary cast, its thankfully more hit than miss. The main three guest stars (Kayvan Novak, Lara Pulver, and Craig Roberts) all do a more than reasonable job and its going to be interesting to see how their characters develop in Part 2. But, disappointingly, Emily is absent until Part 2 and as for Naomi, shes distinctly hard to like in this episode since her characterisation has been completely upended. 
Rather than being intelligent and driven with a speciality for snappy comebacks and sarcastic one liners, shes a lazy and irritating stoner who constantly holds drugs parties in the flat she shares with Effy and disturbs her when shes trying to work. Admittedly, people change over time but since Series 4 she seems to have been rebuilt from the ground up apart from her sexuality. The only flashes of her original personality we see are when she quips I need some fanny time or Im going to burst into flames and one or two lines that mention shes still insecure about her relationship with Emily. This was definitely a disappointing start to the new series but the next episode sees the return of Emily and it looks like the drama will be stepped up a gear so hopefully it's going to be an improvement on this weeks instalment, which was verging on tedious and lacked the bite of the previous episodes of Skins. Disappointing, but not a flat-out disaster and it has potential to improve.