TV Review: Skins 6.3, 'Alex'

By Chris Swanson / February 8, 2012

rating: 4.5

So last week Grace shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the likes of Chris and Freddie on the Skins Death Roll. I€™d really hoped the producers would manage to go an entire generation without killing off anyone. I mean, most mainstream dramas manage to find a way to kill less people than this show does. But we must deal with the world as it is, and not as we want it to be. This episode sees the introduction of a new character, Alex (Sam Jackson). I€™m not sure why they waited until now to introduce him, what with there being only a few episodes left with this generation, but that€™s ok. We start with a close-up of a map showing Russia, which gives me a nice flashback to Tony and Maxxie€™s tender moment on the continent. From there we go to a clock and then to Alex counting down the seconds to when the clock rings. It does, and he gets out of bed. After the usual fan-service shots of him dressing, we follow him downstairs where we meet his grandmother, who is clearly a few ants short of a picnic. It seems that her son, Alex€™s father, is getting ready to move her into a nursing home, though I€™d be inclined to think that should have probably happened a lot sooner. Alex heads off to what appears to be his first day at Roundview College. As he goes through his day, he€™s carrying little index cards with things written on them like €œstreak, wank, punch someone, run away€. They€™re each numbered and he rolls 1d6 to see what he€™s going to do at any given moment. The number for €œpunch the next person you see€ comes up, and he coldcocks poor Alo (Will Merrick) as he walks through the door. Alex apologizes and blames the numbers. This gets the attention of Liv (Laya Lewis), a character who has often been ignored by the show. She starts getting friendly with Alex and soon the two are running around like old mates. She€™s quite happy when he kisses her and then takes her home to meet his grandmother. Liv then invites him to join the main cast at a nearby bar where they€™re all still on edge over Grace dying, especially Mini (Freya Mavor). After the bar scene, Alex takes Liv gambling, and we learn that a long life is possibly not one of his priorities, as he cheats another card player not once, but twice. Then he sends Liv home and finds a man to hook up with. Yes, he€™s gay, just like Maxxie, only much more interesting in one episode than Maxxie was in two series and definitely not riddled with the same level of gayngst. Back at the college he hangs out with the crew, Mini shooting daggers through her eyes at him the entire time. Eventually an announcement is made about a student-run memorial for Grace, which seems to put Mini into full bitch-mode. Liv runs away from this to a nearby bathroom for a good cry, and Alex follows her. He outs himself to her, she rejects him, Mini mocks him and he runs away home, little suspecting that something unpleasant awaits€ Now it might just be because I found Alex insanely hot, but I have to say that I really, really liked this episode. Alex as a character is by far one of the more interesting for any of the generations, and I like his random attitude toward life. I€™m also pleased to see that, as I mentioned, he€™s not riddled with gayngst like Maxxie or, to a lesser extent, Naoimi and Emily. More to the point, his episode re-injected some life into a series that had become a bit staid. It also serves as something of a palette cleanser, so that perhaps we can all now move on away from Grace€™s death and maybe see some of the social dynamics get a bit of a change up (possibly especially in the case of Nick, who seemed to be eyeing Alex appreciatively on more than one occasion). Next week: Frankie!