'Skins Rise'
In 2007, E4 invested in television that would change teen dramas for the UK and every teenager at the time. 'Skins' came on to our television screens full of booze, drugs and sex and had teenagers across the country gripped each week. 'Skins' also gave a platform such actors like Dev Patel, Joe Dempsie and Nicholas Hoult to make a name for themselves across the pond.
'Skins' have come back for a final series that is being done in three parts - 'Skins Fire', 'Skins Pure' and 'Skins Rise'. They have brought back three popular characters - Effy, Cassie and Cook from the first four series - as everyone knows the last two series were crap.
For this Telly Text, I will be focusing on part one of 'Skins Rise', which is all about Cook (Jack O'Connell) and what he has been up to since he left us at the end of series 4 with that massive cliff-hanger on whether he killed John Foster or not (if you do not know who John Foster is, catch up on series 4). We join Cook as a drug dealer, who is forced to sleep in his car most nights - unless he goes to his sleeping partner Emma (Esther Smith).
Cook's drug dealing boss Louis (Liam Boyle) sees something in Cook that he likes and throughout part one of 'Skins Rise' he will not stop saying how “straight down the line” Cook is, which did get very annoying after a while. Louis trusts Cook so much that he asks him to drive around his slutty girlfriend Charlie all about the place. As you guess, the more time they spend with each other they would start gaining feelings for each other and then BANG! (Yes, they sleep with each other.)
Lucien Laviscount also stars in 'Skins Rise' as Jason, an awful wannabe 'gangsta', who is also sleeping with Charlie. Unlucky for Jason when Louis finds out about him and Charlie he is punished and Cook is forced to watch. We are left to find out if Cook gets found out and whether or not he will survive.
Unlike the previous two sections of this final series, 'Skins Rise' actually excites me because it truly feels like Cook’s story. The darkness and rough environment is where Cook belongs, not some highflying businessman. I am glad 'Skins' was given a final series and able to bring back some of our favourite characters so the awfulness of series five and six can be forgotten.
Catch part two of 'Skins Rise' on Monday at 10pm or catch up on 4oD.
'Arrested Development'
When I was in high school I always had issues getting up for school like quite a lot of teenagers. Now for some it would be playing far too long on the Xbox but for me, my weakest was late-night television. I would always remember staying until about 1am just so I could watch 'Arrested Development'. Now don't ask me what started this off, but after one episode I just found it extremely funny.
When I found out 'Arrested Development' had been cancelled I was well gutted the thought of not seeing the Bluth family on my screen was devastating. So when the good news the whole cast was coming back for series 4 on Netflix, I knew I had to watch it.
'Arrested Development' is all about the Bluth family - a wild, crazy family that were once top dog of the real estate world until the family business goes bust. The head of the house George Bluth Senior (Jeffrey Tambor) has been locked in prison so the well being of the family rests on Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) the sensible one of the family but can easily lose his patience with his insane family. Michael’s brothers Gob (Will Arnett) and Buster (Tony Hale) are hardly what you call supportive.
Gob is too busy being the World’s Worst Magician and Buster is still quite a mummy’s boy with an issue with one of his hands. Their socialite sister Lindsay (Portia De Rossi) is just as bad, if she is not spending money she is doing something crazy with her very hilarious husband Tobias Funke (David Cross) who you can't take seriously at all.
There is also George Michael Bluth (Michael Cera), Michael’s son who is your typical sheltered child and has quite a creepy thing for his cousin Maeby Funke (Alia Shawkat). Finally we get to Lucille Bluth, Michael’s mother who is a complete bitch to everyone around her but completely steals the show with her facial expressions and insults.
Netflix has now become the new home for 'Arrested Development' and could be the start of cancelled shows being revived by such websites. The thought of having a show cancelled without any conclusion or closure can be quite a frustrate experience to go through. With a rumoured movie and maybe a fifth series in the pipe line this relationship between 'Arrested Development' and Netflix will hopefully be a the flagship for other cancelled shows to be resuscitated.
Catch 'Arrested Development' on Netflix.
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