After becoming little more than background noise for over half of this current series, something drastic had to be done to put you back in the spotlight. Something like, say, a severe mental illness, perhaps. Like Cassie had in the first gen, but not played for laughs. But bi-polar disorder sounded a bit too clinical and non-sexy, so it was upgraded to the far more exciting Psychotic Depression! There’s a visit from Naomi who, in a typically Naomi move, proceeds to talk all about her own problems. But she does seem to finally realise that her relationship with Emily may not be a big bed of roses. So, that’s progress, at least. After being sent home to start a steady diet of medication, counselling and regular sleep, Effy starts withdrawing from the gang, preferring John Foster’s hypnotic charm. And it’s only by chance that Cook works out how Effy has managed to stay stable. Foster’s been slowly erasing her memory piece by piece, again something frowned upon in his line of work. When Skins is being a bright and breezy knockabout show about teenage life, it shines. Last week’s focus on JJ’s new love showed a joyous side to being a teen in Bristol that had been sorely lacking. For one episode only, the otherworldly dream logic of the first series had returned. But when Skins attempts to tackle something with a bit more weight to it, it falls flat on its face. For all of the, no doubt, good intentions of exploring mental health issues through Effy’s condition, there’s an astonishing lack of research or knowledge on display here. With one episode to go, it’s nearly impossible to see any sort of satisfying conclusion to any of the various plot threads that have been left dangling. On the evidence of this episode, it’s unsure whether or not it’ll even be worth watching. This was a joyless mess from beginning to end. Check out our review of episode 6 here.
