Skins/YMMV

YMMV for Skins:

"Chris: " ""
 * Actor Shipping:
 * Lily Loveless and Kathryn Prescott Will. Not. Stop. with the Ship Tease.
 * Also, Jack O'Connell and Kaya Scodelario, who were actually together for quite a while. The shipping started up again after Kaya's boyfriend Elliot Tittensor (dubbed "Etit" by the fandom) was accused of attempted murder.
 * There have also been reports that James Newman and Sofia Black D'elia, who play Tony and Tea in the US remake, are dating.
 * Alas, Poor Scrappy / Alas, Poor Villain:
 * Sketch. She's not really a villain, but even still,
 * Jenna Fitch in Katie's S4 episode,
 * Alternative Character Interpretation: It's easier to list the characters who aren't subjected to this.
 * Anti-Sue: Tony Snyder, in the U.S. remake.
 * Big Lipped Alligator Moment: Emily's in the novel.
 * Also, Naomi and Emily's random Mexican pregaming scene in season four, episode two.
 * Well,
 * At the end of season one, Sid (and others) singing Wild World.
 * And where the hell did come from in Freddie's S4 ep?
 * Pandora's song to Effy in the S4 finale - although it seems somewhat in-character, the accompanying techno-ish beat along with all three of them (Pandora, Kate and Effy) producing instruments from nowhere to play along with the song makes the scene look jarringly weird (as well as having Mood Whiplash from the rest of the episode, although that seems to be the scene's point).
 * Broken Base:
 * The biggest base break came with the introduction of the whole new cast in Series 3. Gen1 vs Gen2 will likely never be resolved; Gen3 isn't helping things either.
 * The Tea/Tony ship in the US version. A lot of lesbian fans are enraged at what has become an insulting cliche of lesbian characters. A lot of straight fans are convinced that Tea and Tony actually do belong together and that Tea is really straight, or will become straight. Cue flamewar.
 * There have been some pretty intense debates about whether Tony (Stonem) is truly bisexual or was just messing with . Cassie, however, doesn't get this so much; it seems to be fan consensus that  . There were also some debates as to whether Naomi was bisexual or gay, but the S4 finale put this to rest when.
 * Canon Sue: Franky, to some as her powers as The Heart borders on the supernatural and she has yet to show any major flaws.
 * Character Rerailment:
 * Effy received a lot of criticism initially for the random shifts in her personality with every new series. It's finally explained in Series 4:.
 * Naomi's possession of the Conflict Ball in the time between the end of S3 and Emily's S4 episode is explained in the end,.
 * Colbert Bump: The soundtrack.
 * Come for the X, Stay for the Y: Skins was initially advertised as just a sex-and-drugs free-for-all, but most fans would say what really made them obsessed with the series was the amazing writing and acting, relatable characters and sophisticated portrayals of teen relationships, much more than the racy subject matter. (And the marketing has caught up as of Generation 3.) The US version is a subversion, though; because it failed in the acting and writing that the original did so well on, even those who just wanted wild party scenes could not stay interested, so it was really more Come For The X Leave For The Y.
 * Conflict Ball: Skins has a habit of randomly throwing this at characters in each generation's second series. Thomas in the S4 opener is one of the least contentious examples in the fanbase, with nearly everyone agreeing that his sudden Took a Level in Jerkass made no sense. Some also say this about Cassie, Naomi and Emily, although those are more YMMV with plenty seeing them as genuine Character Development.
 * Creator's Pet: Definitely Tony Snyder in the US remake. Some would also count Matty, for Gen 3.
 * Definitely Franky in Series 6. Fans were not happy with the changes to the character, which wouldn't have been so bad if Franky hadn't been the major focus of the series.
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: The entire soundtrack - this is a show that pays very careful attention to its soundtrack.
 * Though not part of the show's actual storylines, it really doesn't get much better than the "Skins Theme" by Fat Segal.
 * "Wild World". That is all.
 * Adele's "Hometown Glory" playing in the scene where  is particularly poignant and upsetting considering the character.
 * "True". On. Ukeleles.
 * Followed up with "Gold" at the end of the following scene, which somehow also manages to work with the credits and "Next Time" trailer perfectly.
 * Für Elise over the climax of the Napalm Death concert.
 * Alo's dubstepisode is made of this.
 * For two straight days I have been unable to get With You by Crystal Fighters out of my head.
 * Depending on the Writer: A couple of plans for Series 6 seem to have been changed by Jamie Brittain leaving the show, and Bryan Elsley returning due to the failure of Skins US. The biggest one is, as it was hinted both in S5 and in the novel that  . And Brittain admitted in an interview for After Ellen that this would be explored in S6. However, a month before S6 started up, Elsley and Freya Mavor (who plays Mini) did interviews where they said that  . This caused a huge uproar with the lesbian fans, who were already mad at the Elsley-helmed US version's treatment of Tea. On a more minor note, Brittain had also said in interviews that the show would be abandoning the Rise and Fall model of the previous two generations, keeping things Lighter and Softer throughout both series of Generation 3. However, with   in the second episode, that also seems to have been abandoned.
 * Die for Our Ship: The reason a lot of people didn't like Michelle.
 * Dropped a Bridge on Him:
 * In S4,
 * In S6, there's
 * Ensemble Darkhorse:
 * Nobody predicted Emily as the most popular character in the second generation.
 * Though in hindsight it shouldn't be that surprising.
 * Hell, Naomily as a couple almost certainly qualify for this. The ship is so popular that there's a whole book being written about it.
 * JJ is also popular to some extent due to his lovable Adorkable nature and kindness.
 * And from the first generation, Cassie and Maxxie, with the latter's absence from the US remake sending raging shockwaves throughout the fandom.
 * After he was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap in S4, Cook became this for a lot of people.
 * Michelle was this in the American version, with many fans preferring her to the original Michelle.
 * Despite not being well liked to start with, Mini has become one of the most popular characters from Gen 3.
 * Fan Nickname: Sorry Mandy but being the threat to the Naomily ship has earned you the unflattering name of "Giant-Not-Naomi".
 * And after a stroppy Merveille Lukeba (Thomas) tweeted about "the nation's favourite lesbian couple", it became a nickname for Naomily the fans were only too happy to pick up.
 * Some fans also use "DJ Merv" as a sarcastic nickname for him -- his big ego has not made him particularly well liked within fandom.
 * Alo, Rich, Grace and Franky are called the Fab Four.
 * The Triangle of Doom - referring to the second generation's love triangle of Freddie/Effy/Cook.
 * In a similar vein, the Franky/Matty/Liv triangle in generation 3 has been nicknamed "FML", for the characters' initials and most fans' reaction to it.
 * Fan-Preferred Couple:
 * Cook/Effy has a huge following, and in some corners of the fandom, like the LiveJournal Skins community, it is more popular than Freddie/Effy. And then there's Cook/Freddie...
 * For Gen 3, Franky/Mini, or Minky if you like, is probably the most popular ship except maybe Rich/Grace. It's infinitely more popular than Mini/Nick  and ahead of Alo/Mini, which is a popular pairing following Alo's season 5 episode. (And it's obviously way more popular than Franky/Matty, one of the least popular canon couples in the history of Skins.)
 * Fan Yay: Got a lot of this with the Naomi/Emily coupling in the third and fourth series, elevating them to Super Couple status and earning the series much of its overseas fanbase. The American version aimed for this with lesbian character Tea, but lost it when they decided to pair her with a male character.
 * Follow the Leader: Highly controversial Russian series Shkola (School) is basically Skins IN RUSSIA with the Serial Numbers Filed Off, and profanity, sexual content and general crapsackiness cranked Up to Eleven.
 * It's actually much tamer than Skins - the profanity isn't as rampant and there are episodes without any sexual content at all. Inappropriate content is just a lot more strictly monitored there - and depicting daily life in the country in a less-than-pretty way is frowned on. Besides, it's not like Skins was the first show to parade around disaffected youth.
 * Additionally, the BBCThree show Coming of Age is Skins WITH MORE BAD SEX JOKES AND ONE-DIMENSIONAL CHARACTERS! . It's widely considered to be crap, but still gets enough viewers to get renewed.
 * It's actually Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps WITH KIDS! Yeah, because somebody thought that was a good idea.
 * Funny Aneurysm Moment:
 * This one:

""Then why do I see a fucking beautiful headfuck thing?""
 * The next episode... (sob)
 * In Freddie's episode in Series 3,
 * It's interesting because
 * Gateway Series: Many fans of the series (particularly international ones) were subsequently introduced to other British teen shows such as Misfits and The Inbetweeners.
 * Genius Bonus:
 * YMMV, but Jal's S1 episode seems to be a lot more enjoyable for classical music fans and/or former band geeks than for those who aren't into music. Classical fans will also recognize the two pieces she performs in the episode - the opening solo from Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Mozart's Clarinet Concerto - as two staples of the clarinet repertoire. In fact, they're popular requirements as an orchestral excerpt and a concerto (respectively) for university auditions, which Jal will be up for in a year. Shown Their Work, indeed.
 * In generation 2, there's also the use of various Debussy works throughout JJ's S3 episode.
 * The various books Tony and Cassie read as members of the Genius Book Club are often related to the events of the episodes in which they are seen. For example, Tony reading Thus Spake Zarathustra in Sid's S1 episode which features Tony at his most Übermenschian, or Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (about a young girl coming to terms with her homosexuality) in the episode where he . Cassie's choice of Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman to read to Chris in her S2 episode functions more as a nod back to her struggle with anorexia in S1, but could also be seen as foreshadowing: A major theme of the book is alienation, something Cassie would experience as a result of.
 * Good Troi Episode: Liv's S5 episode for Matty, arguably.
 * He Really Can Act: Chris Addison in Rich's series 6 episode.
 * Internet Backdraft: Effy's S4 episode caused a bit of a ruckus.
 * Things only got worse with the S4 finale, due to it being so open-ended.
 * Previous Internet Backdrafts included  at the end of S1 (and people didn't find out what happened to him after that until the S2 premiere, let's not forget) and   in the penultimate episode of S2. And some of the Naomily fans probably weren't too happy about Emily sleeping with JJ, considering what a lesbian cliche that plot point was.
 * The third generation had two with the beginning of series 6: first, the announcement before the series started that  and then after the second episode,.
 * The US version is its own Internet Backdraft, though within that version's fandom, Tea/Tony is a big one, for the same reasons as Emily/JJ but even more so since the ship is actually one of the more popular ones among the U.S. cast and because her relationship with Tony was Tea's main storyline. At least with Emily/JJ it was clearly a pity-screw from the outset.
 * Jerkass Woobie:
 * In S2, Tony after the accident, and definitely Cassie.
 * Arguably some people's view of Cook, especially in S4.
 * In S4,
 * From Generation 3, Mini and sometimes Liv.
 * Moral Event Horizon: Josh Stock pole vaults over the line when he tries to force Tony to have sex with his unconscious sister.
 * Memetic Molester: From Gen 3, Matty has become one of these on account of his creepy stares and a certain trailer.
 * Narm: Freddie's line to Effy in 3x05 is definitely this: "Now I've told you. Now you know."
 * Also, Matty to Franky:


 * Effy's breakdown in 4x07: "No that never happened! It happened but it never happened! It happened but it never happened! It happened but it never happened!"
 * No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Subverted with the US version. It lost eight advertisers due to the Parents Television Council's trumped-up charges of it being "child porn." It was eventually canceled at the end of the season, though it's hard to say if its low ratings were solely due to the controversy, or because it just wasn't a very good show. The critics hated it almost as much as the Moral Guardians, albeit for different reasons.
 * No Yay:
 * Certain fans' reactions to Tea/Tony in the US remake, because of Tea's sexual orientation. Also Tea's in-universe reaction to pretty much all of their sexual encounters.
 * Also how a lot of people reacted to  in the original, for the same reasons.
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Series 4's finale ends just as
 * Portmanteau Couple Name: "Naomily", universally accepted by the fanbase within about half a second. There's also "Freffy".
 * There are also the much less well-known Sassie(Sid/Cassie), Chral(Chris/Jal), Ceffy(Cook/Effy), Effily(Effy/Emily), Keffy(Katie/Effy) and who could forget Taxxie(Tony/Maxxie).
 * There's also Effily (Effy/Emily), Pantho (Panda/Thomas), Nookie (Cook/Naomi), Frook (Freddie/Cook), and Catie (Cook/Katie).
 * From the third generation, Minky (Mini/Franky) and possilbly Malo(Matty/Alo).
 * Also from gen three we have the unfortunate Fatty/Fratty/Manky (Franky/Matty, which is essentially universally disliked) and Nilo (Nick/Alo).
 * Relationship Writing Fumble:
 * Effy's first major piece of dialogue was a short on the Season 1 DVD; arguably, an elaborate metaphor detailing her desire to leave everyone and everything else behind just to be with Tony. (And they went and found a nice little house to live in together. Her and her brother.)
 * Tea and Tony in the US remake. Bryan Elsley and Sofia Black D'elia have indicated in interviews (see below under "Ship Sinking") that Tea is supposed to be clearly uncomfortable whenever she's with Tony, that there's no sexual/romantic attraction and she's mistaking a friendship-type chemistry for that. However, many fans see Tea as having more chemistry with Tony than with Betty or any other girl on the show, and it continues to be one of the most popular ships among Skins US fans (it's currently second in the MTV poll after Michelle/Stanley). The reaction is unsurprising when you realize how much time the show has developed the Tony/Tea relationship compared to others, including Tea/Betty. Even with the series finale, where  as a way of finally sinking the Tony/Tea ship, we still see  . With even Michelle interpreting the latter as a sign that the two are still together, how can you expect the viewers to react differently?
 * Retroactive Recognition:
 * Dev Patel after Slumdog Millionaire, his Star-Making Role.
 * Joe Dempsie (Chris) plays Gendry on Game of Thrones, and Hannah Murray (Cassie) is reportedly joining the show in its second season as Gilly.
 * Kaya Scodelario (Effy) and Nicholas Hoult (Tony) are much bigger stars now than they were before Skins, starring in movies like Clash of the Titans and X Men First Class respectively.
 * Lily Loveless (Naomi) is now starring on The Fades.
 * She's not the only one. The aforementioned Joe Dempsie also came in later on in the series in the Fades, as another main character.
 * Luke Pasqualino (Freddie), after playing Paolo the groom on The Borgias.
 * Romantic Plot Tumor / Malignant Plot Tumor: How many people saw the Freddie/Effy storyline in S4.
 * Ron the Death Eater:
 * Certain fans' reaction to Emily in S4. As a result of Naomi's cheating, Emily tried to find love elsewhere, hooking up with a total of two other girls during the season (only one of those "hook-ups" being sexual). And yet, the way you hear the Fan Dumb going on about Emily "turning slutty," you'd think she'd shagged every lesbian in Bristol.
 * Also some fans' reactions to Michelle in S2 for getting inbetween One True Pairing Sid and Cassie - despite the fact that they had already broken up due to Sid misinterpreting Cassie's video. Similar to Emily above, many called her a "slut" or "whore" for getting with Sid, even in comparison to Cassie, who actually went through a period of extreme promiscuity in S2.
 * The Scrappy:
 * Cook and Katie initially, before being Rescued from the Scrappy Heap in S4.
 * Matty in Gen 3.
 * Tony and Abbud in the US remake.
 * Seasonal Rot: Series 4. You'd be hard-pressed to find a fan who doesn't consider it the show's low point, the only debate is over how low of a point it is. (Some fans think it's totally irredeemable, while others think that the top-notch Cook and Katie episodes in the middle make up for the series's messy beginning and even messier ending.)
 * Ship Sinking:
 * Generation 1:
 * appeared to be in the latter's S1 episode. They actually were in Effy's episode in S2.
 * in Michelle's S1 episode.  in Sid's S2 episode.
 * Both  and   in Chris's S2 episode.
 * Generation 2:
 * : "I'm never gonna get to bone you, am I?"
 * are also effectively laid to rest in the same episode.
 * Effy  in the S3 finale pretty much sank.
 * Generation 3:
 * are sunk in the latter's S5 episode, are sunk in his episode, are sunk in the S5 finale, and depending on your interpretation,   may also have been sunk or at the very least Anchored.
 * U.S. Remake:
 * Though it hasn't been sunk in-story yet, Bryan Elsley effectively made it clear in this interview that Tea is indeed a lesbian and she is not going to end up with Tony.
 * The events of Tina's episode pretty much sunk.
 * Ships That Pass in the Night:
 * Some view Matty and Franky his way. While there was definite UST beforehand (despite the fact that they've barely interacted) it was possibly jarring to see.
 * Some fans of the US remake felt that Stanley/Cadie was just a particularly desperate attempt to follow the original (where Sid/Cassie were easily the first generation's most popular Official Couple), and that Stanley's attraction to Cadie was never really explained.
 * Ship-to-Ship Combat:
 * Averted in UK Gen 1 with Sid/Michelle vs. Sid/Cassie - fans overwhelmingly preferred the latter, even those who weren't big Cassie fans.
 * Freddie/Effy vs. Cook/Effy in Gen 2.
 * From Gen 3 there's Mini/Franky vs. Mini/Alo. Largely averted with Mini/Franky vs. Franky/Matty, due to Matty being The Scrappy.
 * In the U.S. remake, there is Tea/Betty (or Tea/any girl) vs. Tea/Tony, and Michelle/Stanley vs. Cadie/Stanley.
 * Strangled by the Red String: Franky/Matty, for being canon Ships That Pass in the Night. Some would also say Sid/Michelle in S2.
 * Straw Man Has a Point: Sketch's speech to Anwar in the S2 finale. She's wrong to try to alienate him from his friends just to make him be with her, but she's right that years down the road, he and his friends will probably grow apart to at least some degree.
 * Suddenly Sexuality: interest in  has been seen as this by some viewers, even though the show hasn't established her sexuality yet. And then, after it had been developed toward the end of S5, the show announced that , and these same accusations started up again.
 * Super Couple: People thought Sid/Cassie was popular and universally adored by fans... and then along came Generation 2, and Naomi/Emily not only became perhaps the most beloved couple in the show's history, but the pairing became icons in LGBT media visibility, acclaimed and celebrated well outside the Skins fandom. Granted, this has become common for a lot of LGBT characters, especially on shows aimed at teenagers: but few couples, same-sex or opposite-sex, get a book just on the ship itself, or have phrases coined about them like "the Naomily phenomenon."
 * Twincest: Episode 9 in the third series certainly had lots of undertones with Katie and Emily.
 * Tear Jerker: "I just wanted... to feel normal."
 * They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: S4 dwelt far too much on Effy and Freddie. Effy's S4 episode particularly elicited a lot of comments along the lines of "It would have been such a beautiful episode if it weren't for the horrible ending!"
 * Unfortunate Implications:
 * In the US remake, Maxxie - the gay male character - will be replaced by a lesbian. Allegedly, Bryan Esley enjoyed the US actress's audition so much that he changed the character to cast her. However, it is not hard to imagine that other factors may be at play.
 * It's also been suggested that the reason may simply have been the huge popularity of Naomi and Emily compared to Maxxie, and the fact that Bryan Elsley wanted to get a similar storyline into the first generation since he wasn't sure if it would be around for a second. Still Unfortunate Implications in terms of him assuming it was because they were girls, when it may have been simply Naomi and Emily's increased exposure and the bigger role their storylines played in the overall plot of their generation.
 * One could also say that the focus on the character's gender is its own set of Unfortunate Implications, as either way, it's still another gay teen on TV, and therefore still a victory for the LGBT community. One could also make the argument that there are already many compelling gay male teenage characters on current American shows compared to good lesbian teen characters, so perhaps Tea's presence is most needed.
 * The implied Tony/Tea romance on the show suggests that Maxxie was switched out for a girl because the idea of Tony being bicurious was just too much for American audiences (which, when not denying bisexuality entirely, is at least convinced that men can't be bi), whereas the idea of a man "turning" a lesbian straight is, unfortunately, far too palatable. We'll see where this storyline leads.
 * Every psychologist/psychiatrist on this show is either a bumbling idiot or actually dangerous. The way the show treated Effy's mental illness was particularly irresponsible; she suffers few ill effects from all the self-medicating she does with drugs and booze, but seeing a legitimate medical professional for her problems results in Mind Rape and ? We get it that Jamie Brittain doesn't have the best history with psychology, but that's a pretty terrible message to send to kids who are suffering from similar illnesses and could really benefit from seeing a professional.
 * Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
 * Most of the Generation 3 characters started out this way, with the exception of Franky, Grace and Alo. Luckily, Character Development came in to save the day for all of them - except Matty, who remains The Scrappy.
 * The American remake with Tony, and arguably Tea as well.
 * Definitely Cook at first. Even Katie was supposed to be Rescued from the Scrappy Heap by the events of Effy's S3 episode, but it really took until Katie's own episode in S4 for that to happen.
 * Values Dissonance:
 * Chris and Angie's relationship, for American viewers. As the relevant trope illustrates, American media tends to take a particularly strong stance against Teacher-Student Romance, even compared to other modern Western nations. It's probably why Chris and Tina's relationship in the U.S. remake ended with, instead of the more neutral UK ending, where  . This is partly due to a difference in laws regarding Teacher-Student Romance in the two countries: U.K.'s age of consent is solidly and universally 16. In the U.S., however, teacher-student sex at the high-school level on down is always illegal, even when the student could ordinarily consent (the age of which varies by state, but tends to be 18 in media thanks to SoCalization). Therefore, Angie's actions were perhaps unethical but not illegal, whereas Tina was actually committing a serious crime.
 * A decade ago, "lesbian" characters who slept with men were a dime a dozen, often the only way to get homophobic viewers to accept them. However, the US remake of Skins ignited quite a controversy over Tea, a character touted as a "confident lesbian," spending so much time mooning over and sleeping with Tony, with even a lot of straight reviewers attacking it for relying on a tired and offensive cliche. Along with a similar firestorm over The Kids Are All Right, it showed just how much Society Marches On.
 * What Could Have Been:
 * Had S4 had the full 9-10 episodes instead of getting Screwed by the Network, Pandora and Naomi would have had their own episodes. In fact, the finale was initially planned to be all Naomi's, but because of the shorter season they had to use it to wrap up some other storylines, too.
 * Even among those who thought the U.S. remake was crap, many are upset over the show's cancellation simply because they wanted to see how much or how little the second season would diverge from its British counterpart. Particularly of interest is how Elsley was planning to redeem the Tony/Tea/Betty triangle from its Relationship Writing Fumble in the first season.
 * And a lot of fans of the British version are wishing it because of how Elsley's return changed the plan for S6. Especially lesbian viewers, since Brittain had promised to in S6, and fans of , as she probably   since Brittain had said he was planning to abandon the previous generations' Rise and Fall pattern, but Elsley kept it up.
 * What an Idiot!: Alo? Next time, ask how old she is before you do anything more than talking, 'kay?
 * The girl looked way older than 14, was drinking at a party that seemed to be made up entirely of Alo's peers and she never gave any sign that she was as young as she turned out to be. Alo didn't ask because he, fairly given all the signs, assumed she was the same age as him.
 * WTH Costuming Department: Common fan reactions to Freddie's and Liv's wardrobes on the show, and occasionally individual items on other characters, like Mini's gold bike shorts.
 * The Woobie:
 * Let's face it, everyone from the first generation took turns at being the Woobie. Cassie and Chris, for many reasons; Michelle, due to Tony's cheating; Sid, due to the twists and turns with his relationship with Cassie as well as ; Maxxie, first because of Anwar's homophobia and then Sketch's stalking; and in the latter half of Series 2, Jal more than anyone (as Michelle helpfully points out). Even Tony had his turn thanks to   And Anwar finally gets his moment in the generation finale when he.
 * Second Generation had Emily, Pandora and Freddie. Also Cook and Effy, in S4. Even Katie got some Woobie moments in her S4 episode.
 * Franky, completely, in her episode. Mini became a big Woobie later on, with all the crap she was put through by Nick and Liv. And Alo and Grace each took turns in their episodes.
 * In the US remake, Michelle and Betty.