I never managed to get into ‘Skins' when it first aired on Channel 4 a while back, but after having several friends recommend it to me and nag me to watch it I finally caught up with the series online on C4's 4OD service (You sign up and can watch the complete series for free either by download or streaming it).

The show is set in Bristol UK and revolves around a fictional group of 16-18 year old friends who literally live to party. With the main character Tony (Yes, it's the little kid from ‘About a Boy' with Hugh Grant all grown up) leading the way we watch as some friendships grow stronger and some completely fall apart. There are a wide variety of characters that kind of resemble someone from every walk of life.

We have Tony, the popular guy who takes exactly what he wants when he wants it, his girlfriend Michelle who relies on her looks to keep her afloat. There is a gay character Maxxie, a Muslim Anwar as well as a young girl called Cassie who suffers from an eating disorder. She is probably one of my favourite characters despite the fact she annoyed me at first with her overuse of the word ‘Wow' Whilst Skins is definitely not a program that offers positive advice and information for teens (infact it does completely the opposite) it does manage to show what really does go on in adolescent life and how the decisions we make when we are young can effect our future. It's not a show that takes itself deadly seriously and often makes fun of itself and the characters with some genuinely funny moments and great acting skills along the way. I absolutely loved how series 1 came to an end with a song (something I would have never expected to see in Skins!) all the characters mouthing the words to Wild World by Cat Stevens was very bizarre but strangely fitting! The second series of Skins is due to air on Feb 11th 2008 but is also being screened in 4 parts before that on the social networking site Myspace. E4 have stated since then however that there may be a limited amount of people allowed to watch this, so hurry or you may just have to wait until next week to catch it for yourself!