My Chosen TV Drama

Here is a factfile introducing my chosen TV drama to focus this blog on...

Intro
Name: Skins
Country of origin: UK
Format: TV drama
Genre: Comedy drama/teen drama

Institutional
Channel: E4 (at present, runs the series back on Channel 4 later)Episode length: 47 minutes (shown in a block of 1 hour)
Day: Thursday
Time: 10-11pm

Current series: 3

Episodes per series: 10

Run: January 25, 2007 - present

Creation/Production

Created by: Jamie Brittain & Bryan Elsley

Producer: Chris Clough

Production company: Company Pictures

Location: Bristol

Overview

'Skins' follows a group of teenagers living in Bristol as they go about day to day life at home, at sixth form collage and about the city. It tackles many different types of issues; family issues, educational issues but mainly social issues. The focus of the programme is around the social network between the groups of "friends" as they seek thrills and entertainment more than anything else. This involves parties, raving and large amounts of nightlife and tackles typical teenage issues such as sex, relationships, popularity and money. It is the perfect programme for todays youth as it dwells around the issues British teenagers thrive on. It also paints a very stereotypical picture of British youth today and seem to highlight many bad qualities in teenagers in the UK, as well as the more positive qualities of livliness, energy and fun.

Why I chose 'Skins'

I am a big fan of the programme and have watched it since the very beginning in 2007. I am seen every episode of every series. I love the energy that 'Skins' thrives upon and I think alot of the comedy is particularly unique to the programme. Whats more, the programme follows all the typical coventions of television drama so will be perfect for analysing during the different sections we study throughout this unit. It is both modern and very British at the same time, and I am of the perfect age to enjoy this TV drama. It is going to be fun talking about it all the time!

I am in the middle of watching the third series and I have so far seen 3 out of the scheduled 10 episodes. Next week I will start analysing each individual episode (any of which I can watch any time as I have them recorded on beautiful SkyPlus. Each week I will analyse an episode focusing on a different part of the tv drama unit, which will depend on what we happen to be studying in media lessons that week. I am looking forward to starting this blog for real next week. How exciting...