Skins 4x07- Effy

You think you're going mad, so you came to see me to see what a mad person looks like.

What the fuck, Skins? You'll think that oh so many times while watching Effy. It's unfortunate that "what the fuck?" is also all this episode leaves behind. Especially, when its purpose was to contextualize Elizabeth Stonem's descent into madness. There is an interesting attempt at threading Effy's breakdown back to her brother, Tony, getting run over by a bus in the amazing Series 1 finale.



Problem's that the attempted connection snaps, under the weight of heavy-handedness. There have simply been no previous signifiers that Effy struggled with Tony's accident. Asking the penultimate episode of Series 4 to convince us of that in one fell swoop leads -again- to a forced and melodramatic effort. It feels as though Brittain, Elsley and Co. pulled this episode's script out of their collective ass. An expression which I hate to use in reference to such a beloved show.


Don't be upset Ef.


Things look bad now.


But it'll be okay! Surely.

It's just that when the last "what the fuck?" moment comes, right before the credits roll, you're left trying to shake off a bitter, copper-y taste. This is bronze medal, third place stuff. It's not a "WHAT THE FUCK?" not a "What the fuck?!" even... it's lowercase, tired and disinterested. But who knows? As is evident by the screencaps a SMOOB is still a SMOOB even in the clunkiest of episodes. Maybe in the finale Skins pulls off a routine so intricate and well-executed that it brings Series 4 home with the gold.


Maybe, right?

Then again, maybe not.

Kinda Great Guy will (try) to get back to its regular rambling installments ASAP. In the meantime, please enjoy these weekly Skins mini analyses, starting with this post.