Skins USA Trailer Debuts, Suggests Exact Replication of Original (But With a Lesbian!)

Skins USA, which takes the British series to Baltimore, Maryland, debuts in January on MTV. The remake will feature a lesbian character, Tea, replacing the original’s gay character, Maxxie, as we reported first before anyone else in the whole world.

An exclusive sneak peek of Skins will premiere tonight on MTV following the finale of Jersey Shore, which is troubling w/r/t the target audience of this show we hold so dear to our hearts.

From MTV:

SKINS is a wild ride through the lives of nine high school friends stumbling through the mine field of adolescence… and stepping on most of the mines as they go. Be it sex, drugs, the breadth of friendships or the depth of heartbreaks, SKINS is an emotional mosh-pit that slams through the insanity of teenage years.

The kids of SKINS will crush hearts and burn brain cells, while fearlessly confronting every obstacle head on… or slightly off.

Here’s the trailer!

Also, there’s another video here but we can’t embed it and also the audio/video is out of sync, which is annoying.

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Riese

Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

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30 Comments

    • i have to say because this shall air in the us, there will probably less swearing and sex sex sex and i mean, whats the point? not that i think that thats what makes a tv show, but its what keeps it realistic i can’t wait to hear all the parents that will be up in arms.

  1. I loved the British series! Not too sure about this remake bastardization. The original had the hottie twin lesbian in season 3! I just dont think an American version will have the same charm

  2. This looks kind of cheesy. And all the girls seem like the Cassie character which is odd. But, I’m excited that Skins is taking on cheerleading! Any show that broadcast 9/11: The Musical is sure to hilariously twist cheerleading.

  3. I didn’t know it was set in Baltimore…now I am eagerly anticipating the mashup with the Wire on youtube. (make it happen, internet.)

  4. I’m going to try to give this US version the benefit of the doubt.

    I don’t understand why the USA remakes tv shows from other countries. Is it because Americans don’t like to watch shows that aren’t made in America? Or do the networks think they can do a better job? Idk, I don’t get it.

    • See, this is a question I asked here a while ago (I think when they first announced the remake?) and the answer seemed to be along the lines of ‘so the US can make it less racy/challenging etc’. But maybe it’s because I didn’t express myself well, because I don’t think that’s what it’s all about (because some shows that have been remade aren’t actually really challenging at all).

      I kinda feel like the networks aren’t giving the American public the benefit of the doubt, that they CAN enjoy something that’s outside their cultural sphere. To me what made Skins so special was not just the way it portrayed teenage-hood, but the British-ness of it all. I just think that if they wanted to look at a more confronting view of being a teenager from an American perspective, then they could’ve gone about it from a completely fresh start (with actually unique story-lines). And you know, not called it Skins.

      • I don’t know why I thought this, but I always did think this about the accents. Like that a lot of Americans can’t understand what people are saying in The Office UK so they have to re-record it with midwestern accents

        • Some of the head showrunners and writers from the UK version are working on this one, so that could be a plus. They’ve also said that the US series starts out pretty identical to the UK one, but then goes off in a very different direction (much like Queer as Folk) – so, I will just wait and see before passing judgment, I guess.

          Though I still doubt it’ll ever be as good as the original. :)

    • Honestly, IDK why they have to make a an American version. Texmez you are very right about the ‘Britishness’ making it special. And if they wanted to do it from an American perspective just create a new show, new name, etc.

      However, in our defense sometimes we get it right, like with Queer as Folk. Without the American version we would not have had the awesomeness that is Brian Kinney. So on the 1 in a gazillion chance that it may happen again I say do it, remake it!

    • I think the cultural aspects must fit in there somewhere, too. Let’s face it, British culture (and Aussie culture, and South African culture, and…) are different than American culture. I’m actually really interested to see how they fit the Skins ethos into American culture. I feel like high school is a lot different in the States than in Australia or the UK – mostly because we don’t have this fuckoff big and stressful test at the end of it. (SATs don’t even compare IMO.)

        • I’d like to see a ‘more confronting and realistic portrayal of Australian teenagehood’ definitely, but with not only unique characters and story-lines, but a unique style as well. I’d hate to see a ‘Skins: Australia’. I with they could just take the concept but do something different with it, otherwise it just loses it’s effect (or it does for me at least).

          I feel like we’re already over saturated with sequels and remakes. What made Skins special is that it was different, and new. What I’d love to see now is something else different and new. Even if they used Skins as inspiration, it could be much more cleverly re-imagined.

  5. yay for lesbians being possibly portrayed somewhat realistically but I liked the British version and I don’t really want to see an American replica. America isn’t that cool (usually)

  6. Remakes aren’t always that bad (Queer As Folk, the Office), but Skins featured problems that are very specific to British / Western European youth, namely the heavy drug use. Besides, it wasn’t *just* about being wild and having a lot of problems (although it kind of evolved that way in the latest generation).

    This was also about a certain aesthetic (just look at that trailer, then come back to the American one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1LbmmmQxCY )

    • ahh ive never seen that trailer, i love it.

      sidenote: if you watch Skins on netflix (maybe just for vol. 3) they use the Australian versions which dont have the licensing for the original soundtrack and the Australian version has TERRIBLE music

  7. It’s also looking quite interesting, Remakes always bring something new and exciting. But it looks like majority of people are not liking this replica.

  8. I’m curious. I’m gonna give it a go. I’d like to see how they port over the feel of the show onto American culture.

  9. I liked Brit Skins. But I liked it in a guilty pleasure sort of way. I wouldn’t consider it a “good show,” and I’m not sure why everyone is praising it so much. Will the American version be 1000x worse? Yes, duh. But let’s not pretend that the original was superohmygodfuckingfantastic just because we got to see teens doing drugs and sleeping with each other. Just sayinn.

  10. Skins makes me wish I had been born in England and not the US. The new Skins will probably take that wish to a new level.

  11. OK, #1, if this is set in Baltimore, where the HELL are all the black people? Some of the main characters look kinda sorta maybe black, but what the heck? Really? We had to get kinda sorta maybe black people that could just as easily pass as white? For a show set in BALTIMORE???? Well, I guess Baltimore has its white enclaves. But still. Sigh.

    #2 As another poster pointed out, this is totally lacking the artistry of the original Skins. You can just tell from the trailer that the acting is worse, it’s more trashy, and it’s more typical. Part of what made Skins great was that it was really off the wall and experimental for television. I don’t see that happening here.

    #3 The one good thing is the lesbian in place of the gay guy. Baltimore’s a good city for lesbians. Haha.

    • #1 – This is what has been bothering me the most about this remake. The way they have whitewashed a cast that is set in a city that is over 60% black.

  12. The creator of the show, Bryan Elsley, has now stated the show will be set in a generic “Eastern Sea board” city. He said so on his twitter account. I think they realised Baltimore was too distinctive for the cast they had.

  13. So basically it is exactly the same as the UK series but just no accents. hmm well if you want an original new series check out our stuff http://youtube.com/thegayefamily Getting tired of them regurgitating the same old stuff passing off as new and us eating it like we don’t know the difference!

  14. I’m actually adoring all this love for England.
    I’M ENGLISH. I PUT A ‘U’ IN COLOUR AND MUM. LOVE ME.

  15. As a Baltimorean I am looking forward to watching this so I can a) compare it to the original, which I love and b) make fun of how badly they got my city wrong.

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