SKINS 4.6

WRITER: Lucy Kirkwood
DIRECTOR: Esther May Campbell
GUEST STARS: Margaret John, Georgia Henshaw, Danny Szam, Juliet Cowan, Douglas Hodge, Paul Ridley

[SPOILERS] This week's episode of the already quirky Skins revolves around its most "quirky" character of JJ (Ollie Barbieri) and his quirky family. There's a reason I've already used the word "quirky" three times and that's because effectively that’s all the episode this week is, being so preoccupied with inputting wacky bits and bobs that the writers forgot to make the episode's central plotline into anything more interesting than that of a straightforward rom-com.

The episode centers on the eccentric JJ having a crush on a co-worker called Lara (Georgia Henshaw). In a rather mushy but admittedly sweet sequence, JJ ends up asking out Lara via the intercom system in their workplace, after Thomas (Merverille Lukeba) challenges him to ask her out in ten seconds before he does. Whilst preparing for his date, JJ finds Cook in his house, avoiding prison and pleading to let him stay. Cook subsequently offers JJ some advice on his forthcoming date with Lara. JJ sets off on his date to find that Lara (who looks about 14) has a baby. JJ turns out to have skill in caring for babies, though he is soon interrupted by the baby’s father, Liam (Danny Szam) who bursts into the room and threatens him.

The pair head to the pub, where they awkwardly bump into Emily another girl who she appears to be dating. JJ then takes heed of Cook's advice, which unsurprisingly goes completely wrong, in a manner that is apparently intended to be humorous, but instead winds up being merely painfully cringeworthy. Realizing the disastrous nature of the date, JJ flees the date, in another attempt at humor, via the women’s bathroom window.

JJ soon bumps into Lara once again, who tells him how sweet he is and the pair wind up kissing, before having the obligatory Skinsian sex scene. JJ is later brought to visit his psychotherapist (Paul Ridley), who is predictably just as loopy as he is, by his mother. Storming out of the center, he bumps once again into Liam, who threatens to tell Lara about JJ's condition.

JJ then introduces Lara to his friends, and then his typically "wacky" parents, both of which are uncomfortable around the baby. Conflict between the pair reaches a peak when JJ stops either from going into the bathroom, as Cook is hiding in there. Everything resolves itself when JJ enlists the help of members of the community to make a Ukelle group, (performed by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain) wakening Lara in the middle of the night and singing a song, asking for her forgiveness for his strange behavior. Lara runs out of the house and the couple kiss. Very sweet, etc.

The episode is, again, not a complete failure. In particular, the subtle way in which the subplot involving Emily and Naomi pans out works nicely, and a confrontation between Emily and JJ midway through the episode is a particularly good scene. JJ, meanwhile, is often hard to dislike even despite Barbieri's overacting and unrealistic "cookiness".

Punctuating the episode are regular occurrences of JJ monologing with "entries to the Captain's log"; geeky references which are supposed to remind us of how uncool JJ is, but as ever they are nothing but overblown and unrealistic. This represents the major downfall of the episode; the numerous attempts to make everything seem as eccentric as possible fail to produce charming results, and instead are merely increasingly irritating and dull as the episode wears on. Potentially endearing characters and relationships end up being overdone to the extent that they wind up being irritating and hard to care for. To summarize; weird, wacky, and yet completely dull.

4 MARCH 2010: E4 (HD), 10PM