Tag Cassie Ainsworth

Skins Pure – Part 2 Review

Mata Leave a comment
Everything is good, everything matters.

I’ve had a few days to mull over Part Two of Skins Pure and mulled over it I have. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is about the episode that I liked. Was it the fact that Skins Pure ended on a much more uplifting tone than Skins Fire? Or was it the fact that Cassie, a character fraught with so many self-destructive traits, was finding her way in a world that she had tried to leave as a teenager? When the episode begins we’re with Cassie and Jacob in Wales, visiting Cassie’s dad (Neil Morrissey) and her little brother Reuben. What we discern during this visit is that Cassie’s father has not coped very well after the death of Cassie’s mother and it’s bled into his parenting of Reuben.

Obviously Cassie’s father doesn’t mean to let his grief get in the way of his parenting, however it does. It isn’t unlike the way in which Cassie had largely been ignored by her parents when her mother was alive in series one. Pure offered veteran fans of the series a few references to the past while not alienating any newcomers stumbling across the show with no previous knowledge of it. For instance when she mentions to Jacob that when her mother was alive they communicated through messages, namely one summer when she almost starved herself to death. I’m not sure how much her messages worked with her parents, they were rather wrapped up in themselves to take notice of her beyond having her put into a mental institution. However this time it isn’t bliss that blinds Cassie’s father but grief.
It seems that Cassie has always been waiting for her life to begin, or running from the ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.’ When she begins to cry while Maddie says they’re all just waiting for their lives to begin you get the sense that it’s just hitting Cassie how unsure she is about where she stands in life. She’s no longer that damaged teenager harming herself in an attempt to feel powerful and in charge of her life, however she is working at a diner, the same thing she’d been doing at the end of series two. And so in Skins Pure when Cassie takes it upon herself to allow Jacob to keep photographing her and posting it online, we’re watching Cassie begin to reclaim her sense of agency. The girl who first brings the website with Cassie’s photographs on it to Cassie’s attention convinces Cassie to do a photo shoot with her and we finally get the sense that this is something Cassie was meant to do. Granted it seems a bit triggering for someone who’s suffered through an eating disorder and confidence issues to be thrown into the world of modelling, however since the beginning of Skins Pure it’s obvious that Cassie isn’t the same girl she was in series two.
Whether or not this leads to more modeling work in her life is irrelevant, what matters is the happiness it appears to bring her. However despite it there’s still something missing, Cassie isolates herself to talk to Reuben on the phone and that’s what you realise it missing, companionship. You think she has found companionship in Jacob, who’s even confronted Cassie’s dad about having messed Cassie up somehow. However, evident in his dissent into possessive crazy guy, she does not find long term companionship in Jacob. He goes back into stalker mode and follows her around until- When Yaniv sees the message he beats the crap out of Jacob. Cassie stops it, telling Jacob not to spoil it, citing the need to remember something good. It harks back not only to her past but to her past relationships, with her mother, Sid, her friends. Remembering something good can keep you sane when it seems like everything’s gone to shit. Although I do reckon it should used in moderation, Cassie’s father is an example of allowing his memories of something good to interfere with his present responsibilities as a parent.
This, among other reasons, is why Sid doesn’t show up. As the audience we have to remember something good, Sid makes it to America and the show suggests they find each other and this is confirmed in part one of Skins Pure. We have to remember something good.

But that’s what it comes down to, again, is Cassie’s loneliness. She isolates herself often but, as Yaniv points out, it’s okay to get lonely. There’s this part of Cassie, however, that needs human connection. She’s starved of it, even in a room full of people there’s always been this disconnect between Cassie and everyone around her. When her father turns up on her doorstep with Reuben to tell her that he and Reuben would be going to Italy for a while Cassie takes it upon herself to keep Reuben with her and let her father leave to find himself. It’s funny that Cassie takes Reuben for a haircut from her co-worker, at the diner where they work no less.

It is with this mundane moment between Cassie and her brother, as well as her co-worker cutting Reuben’s hair, we’re told that ‘everything is good’ and for once I would like to believe that it will be.

Special Mentions:

- Maddie was nice. I liked her and it was sad that she was having such a hard time of ‘making it’ and here Cassie was just getting modeling jobs because a co-worker got to stalking her and posting his ‘artsy’ photos of her online.

- I love that Cassie’s boss at the diner has Reuben cover his ears before swearing at his employees.

- When Cassie asks Maddie whether one can be friends with a guy without sleeping with them and Maddie responds in the affirmative only after having slept with them you’re skeptical. However it’s Yaniv that proves that it’s possible.

- Even a small moment of taking action in her life, like taking the creepy dude’s coke and dumping it over the side of the building, is triumphant as she smiles to herself while it scatters away in the wind.

- We have Skins Rise, COOOOOOOOOOK! Go relive that epic final scene of series 4. Because in a few days we see the return of the Cookie monster and it looks like, as with Fire and Pure, Rise isn’t going to be what you’re expecting.

- Forgive any typos, it’s 4am in the morning here. I’m surprised I can even string together a few words

Skins Pure - Part 1 Review

Mata Leave a comment

‘Because if it didn’t end, it was forever.’

Ethereal, that’s the word that comes to mind when I think of Cassie. Not just in terms of her physical appearance, but her entire mannerism. There’s always been something other-worldly about Cassie that one either loved, or got annoyed by. Mostly loved. Now, Skins Pure part one, from the trailers looked a lot more sinister than what it turned out to be. It wouldn’t be too farfetched for Skins to have gone either way, really. Having already covered a psychotic therapist and even an actual crazy stalker type main character in series four and two, respectively, it’s safe to say that Skins could very well have chosen to go dark with Pure. However I’m glad it didn’t, we’ve seen Cassie go from airy-fairy to dark and scary before and this new Cassie was a breath of fresh air.

With Cassie’s episodes and storylines in the past we’ve always had a touch of the surreal, for instance text messages from no one telling her to eat, usually attributed to her fragile state of mind. It seems that time has changed Cassie in ways that can only be understood by remembering the character she was before now. If we have a look at the focus of Skins Fire we should note that where Effy had control over her own agency, even when she started to go mad in earlier series, Cassie always seemed to me to be someone who was influenced so much by those around her. So much so that the only time she felt powerful was when she harmed herself in the form of anorexia.

I stopped eating, and then everyone had to do what I said. That was powerful. I think it was the happiest time of my life. But I had to stop before I died, because… otherwise it wasn’t fun.

Cassie now is a stark contrast to the Cassie of series one and two, I’ve seen a few ‘where’s Cassie’s iconic ‘oh WOW’ and ‘lovely’? Makes me wonder what exactly about ‘Time Changes Everything‘ they don’t understand. Cassie’s grown since those years when she always seemed ready to either run or harm herself at the first sign of trouble. Don’t get me wrong, there are still traces of that old Cassie present, she will always be slightly unearthly, and a bit disconnected with the goings on around her, however she’s not one to run anymore.
She’s been back in London for about two months, working as a waitress at a diner and we find out that since the last time we’ve seen Cassie her mother’s passed away and it’s sent her dad into his own funk, judging by the telephone conversations she has with him. She goes about her life quietly and calmly, not knowing that she is being photographed by someone and the photos being uploaded anonymously for the world to see. Although the photographs are rather beautiful, the idea of not knowing that someone’s taking photos of you, without your knowledge let alone your consent is a little disconcerting. It’s brought to her attention by a random customer of the diner who seems to be in love with the pictures, promising to keep Cassie’s ‘secret’ before stating she wished she looked like Cassie and leaving Cassie to her thoughts once more.
Cassie’s reaction is to seek the stalker out, she discovers that it’s Jakob (Olly Alexander) from the diner where she works, a weedy almost pathetic fella. When she beats the crap out of him and shouts ‘Don’t speak to me! What do you do, do you want!?’ It’s a throwback to earlier heavy use of slapstick humour in the show. After Cassie takes his very expensive camera and leaves, thinking it over a bit she meets him again at the end of the episode. Jakob pleads with her, saying he ‘just takes pictures’ and that it’s the only thing he can do before telling her that all it is is pure. You wind up believing him and so does Cassie. Part one ends with Cassie agreeing to let Jakob photograph her, because it’s him, her and a camera and the audience sees what they want them to see.
Special Mentions:
- Yes I, too, believe that the boy she mentions traveling with before she left was Sid. It was the writers’ way of saying ‘yes she found him’ and ‘they were together for a bit’ but this is Skins and together forever just isn’t done.
- Yaniv (Daniel Ben Zenou) seems like the kind of dude that doesn’t mess around when it comes to something or someone that he wants or likes. So Cassie screwing him and then saying she just didn’t want to be alone and subsequently ignoring him, doesn’t sit well with Yaniv at all. Especially when Cassie can’t explain what it is that she’s ‘waiting for’.
- That girl with the room near Cassie, she gives some interesting life advice. I like that she’s upfront with how it is she earns a living what with being an actress. It’s nice of her to listen to Cassie’s problems, even if she cuts it short because she’s about to have sexy-time with men.
- Something’s coming. Magic. Cassie did say she was waiting.

Skins Fire - Part 2 Review

Mata 4 Comments
You don’t know me at all, and you never will.
Before we begin the breakdown let’s get this out of the way, it’s not a series of Skins unless a favourite character is involved in a life threatening situation/dies. It’s definitely not Skins unless you’re left with the feeling that nothing is resolved. The writers of Skins have never given you that conventional ‘happily ever after’ you crave so much, so why on earth would you think they’d give you one now? Skins has always been about moments. Whether it was living in the moment, realising a moment’s gone or waiting for a moment to pass. Every episode of each series captured certain moments of a character’s life, and I suppose this, the end of Effy and Naomi’s stories, was comprised of their final moments. If you can call it that, with Skins there’s no such thing as ending, well outside of death, sometimes not even then. Even if things are resolved for the odd character, that moment of resolution is still, in the end, a moment in their life from which they then move on. On to another moment, on to something else that we won’t ever know about. However I’ve gotten ahead of myself, I’ll stop and back it up now. Let’s unpack part two of Skins Fire- not completely, because that would take all night, but we’ll scratch the surface a bit and touch upon why a lot of the fans are crying.
Naomi has cancer and it’s killing her. At the start of the episode we find that Naomi’s doing relatively well in the comedy world, we begin the episode at another gig where people are actually laughing at her jokes. It seems the only person not having fun is Effy who leaves during Naomi’s stand up to go see Jake, her boss. (Who, everyone agrees, looks like Freddie. But that’s something we’re not going to talk about.) What cuts everyone up about Naomi’s terminal illness is the fact that it will kill perhaps one of the most popular ships Skins has ever produced, the force known as Naomily.
This relationship hasn’t been an easy one to follow, what with Naomi’s initial reservations and betrayal, and considering Skins track record with ruining/killing one half of fan favourite ships, see Chris and Jal, Effy and Freddie, Grace and Rich. However, considering Naomi and Emily were still together years later in Skins Fire, it seemed things might end well for these two. However Naomi keeps the truth from about her illness and the fact that her health is continually declining as she isn’t responding to treatment from Emily because Emily matters more to Naomi than the truth. Through it all Lily Loveless’ performance goes from strength to strength, from annoying layabout flatmate to dying woman who refuses to let her illness get in the way of the woman she loves’ internship, there is something extraordinary about the ‘feels’ produced by Naomi stating she’s ‘going to die’ to Effy after confronting her about the shitty friend she’d been over the past few months.
Effy Stonem, mysterious, complex and sometimes rather egocentric, Effy. As predicted, Effy’s career as a trader and her relationship with her boss seems to soar for a while until the inevitable moment when it begins to crumble. Spurred on by Jake, Effy seeks out Dom’s help to illegally obtain information to create trading profits and enjoys what appears to be a few months of hedonism both in her career and in her relationship with Jake. The problem is people, namely a colleague and subsequently the FSA, catch on and rather than have her back Jake throws Effy under the bus. Up until that point Effy thought her relationship with Jake was real, as Naomi pointed out she’d been living in a fantasy for the past few months and a shitty one at that. The fact that in the end Effy chooses to eventually name Jake and go to jail if it meant Dom wouldn’t be implicated showed a sense of growth in character for her. Although it came after a digression in behaviour, in which she reverted to her old method of manipulation after Dom’s, rather justified, outburst about how she made him pathetic.

This moment, I reckon was just Effy’s reflex reaction to situations outside of her control, she tries to rein it back in to something she can manage. Only something goes wrong and in that fevered moment Dom runs off. Any theories?

However in the end Effy’s chooses to implicate Jake and take the time in jail pleading for Dom not to be involved as he was not at fault. The episode leaves us in a lurch, Naomi and Emily reunited but for how long before Naomi dies? And Effy off to jail for an indeterminate amount of time. And yet, in that final moment, when Effy’s sitting in the back of the police car/taxi and she smiles I suppose we know that she’ll be okay. If there’s one thing we know about Effy Stonem is that she rises from the ashes after burning up and allowing her fire to consume herself and those around her.

Special Mentions:

- Emily’s reaction, when Effy finally took it upon herself to call her, was heartbreaking. You can understand the anger, the fact that Effy’s had this time with Naomi. This moment when you think, Effy’s just called Emily now against her wishes, surely she should have had the foresight a while ago to call Emily against Naomi’s wishes earlier?

- “What the fuck is wrong with you? She’s alone in there, I don’t wanna- you know what? Fuck it, fuck this.” Dom’s anger at Effy bringing that shit up whilst her friend was lying in the hospital room was completely justified. C’mon Effy!

- Next week it’s onto Skins Pure we go! Cassie’s episode and it’s not set in New York as I originally thought! Have you seen the trailer? People already saying they think Sid is Cassie’s stalker will be disappointed to find they have a glimpse of her stalker in the trailer and he, unfortunately, is not Sid.

Convos with Friends, well just Freya, again!

Freya: It is perfect. Exactly what it should be… However the part with Dom reigning control in that particular scene, I have no idea what to make of it. Truly. Your notion of ‘theories?’, I’m asking the same damn thing. Anyone got any ideas?
Mata: Hmmm I don’t know aye, like maybe he realises that she’s not really doing it because she loves him like he wants her to and that it’s sort of like a ‘just trying to get you to do what I want and am not enjoying it’ type situation and he feels guilty about it, apologises and runs away? I don’t know, that scene threw me off a bit because I really like Dom’s character even though some of the fandom say he’s not worth caring about. Haha it might just be because I heart the actor lol.
Freya: I heart his character in skins. It’s the contemporary version of unrequited love I think. He finally sees the trees through the forest and consequently decides it’s eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth so to speak. Screws her over (literally) just like she did him. as eff peels her layers off, you see the real dom for what he really is. Hiding behind this nice guy facade. It’s bitter sweet when eff resorts to sexual play. It’s comforting but saddening to see she hasn’t quite grown. She’s hidden under this pseudo-profession. Texting via phone sucks. Too many theories, not enough fingers… Aaaah wish you were here!
Mata : I don’t know about him having a nice guy facade, I think Dom was genuinely a nice person. However I do believe that in that moment he might have allowed himself to believe that she wanted him despite knowing that she’d only really started talking to him for information to get ahead. Effy may have developed feelings for him but not of a romantic nature and he realised that during that scene. I don’t know haha, I’m just trying to understand it. Someone quoted my review in a forum and said I either disregarded generation one’s resolutions or just forgot, I sort of forgot lol but mainly because even though there were some resolutions not everything was tied up in a pretty knot. And Skins Fire was just following Skins protocol heh. I wish I was there too! =[

The final series trailer is finally out! Here’s what we know so far: There will be 6 episodes split up into three individual stories.

‘Skins Pure’ will be centered around Cassie who’s still in New York?

‘Skins Fire’ will be centered around Effy who’s got a job, whoa.

And ‘Skins Rise’ will be centered around Cook whose life has followed the path we thought it would.

 

 

Skins Series 7 Trailer! Skins Redux

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