You're not alone every night I stand in your place

The new skins is back on the 27th of January, if the trailers anything to go by I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it. Series four of Skins was rather disappointing, yeah the kids were wearing the right things listening to the right music but Freddies murder at the hands of crazy train John Foster really??!! I stand to be corrected but I really think Skins has run its course. There was something about the first and second series of Skins that was gritty and course, even the characters were a little more dishevelled, instead of pertaining to the hipster trend that followed later. There was drugs, sex and lots of weed which were shocking when it debuted first but now it feels like producers are clinging to shock value in a feeble attempt to retain its already skeptical fan base. I wouldn't be surprised if Taylor Momsem joined the gang at this stage. If the producers learned anything from the fourth series then perhaps they'll develop the characters more instead of loosely tying the plot together in a fitting finale. Really though are we expected to believe that Panda secretly studied for Harvard exams, if my memory serves me correctly she seemed to spend a lot of time frolicking around on MDMA. Hopefully the fashion will continue to inspire, please bring us another Cassie Ainsworth, Effy and Co as wonderful as they were never quite filled the vacuum.

Seriously though Skins has the platform to be great, to really show people whats going on out there, its 2011 and things have changed. It is hard growing up, no other generation is subjected to such levels of technology and media influence as teenagers growing up today. Although the show may be glamorised it cant be denied that teenagers are drinking more, taking drugs and having sex at an early age. Look around Dublin, you'll see this culture everywhere set alight in every pub and every club. This is the culture we're growing up in whether people like to believe it or not.

An American version of the show has been aired on MTV and of course its facing the same lynch mob the UK version did. The New York Daily News has expressed that the shows " marketing campaign itself makes light of lying to parents and participating in all manner of harmful, irresponsible, illegal and adult themed behaviour." And so it begins. Its quite hard for me to fathom that parents really believe they can shelter there kids from doing these things or seeing these images of supposed hedonistic activity. Knowledge is power, things will never change if people are too scared to acknowledge whats going on. Unfortunately until parents choose to educate instead of condemn,the age gap will never be bridged. I really love that Marvis Staples song Your not Alone especially when she sings "every tear on every face tastes the same". We're not lifetimes apart people drank too much, experimented with drugs and their sexuality in the 50s/60s/70s too but now the situation has got worse, so lets make an effective system to reduce teen suicide, reduce drug addiction and teen pregnancies. That will never be accomplished by a mob mentality or the burning of books so to speak. Let teenagers see what these things do to you, how can you be afraid of something you've never seen? I didn't mean to turn this post into a rant, but its an argument worth having even if its with myself.