Skins Season 2 (2008)

"What if... I'm not ready for this?"
"You kind of need to be."

Season 2 continues with the same cast of characters, now somewhat fragmented in the aftermath of the events of season 1. Their friends and relationships shift and change as they deal with a new host of problems such as long distance relationships, remarriage of parents and others all while their last year together comes to a close and the beginning of their adult lives looms ever closer. This very much improved the series as the problems had more emotional weight than the first season while still retaining some of the wacky hijinks and humor. Gripes of the first season are also fixed as Tony is no longer spending the entire show being a douche-bag since having a big serving of humble pie and Jal is given far more to do than her non-entity status of the first season.

Now that most characters have more interesting plots to resolve, Maxxie and Anwar are largely pushed aside with only one comical subplot to occupy them. Maxxie shares his character-centric episode with Tony and Anwar doesn't even get one this time around. That feels like a wasted opportunity since Maxxie's homosexuality and Anwar's conflict with his religious beliefs were interesting subplots of the first season, but there is enough going on in this season to occupy time that you most likely won't notice unless you really like them.

Tony's transformation is a very interesting center of the plot, but the stand-outs are still Cassie and Chris. Cassie finding an equilibrium between her odd personality and making a relationship work is as entertaining and endearing as it was in the first season and Chris' problems play out in funny and emotional ways as his screw-ups catch up to him. The theme of shifting to adulthood runs throughout this season and makes it more relatable. Much improved over the first season.

Episodes to See:
Sid - Full of drama and I just particularly like Sid.
Cassie - We get Hannah Murray playing her crazy alter ego and a lot of things come to a head in this episode.

Episodes to Avoid:
There are no particularly bad episodes, but you could skip the episode Sketch if you really had to since it deals with the unimportant Maxxie/Anwar subplot.

Buyer's Guide:
Available as a 3-disc set and as part of larger 3-season and 4-season box sets.

4 sisters masturbating with a disability toilet out of 5