Series 6

The Sixth Series of Skins originally aired on E4 from January 23, 2012 to March 26, 2012.

Series 6 continues to follow the "third generation" of characters, which are featured in both Series 5 and Series 6.

As Series 7 will be a wrap-up series for the whole show, there will be no "fourth generation".

In terms of the show's continuity, Series 6 begins about 3 to 4 months after the end of "Everyone" (episode 5.08), two weeks before the beginning of a new academic school year.

Further, the characters are now in their second (and final) year of sixth form (equivalent to senior year of high school in North America).

Cast
The sixth series retained the eight major characters from the fifth series but added a ninth to the main cast.

Dakota Blue Richards returns as Franky Fitzgerald, who seems to have begun a relationship with Matty, and is now "altogether pretty different, eh?"

Freya Mavor returns as Mini McGuinness, who after dealing with her issues in the previous series, is "less of a bitch, more of the group - she's had to do some growing up of her own."

Sean Tale returns as Nick Levan, now Mini's ex-boyfriend who's "had a heavy summer. Rugby's out - partying's in; how long can it last?"

Jessica Sula returns as Grace Violet, who although is not married is "still with Rich, still lovely."

Laya Lewis returns as Liv Malone, who is "Still Liv, still partying, still into Matty? We'll see...".

Will Merrick returns as Alo Creevey, who is still living life off the cuff, which begs the question if "it's time for Mr. Creevey to grow up?"

Alex Arnold returns as Rich Hardbeck, who is "still looking rather smart sans metal mullet: is this a sign of his new found maturity?"

Sebastian De Souza returns as Matty Levan, who seems to have begun a relationship with Franky, as "it's time for Matty to stop lurking in the corners and join the gang."

Newcomer Sam Jackson was added to the cast as Alex Henley, who is simply described as a "mysterious flirty new guy."

Daniel Black also returns as major supporting character Rider, who is still going through life "like a boss."

Crew
With Series co-creator Jamie Brittain deciding to step down from working on the show, Toby Welch and Neil Duncan were initially expected to be the the show runners for the sixth series. However, with the US adaptation's cancellation, Series co-creator Bryan Elsley returned as showrunner, with Welch and Duncan instead becoming producers.

John Griffin was originally expected to serve as the only executive producer for the sixth series. However, due to the US adaptation being canceled, George Faber, Charlie Pattinson, and Bryan Elsley returned as executive producers alongside Griffin.

The sixth series is produced by Company Pictures.

The main staff writers for the sixth series include Jack Lothian, Laura Hunter, Daniel Lovett, Sean Buckley, Geoff Bussetil, Georgia Lester, and Jess Brittain. Bryan Elsley, having previously said at the conclusion of Series 4 that he would no longer write for the show, wrote (or co-wrote) multiple episodes in the sixth series.

Toby Welch, Neil Duncan, and Letitia Knight serve as producers for the sixth series.

The regular directors for the sixth series include Jack Clough, Ian Barnes, Ben Caron, and Samuel Donovan.

The sixth series' incidental music is composed by Fat Segal, who also composed the show's opening theme.

The sixth series' theme song is a remix of the official theme tune used for Series 1; however, it is also a different remix from the ones used for Series 2, Series 3, Series 4, and for Series 5.

Episode List
* A^ All ratings are official ratings taken from BARB's database, unless otherwise stated. Total viewers include include official BARB ratings for E4 and unofficial overnight ratings E4+1, on-demand/catch-up TV viewing, and all personal video recorder requests on services such as Sky+ and Freeview+. * B^ All ratings are official ratings taken from BARB's database, unless otherwise stated. Total viewers include unofficial overnight ratings for E4+1, as they were not in the top 10 rated E4 +1 programmes for that week. * C^ All ratings are official ratings taken from BARB's database, unless otherwise stated. Total viewers include unofficial overnight ratings for E4 and E4+1, as they were not in the top 10 rated E4 and E4+1 programmes for that week.

Online Content
Unseen Skins and Skins: Lock-In are a series of canonical online-exclusive mini-episodes that fills in a narrative gap somewhere in the timeline from the episode it correlates to.

Prior to the premiere of the Sixth Series, three Unseen Skins "mini-sodes" were released on E4.com.

Skins: Lock-In debuted after the premiere of the Sixth Series. Functioning similarly to Unseen Skins, most of the mini-sodes were not in video format, instead being photos, blog posts, twitter feeds, music, etc.

Commercial
To advertise the sixth series of Skins, E4 created a trailer of the cast looking downtrodden and forelorn in various dark locations intercut with various clips from the sixth series. However, it is much darker compared to the fifth series' trailer, as it reflects the darker tone of the sixth series. The song used in the trailer is "Seekir" by Zola Jesus.



Two other trailers were released, the first featuring "Rivers" by Kankouran and the second featuring "Repatriated"﻿ by Handsome Furs.

Reception
The Sixth Series received mixed reviews in the UK, with many saying it was a definite loss in quality when compared to the previous Series.

DigitalSpy.com gave the Series a positive review, stating "Now that felt like Skins, right? After an agonizing wait for the brand new series, we finally got to spend some time with the characters again - and in a rather good episode, too. This first episode of Skins has set some things up very nicely indeed... bring on the rest of the series!"

Metro.co.uk gave the Series a mixed review, stating "In its day, Skins has taken us high, raising the bar for youth oriented drama with stories and characters that stretched wider than an age-defined target market. It feels mean writing these words about a show that, in its way, blazed a trail for the likes of Misfits and The Fades. But on this evidence the appeal of Skins is failing fast."

The Yorker gave the Series a mixed review, stating "But what always used to make Skins great was that it didn’t need adrenaline-filled chases or melodramatic action sequences - just a coherent, relatable storyline. Not every episode can rely on a massive car crash to keep the audience’s attention. To be honest, this episode was just one big car crash… Almost literally. Skins has become shallow, borderline offensive, and… just a bit dull. If it wasn’t for an exciting ten minutes near the end of the opening episode, it would have been almost completely without redemption."

Scotsman.com gave the Series a negative review, stating that "The only thing that truly changes about the E4 show is its main cast; an entire two-season overhaul means we should be nearing the end of Skins 3.0 but it barely matters as the writers (all 148 of them) are locked into a loop of repeating structures, echoing relationship dilemmas and eerily similar character arcs with ever-decreasing rewards."

However, reception was generally more positive in the United States.

Grandland.com gave the Series a highly positive review, stating "Lack of subtlety is not, of course, solely the domain of Skins. Lack of subtlety, from The O.C. to Gossip Girl to whatever the person who runs the CW is green-lighting as you read this, is a teen show must-have. The difference is that Skins’ lack of subtlety is used to a different end. The underlying concept is that this is a teen show as seen from the point of view of those excitable teens (and, again, as written and acted by them). That’s why every adult is so horrendous, why each party feels so epic, why every heartbreak is so crushing. The level of mania was established from the get-go; it’s an idealized form of teen life, one that constantly whiplashes between triumph and destruction. And underneath all that, the writers get to stitch together their convincing human relationships. Besides whatever unique qualifications Skins has to claim the teen-TV title belt — the juiced-up rashness, the total lack of sentimentality in dumping characters, the killer soundtrack — there’s also this: Sometimes, the show hits upon some things I’ve never seen on TV before. That means it’s an increasingly heightened battlefield. But I believe in Skins."

DenofGeek.com gave the Series a generally positive review, stating that "All of that considered, this sixth series premiere, the second for the current generation of Roundview students, does a fairly decent job of reintroducing the characters while throwing in a game-changing ending that's sure to alter the dynamic and structure of the rest of the series. I've always felt that individual episodes show Skins at its very best, but I also understand that ensemble episodes are sometimes a necessary evil."

International Airdates
BBC America chose not to air the Sixth Series in North America. However, it is available on Netflix's Instant Watch.