Series 4

The Fourth Series of Skins originally aired on E4 from January 28, 2010 to March 18, 2010.

Series 4  continues to follow the "second generation" of characters, which are featured in both Series 3 and Series 4. They are replaced in Series 5 by the "third generation".

This is the first series that did not have any character video diaries, unlike the previous three series.

In terms of the show's continuity, Series 4 begins 3 to 4 months after the events of "Finale" (3.10).

Further, a new academic school year has begun, with the characters now in their second (and final) year of sixth form (equivalent to senior year of high school in North America).

Cast
The fourth series retained the nine main leads from the third series.

Kaya Scodelario returns as Tony's younger sister Effy Stonem, who after the fallout with Freddie, Cook, and JJ, seems to have dissapeared, begging the question "What has Miss Stonem been up to since sailing away?"

Lisa Backwell returns as Pandora Moon, Effy's best friend who after reconciling with Thomas, "Miss Moon got to live happily ever after. At least for the summer. So now she's giving the rest of the gang career advice".

Merveille Lukeba returns as Thomas Tomone, now with his family living in Bristol, "How's Thomas settling in to Bristol life?"

Jack O'Connell returns as James Cook, who after seemingly rejected by Effy, it is unclear if "Cook get the girl?"

Luke Pasqualino returns as Freddie Mclair, who after the fallout between him, JJ, and Cook, it is unsure if "they still the Three Musketeers or has a certain someone gotten in the way?"

Ollie Barbieri returns as JJ Jones, who seems to be the least affected by the fallout, begging the question "how have our Three Musketeers fared since we saw them last? Allow JJ to explain using metaphors and a bit of physics".

Real life twins Megan Prescott and Kathryn Prescott return as identical twins Katie Fitch and Emily Fitch, respectively. Katie, having finally acknowledged her sister's homosexuality, "how is Katie since rock-gate and finally letting go of that sister of hers?" while Emily, now in a relationship with Naomi, seems "much happier than ever before".

Lily Loveless returns as Naomi Campbell, who now fully accepting of her own sexuality and in a relationship with Emily, seems to be "even more passionate and reckless".

Klariza Clayton also returns as secondary character Karen Mclair, who now having given up her goal as being singer, has decided to become a hair dresser and has strengthened her relationship with Freddie.

Crew
Series creators Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain served as show runners for the fourth series, however only Elsley served as an executive producer, along with Charles Pattinson, George Faber, and John Griffin.

The fourth series was produced by Company Pictures.

The main staff writers for the fourth series were Jamie Brittain, Ed Hime, Ben Schiffer, Georgia Lester, Sean Buckley, Lucy Kirkwood, and Bryan Elsley.

Christine Healy served as the producer for the fourth series.

The regular directors for the fourth series were Neil Biswas, Philippa Langdale, Esther May Campbell, and Daniel O' Hara.

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

The fourth 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 and for Series 3.

Episode List
* A^ All ratings are official ratings taken from BARB's database, unless otherwise stated. Total Viewers include official E4+1 ratings.

* 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.

Skins Shorts
Skins Shorts 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. During the course of Series 4, nine "mini-sodes" were released on E4.com the day after each new episode aired.

All the mini-sodes were eventually included as a special feature on the DVD release of Skins: Complete Fourth Series, but can be viewed on the Official YouTube Channel.

Commerical
To advertise the fourth series of Skins, E4 created a trailer featuring the cast in scenes from the Series, but in an abstract art style. However, the trailer is much darker compared to the third series' trailer, as it reflect the darker tone of the fourth series. The song used in the trailer is "The Reeling (Bubblegum remix)﻿" by Passion Pit.



Character centric trailers for each of the main leads were also released. The songs used in these trailers include "New Theory" by Washed Out (Effy), "Fighter Plane" by Ellie Goulding (Naomi), "Contact" by Foreign Beggars and Noisia (Thomas), "When I'm With You" by Best Coast (Katie and Emily), "Lust For Life" by Girls (Freddie), "It's﻿ Nothing" by A Place To Bury Strangers (Cook), "Diminishing Return" by Ali Love (JJ), and "Low Shoulder" by Toro Y Moi (Pandora).

Other promo trailers were also released, featuring "Drop Down" by Designer Drugs and "It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry" by Glasvegas.

Reception
The Fourth Series received mixed reviews in the UK, but with higher praise than compared to the previous Series.

Criticism was especially placed on the darker tone of the Series, which critics and fans alike deemed too dark in comparison to the previous three series. Others criticized the Series' storylines (most explicitly the John Foster-Effy-Freddie storyline) for being ultimately mishandled, as they believed the show was unable to decide which storyline would be the main one; thus, many storylines were deemed erratic and rushed with no big payoff at the conclusion of the Series.

The Guardian gave the Series a positive review, especially praising how the show dealt with teenage sexuality (most explicitly the Naomi and Emily relationship), stating "The best scenes in Skins aren't about sex, they're about characters trying to figure out what to do afterwards. Take away the programme's outlandish plot devices and rampant sex scenes, and what remains is a surprisingly accurate portrayal of adolescence's emotional roller-coaster: the terror of falling in love, the attitude that mistakes insouciance and hardness for independence and strength, and the aggressive posturing that screams "don't touch me, I don't need you" but whispers "if you leave me I'll die". In short, it's about being a teenager."

BritFilms.tv gave the Series a mixed review, stating that "[Skins] has always attempted to be brave television and usually succeeds, with risqué storylines and characters alongside quite controversial issues but sometimes, like in most of this, the latest series it tries too hard."

Reception in North America was similarly mixed, but also more positive than compared to the previous Series.

Denofgeek.com gave the series a positive review, stating "Skins seems to have learned from the myriad of mistakes in the last series on the evidence of Series 4, with the cast this time round seem a lot more confident in their performances. Future episodes seem promising enough, though, and, hopefully, the shorter run will result in tighter writing than the bloated and unfocused third series. Maybe E4's flagship drama can finally come of age this time round.

DVDTalk gave the series a mixed review, stating that "Series 4 still struggles to juggle its cast as fluidly as the first generation. Although [the Sophia storyline] is a clever way to tie most of the characters to the same central "hub" in different ways, it's still imperfect. JJ, for instance, plays almost no part in the incident, and although his "featured" episode is a charming one, it's totally separated from pretty much anything going on during the overall arc. Other plot developments, such as the growing rift between Emily and Naomi, unnaturally sit in a holding pattern until the writers can devote an episode to it. The idea of giving each character (or most of them, anyway) an entire episode focusing on them is a strong one, but the writers need to work harder to make sure it remains a plus rather than a hindrance. But for the most part, the Series showcases a cast that survived the growing pains of a television show in flux, and continues to deliver a similar, if not quite the same experience that fans became hooked on in the first place."

International Airdates
BBC America chose not to air the Fourth Series in North America (it was instead available on Netflix's Instant Watch), opting to instead release Skins: Volume 4 on DVD January 11, 2011.

Awards
Series 4 was nominated for the TV Choice Award for Best Drama, while actors Jack O' Connell and Kaya Scodelario were nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress (respectively) for their portrayals of James Cook and Effy Stonem.

Series 4 was also nominated for the National Television Award for Best Digital Choice.

Series 4 won Best TV Show at the 2011 NME Awards.