so what is it about the british television series skins that tick me? i’m not sure. probably because 16-year-old characters are potrayed by actual 16-year-olds. probably because they don’t look so impossibly good-looking it makes you want to jump off the roof (i feel that way about dustin milligan. he’s so impossibly beautiful i want to just give up). probably because the scriptwriters are amazingly crazy—they came up with the such of ‘bollocky wankshite’ and much more (i have memory problems ever since i smoke too much).

anyway as we all know skins recycle their entire cast every two seasons, because, of course, who stays in high school for more than two years? (unless you are nobita, whom ever since i was in 2nd grade until i got my bachelor degree, stayed in the fourth grade) i was completely amazed by how they developed the characters of the first generation (1st and 2nd series), but my current favourite charater is james cook of the second generation. he is, if i’m correct, being potrayed by jack o’connell. of course, growing up with american television most of my life, their accents and charisma still throws me off sometimes, but cookie (as this james character is usually called) is just an explosion of personality i’ve never seen before on telly (seen once or twice in real life. hardly have the energy to keep up with them). cookie is a sociopathic, drug-loving, random-fucking, out-of-this-world schoolboy who deals with everything with a crazy laugh and even sicker solutions, but his actual life problem is so touching i always end up wanting to hug him and tell him everything’s going to be okay.
i’m now still waiting (as everyone else) for skins season 4 to air. i think it’s scheduled next year. it’ll be cookie and his friends’ last season before they graduate and get replaced with new student casts. now i’m still replaying skins season three, episode 10, where cookie meets with his father (who abandoned him) and said my two favorite lines from him, “the fuck with all of you.” and “now i’m going to drink myself to death.”
cheers to you, jack o’connell.


left to right: luke pasqualino as freddie, ollie barbiero as jj, and jack o’connell as the infamous james cook a.k.a cookie.

more on skins can be found at: you can google it yourself.