The MTV’s Skins of the title serves as a double entendre, referencing both the bare skin on frequent display and the paper used to roll joints. The series centers on high schoolers engaged in a array of bad behavior, from drug to sex. Tony, the ringleader with a choir-boy face and a bad-boy swagger, torments his father and preys on his classmates like a smirking demon. Goofball friend Stanley obsesses over his porn collection. Chris makes crass come-ons to his appreciative social sciences teacher. Cadie embalms her dead hamster and hangs it from the ceiling. Oh, and she'll sleep with anyone if they'll bring her drugs. By comparison, Tea, a promiscuous, self-possessed lesbian cheerleader, practically qualifies as a role model. Daisy (Camille Cresencia-Mills) is the most responsible member of the gang.

When the original "Skins" made its 2007 debut across the pond, it generated substantial buzz for its frank scenes tied to sex, substance abuse, unwanted pregnancies and eating disorders. Bolstered by young writers and a raw cast of unknowns, it delighted in pushing broadcast boundaries.

"Back in 2008, The CW network rolled out a controversial 'OMFG' ad campaign for its series, Gossip Girl," writes Lisa Chudnofsky on the network's Remote Control Blog. "Parents and religious groups were up in arms over its scandalous posters, which featured half-naked Upper East Siders, mid-hookup, and looking pretty excited about it. The images were raunchy, but we can't exactly judge—if MTV were to put up a billboard that encapsulates its provocative new series, Skins, it might … say something like 'OMFG. No Really, OMFFFFFG!'" 

Or, put more succinctly by Hank Stuever in The Washington Post, "By and large, Skins is a repugnant, irredeemably nihilistic viewing experience for grownups—the very thing for which 'off' buttons are made."

Perhaps, though, it's the "Defamer" on gawker.com who best captured what I found especially bothersome about the show by nailing down the idea that Skins defames the very people it's supposed to attract: "[It] present[s] the thesis that kids really are as adults supposedly see them—messy jumbles of extremes with very little shading in between, lacking in kindness, decorum, and any sense of responsibility or consequence. It's a pretty bleak and unfair characterization.

Teenagers are dumb, yes, but they're not monsters. … I wish television and movies would stop trying to tell us they are."

Of course, if you know anything about the public life of teenagers, you know that even these teens aren't monsters. They're just kids who desperately need help. But on Skins, there's no help coming. And that makes this series the most depressing teen fantasy we've ever laid eyes on. It depicts adults as moronic and ineffectual, even though polls suggest that teens actually see the adults in their lives as positive influences and "family" as paramount. And while the kids on Skins live for the next party, today's youth are working harder than ever at school and plotting out their college course load and future careers. Studies suggest that for real teens sexual promiscuity and overall drug use may have actually gone down over the last decade, while responsibility and charity have gone up. 

Not that Skins will ever breathe a word of that. This show stubbornly stays true to its ringleader, Tony, manipulating its viewers and leading them into a world both repulsive and unreal.