S1E8: There’s not really much to say about last night’s episode of Skins. Pretty much, it illustrated everything that’s wrong with the show: the terrible, terrible acting. For the first time in the US version’s short life, I was actually angry while watching. In previous weeks, the show would usually have one or two scenes rebounding the terribleness of the rest of the episode by featuring an actor who could actually hold a scene, but in “Daisy,” we weren’t that lucky.
“That’s what you do, right? You fix everything.” -Abbud
We open with Daisy, the focus of this week’s episode. And apparently — as we’ve learned throughout this season — Daisy fixes problems within the group. That’s just what she does. So Abbud and Stanley are hanging out, looking for her advice as she waits on them. She obliges, and they all make plans for her to fix everything. The catch is that, yes, Daisy does fix everyone’s problems, but she also has a lot of problems of her own. It turns out, her mom left a long time ago and her father is still very angry about it. He felt abandoned and therefore takes it out on Daisy and her sister.
Surprisingly, I didn’t have that much of a problem with Daisy’s father being so one-dimensional. Sure, it seemed a little extreme considering the circumstances, but I’ve never been put in that type of situation (my wife leaving me), so I find it difficult to judge his reaction. Maybe I would become a cold, dark-hearted man who hated the rest of the world, no matter what.
“That piano ruined everything.” -Daisy’s Dad
We also learn that Daisy is an incredibly talented trumpet player and that her entire family is musically inclined: her sister can rap, her father used to play piano and her mother is a famous singer. Daisy wants to attend a summer camp for music, but her father won’t have it. He tells her that music leads to a life full of dead ends and disappointments. Even though he’s probably right, it still crushes Daisy because she loves music more than anything else in the world. When she’s not studying, working or fixing her friends’ problems, she’s playing the trumpet.
Seeing Daisy in this position is sad. And honestly, if Camille Cresencia-Mills had any sort of acting talent whatsoever, this episode could have been very moving, and dare I say it, endearing. But because I didn’t buy her character, I didn’t buy her character’s problems either.
“That money you’ve been putting by for that dumbass audition? I’ll take it now.” -Daisy’s Dad
Daisy’s sister, who we learn is kind of a little brat, has a party that wrecks the house. While sneaking away with Abbud to explore their new “friends with benefits” relationship, Daisy catches her sister in the act and realizes that if she doesn’t clean up the trashed apartment, her dad will be extremely upset. Abbud gets the idea to call in the rest of their friends to help, and they all show up. Since everyone is fighting, when they see each other, they all immediately start to, well, fight again. Daisy puts a stop to it, claiming that she’s helped them enough over the years and that it’s time for them to repay her. So they all join forces and start to clean, only to realize that her father’s stand-up piano had been flipped on its side and destroyed. They cover it up and clean the rest, but leave the piano destroyed. Later, with the need to cover rent, her father looks to sell the piano and finds it destroyed.
“You got your ax?” -Daisy’s Dad
Her father demands the money that Daisy had been saving for her audition, but she doesn’t give it to him. Abbud convinces her that she should focus on the audition and use it for that, and she agrees. So, she goes to the audition and enters the room to play for the judges, but right before she starts, she freezes. She decides she can’t do it, rushes out of the room, and goes to buy a new piano for her father — just before he arrives at her audition, ready to finally support her love of music. Then, her father arrives home to find the new piano and his two daughters. He’s overwhelmed and sits down to play a song, with Daisy joining in on the sax.
In all honesty, this episode didn’t have a tremendous amount of problems outside of the acting. Sure, the plot was a little predictable, but c’mon, this is a teenage melodrama. The plots are going to be predictable. My issue is that the acting in “Daisy” was just leaps and bounds worse that previous weeks. Even the supporting actors they introduced (like Daisy’s father, her teacher, her sister) just didn’t click. Everything felt forced. And when things are forced, in the end, they never work too well.
