IMHO: "Skins" Episode 202: "All About Eve" meets "Fatal Attraction"

Since the second season  of BBC America's teen drama Skins recently aired its second episode, I thought it time to check in again on Maxxie (Mitch Hewer), the show's gay character. At the end of last season, I had mixed feelings about the show, finding it stronger at the end then at the start.

So IMHO, how is Skins faring thus far? Much to my surprise, I have to give it an up arrow. Find out why after the jump!

At the end of last season, Maxxie and his best friend Anwar had started to reconcile their falling out over the conflict between Anwar's religious beliefs and the fact that Maxxie is unapologetically gay. Season One also ended with Tony (Nicholas Hoult) getting run over by a bus. 

Mitch Hewer and Nicholas Hoult in Skins

For Maxxie fans, the first two episodes of Season 2 are easily the best of the series so far with Maxxie getting a great deal of screen time as he is the lead in Osama the Musical (I kid you not), coping with his father's refusal to let him pursue his dreams of dancing, and helping Tony cope with getting run over.

Maxxie and his father bonding

Then there is Sketch, the psycho girl who stalks Maxxie, photographs him incessantly and behaves as if she's starring in a teenage version of Fatal Attraction before pulling an Eve Harrington in order to play opposite Maxxie in the Osama the Musical. (The singing bagel crushed by the falling towers is worth the price of admission alone). Maxxie breaks Sketch's heart when, after kissing her in the play's big love scene, he very appropriately tells her he felt nothing and she is a rotten person for poisoning the original leading lady.

Sketch doing her version of Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction

After the play, Maxxie's father ultimately relents and Maxxie gets permission to pursue his dreams of being a dancer which he proceeds to do.

Now I'm free to dance like a gay cliche!

And even poor Sketch gets laid rather than drowned in the tub by Michael Douglas and then shot by Anne Archer.

Personally, I find the show MUCH improved over most of the first season which had the teens behaving monstrously toward each other and the adults as utter buffoons. But with Anwar's father accepting Maxxie's gayness in such a believable fashion at the end of Season One, I now find both the adults and the teens behaving like believable characters that I actually like spending time with.

That being said, as much as I like Maxxie and Mitch Hewer's portrayal of him, he is a bit of a cliche — fabulous dresser, dreams of being a dancer — but in the end, I can actually give this episode and the series overall an up arrow. 

Now it's your turn. What are your thoughts on the new season?