We blogged last year about the first season of the British teen drama Skins. Set in Bristol, it focuses on the lives of eight friends between the ages of 16 and 18 – including an out gay character, Maxxie (played by Mitch Hewer). Although it was refreshing to see an out gay teen who was confident and popular, the ensemble nature of the drama meant that Maxxie didn’t get much development last season. And the plotlines he did have also seemed to revolve around other people’s reactions to him – his Muslim best friend Anwar’s struggle to accept his sexuality, for example, or his heteroflexible friend Tony’s experimental attempts to seduce him.

The first episode of the second season of Skins premiered in the U.K. on Monday night. And although the characterization overall on the show is pretty shallow, there are signs that Maxxie may get a beefed-up plotline this time around. In the season premiere, we saw him being homophobically hassled by a group of boys who live near him – one of whom fairly clearly has the hots for him. This was confirmed later on when, having been chased by the homophobes and got away, Maxxie finds himself tackled to the ground and kissed by the boy, Dale. Initially indignant, Maxxie said “Dale, you can’t just treat me like shit and then just…” before evidently deciding “what the hell” and kissing him anyway.

While storylines involving homophobic abuse and closeted homophobes might seem like earnest clichés for a gay teen character, Skins prides itself (sometimes a little too much) on being politically incorrect and “edgy”. Consequently, Maxxie seemed totally unfazed by the persecution, even when a whole group of boys were chasing him. Having easily escaped from them, he muttered below his breath “tossers”.

Similarly, when he kissed Dale, it came across as being less because of low self-esteem or a willingness to tolerate a closeted boyfriend, than as simple pragmatic sexual opportunism – of a kind in which the other characters in the show regularly indulge.

More on Maxxie and a clip after the jump...

Ed Droste, the openly gay lead singer of Grizzly Bear, updated the band's blog with a recounting of how, for over a year (and for reasons known only to him), he’s been hounding band member Dan Rossen to record a cover of cheese-filled Top 40 hit 'Too Little Too Late’ by Jo Jo.

In honor of Ed’s 29th birthday last month, Dan finally delivered, and the song is included in the post. It’s a surprisingly straight-faced cover, and it’s pretty spectacular. Ed goes on to write a bit about the critical response to the recently released "Friend" EP, working with Feist for Grizzly Bear's next album, how his Thanksgiving went, and includes a few various MP3’s.

As a bonus, at the end of the post, Droste adds his picks for the best albums released in 2007. It looks to be a pretty solid list, though I’m a little distressed about the number I haven’t heard yet.

Check out Ed’s picks after the break.