botherd | Huh.

I was going to make a long rambly meta post about all the reasons why I thought Thomas's episode didn't work, but having just watched it a second time... I actually liked it quite a lot! I think it's disappointing as a series opener, because we'd been waiting ten months to see our favourite characters again and instead we got a super depressing episode that's tightly focused on a character that nobody's particularly interested in (not that people don't like Thomas, but I don't know anyone who considers him their favourite), but I found I could enjoy it more when I knew what to expect. I wasn't disappointed and frustrated by the lack of Katie screentime, for example, because I already knew about it.

Anyway, I think this is possibly why there was a difference between the way reviewers and fans felt about it? The critics wouldn't have had all the hopes and expectations that fandomers would've had for the series opener, so they could appreciate it for what it was instead of being disappointed by what it wasn't. If it was episode two or three instead, I think it might have been better received in fandom. Or, IDK, maybe people would be bored all the same - I do think there were some issues with it, and it's not amongst the best Skins episodes ever - but I enjoyed it a lot more the second time around.

And that makes me even more optimistic about Emily's episode. Is it Thursday yet?

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Wow that's pretty much exactly what I thought after rewatching. As a Thomas episode it's really good and although it's not a great opening episode, the opening scene was really well done.

I even enjoyed it a lot first time round but that may be because I love both Merv and Thomas and do feel they didn't do him justice in series 3. Although I agree that fandom has hyped up series 4 since the day after s3 ended really so it was going to be tough to please everyone.

Ep1 did have it's moments, noticably the opener and the cook/thomas/naomi pub scene. Although rewatching Effy's return really stood out as they could have made some big drama out of it but I loved that she was just back comforting her best friend. The music throughout is great and on second viewing it is a pretty funny episode at times.

Everything i've seen about ep2 looks great though so really looking forward to thursday

The opening scene was brilliant, I thought - first time round I wasn't completely blown away because I'd been spoiled and was just waiting for her to jump, but watching it again I was really impressed.

I haven't seen much about ep twp, just the trailer they aired after Thomas's ep, but it looks really good. Can't wait!

It's really funny, the whole first paragraph of this I was like YES YES WOW because it's exactly how I feel. It's not a particularly not-good episode (I don't want to say bad, because it wasn't), it just wasn't the huge, ground-breaking awesomesauce it COULD have been.

That being said, I'm rather glad they got Thomas's episode out of the way.

Yeah, I am glad they got Thomas's ep out of the way - I can't imagine he'll have a lot to do with the series-long storyline (although really, who knows?) so it makes sense for him to have his ep early on.

I'm quite glad that that was the episode opener because I'd rather get his episode out of the way. I like Thomas but I don't feel that his story will fit into the others so much and so hopefully there will be more of a continuation process with the other characters. Also something that the writers said about the death causing problems for the other sort of keeps the suspicion going because we saw Thomas go all emo over it (as well as other things) but we didn't really get that many answers apart from that it was Naomi who dealt the drugs.
Anyway 4 DAYS.

I think you're right that Thomas's story doesn't really fit well with the others - he's always seemed kind of isolated and I can't imagine him having a really prominent arc across the series. It'll be interesting to see how Sophia's death affects the others, although I'm a bit wary about the Naomi thing. We'll see!

I think the problem with ep 1 was that it was written by Jamie Brittain :/
But I dont think anyone else could have had ep 1 as their characters needs to be explored more and dead girl took up like half the ep.
Emily's will be better just because I love her, if she cried for the hour like Thomas I would still love her! But i really dont want that
I dont think it's written by Jamie, so we should be okay

It's true, Jamie Brittain's eps are never the best. I'm really curious about who's written the other episodes - I know Katie's is written by Georgia Lester, who wrote Pandora's episode last year, and that makes me really happy. I think Ben Schiffer wrote my least favourite eps last year (Freddie and Finale) so I hope he won't be writing for one of my favourite characters this year.

I was already planning to re-wtach this a few times, but I will definately do that now. If I get the same kind of insight you got it would be really helpful, cos otherwise I cannot understand why there as such a hge gap between the "proper" critics and the fandom assesment.

Also - isn't Fyfe's stuff pretty classy? I love When You Walk In The Room to pieces already.

I hope you do, dude! I think you just have to accept the ep for what it is, really.

I really like Fyfe's album! It took a while to grow on me but I like it better than the last Guillemots album now.

I never really got into the Guillemots, despite the fact that I wanted to. I think the problem was that Love Song was so fantastic, and it was used so well in Sugar Rush, that it's all I ever listen to by them.

Room was the free download from iTunes and so far all I've got off of his newest, but it really did grabme, one of iTunes better moments recently.

Yeah, I think the main problem with episode one is that it heavily focuses on a character they never gave us a chance to really feel for, and this ep would've definitely needed us to care about Thomas. Not to mention that I found the family stuff a bit weird. I mean, I was glad to get to know them more, but especially the religion angle seemingly appeared out of nowhere, so it felt a bit force, even though with hindsight it certainly makes sense for someone from Congo. And for playing it up so much it actually only ended up being either creepy (the priest) or stereotypical (with the religious girl jumping on Thomas), and didn't impact Thomas as a character on a deeper level. They could've played that one better imo.

Another problem was that the other characters barely even featured, which is always a mistake (especially for an opener). I certainly hope this episode isn't indicative for all of series four, albeit it's probably going to be less of an issue for stronger and more fleshed-out characters (ie anyone who isn't Thomas, and Katie is lucky in that she's more interesting in a way). Oh Thomas, I feel like the writers misused your potential last series, which is why now any episode that's only about you will automatically be underwhelming.

Huh.

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