In this new series, Effy kicks everything off by entering the adult world and working in finance. Also two reoccurring characters are back with Effy, and they are: Naomi and Emily. But Emily is only going to be in the second part, she wasn't in the first part of the story. In London, Naomi and Effy are living together and it seems that their friendship isn't all plain sailing and Effy is the one with any income as Naomi just sits on her backside smoking and drinking...and failing as a stand-up comedian. Kaya was brilliant in this episode, you can see that she's so eager to get into the adult world but deep down, she's still that teenage Effy and a little out of her depth, that's just my opinion. I really liked the pairing of Effy and Naomi, I feel that in previous series from now, we all would of thought that it was going to be Effy in Naomi's position and Naomi in the high end job. I really like how they work together, I felt it was very convincing and there's obviously more troubles to come and heartbreak, as I will talk about later on in the post.The episode is also full of a great supporting cast with the likes of Lara Pulver playing Victoria, Craig Roberts playing Dominic/Dom and Kayvan Novak playing Jake. Craig Roberts out of the three is my favourite, I've not been a fan of Craig's work before, I found him slightly irritating and annoying, which I know is a stupid thing to do. However, in this he's a breath of fresh air...he plays the part perfectly and he has that 'cute' schoolboy likability to him and he's obviously smitten with Effy and he plays the whole character of Dominic to a T. I feel that Lara and Kayvan's performances was also very plausible and very convincing, I especially loved Lara in this episode. When I seen Kaya and Lara together I just thought that they could be sisters! Also what is talked about on social networking sites is that Kayvan (Jake) has a lot of resemblance to Freddie which...is a little sad seeing as he isn't the actual Freddie.
I feel as a whole, not only has Effy grown up but the show has grown up too. It's not all parties, drugs, sex and giving your fish Viagra...it's much more than that. I feel that's what people are not seeing with this, they thought that it's going to be like the classic Skins, but it's not and they said that right from the start when they released that it's going to be ending. It's got a much more darker, richer feel to it and in a way, a cinematic style to it too.
Now, let's talk about Naomi shall we? Well, right from early on in the episode when Naomi has pain in her stomach, it already prefigures that something isn't at all right with Naomi, something is very, very wrong. As soon as I saw that, I knew that she was going to have cancer. I felt like Dan on Big Brother shouting "I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT!" and jumping up and down on the sofa...but I didn't. I feel that it was good to have Naomi having cancer because I feel that cancer isn't necessarily highlighted on TV with young adults, it's usually middle aged women and I feel that with Skins' reputation of highlighting important issues with young adults, this was a very good thing for me, especially to see. I just hope we get to see some happiness with Emily and Naomi before she dies...or perhaps she might not, but I think it's going to be fatal for Naomi. Lily Loveless plays Naomi with excellence, her funny, witty, quirky portrayal of the character and engages the audience and draws them in, going on this journey with her. I'm intrigued on how the Naomi part of the episodes is going to play out.As a whole, I feel this was a very pleasing episode, a good opener and a good build up for the next concluding part of Effy's story. Effy is one of my favourite characters on Skins and on TV in general, she's just such a strong, complex character but she has her flaws. Like most good characters has, flaws. Let's just look forward to the concluding part of Effy's story and Skins: Pure and Skins: Rise with Cassie and Cook.
I'll review the second part of Effy's story next week after the episode airs. Thank you for reading, you can follow me on Twitter: @coreyterrett
