The Worst Death in Film History (Skins)

Is hands down the worst character death that has ever been written in film history. So a little backstory.

Anybody familiar with this channel knows that I adore Skins, more specifically, the first generation of Skins, but that's not what I want to talk about today despite the comparisons I will be making. As I'm sure you can tell, we're here to talk about the climax of the second generation, honing in on one of the series' most infamous moments, which you just viewed, the death of Freddy.

Now let's begin with the scene itself, before delving deeper into the wider Skins storyline, and how detrimental this moment is as a whole.

The scene begins in decent enough Skins fashion, with an intentionally offputting interaction between Freddy, Effy, and the future murderer John Foster, which transitions into a mini-dialogue between Freddy once again, and Effy's mother, a touching moment designed no doubt to lower your defenses as a viewer.

The biggest issue begins soon after however, when Freddy and Foster share a 1 on 1, and it becomes abundantly clear just how terrible of a character this therapist is. John Foster is so 1 dimensional, and it's especially clear in a show that is almost built upon the complexity of it's characters, which I think was a huge issue with this second generation as a whole. The only quirk John Foster has is that he's a weird creep who's awful at his job, like unbelievably awful, like there's no way the writers thought anybody could realistically invest themselves in a story where someone as blatantly unqualified as this would be able to secure such a dangerously influential position around children.

Additionally, the one-dimensionality of the second gen's main cast is somewhat exposed. Starting with Freddy himself, a complaint much of the community has is that outside of his undying love and borderline obsession with Effy, there is absolutely zilch to his personality. He is easily one of the most boring characters of the entire franchise.

Effy's flatness and dullness is also evident at the scene's beginning. She did indeed have her moments as a well acted, suffering, drug addicted, hedonistic young teenage girl (play clip) but for the majority of the time, she's much like this, utterly helpless, a total shell of the dark personality she once was in the previous generation.