'Skins' review: British teen drama survives move

Last year, the former music video network offered the savvy sitcom "The Hard Times of RJ Berger," about a freakishly well-endowed high school nerd that quickly became more than the sum of its, uh, part.

Tonight, MTV brings out a potentially bigger gun with "Skins," an American remake of the controversial British series of the same name, now in its fifth season and created by Bryan Elsley after his son, Jamie Brittain, then 19, told him none of his peers would be interested in most TV shows created by adults.

In its early years, what raised British eyebrows about "Skins" was its in-your-face frankness about drugs, sexuality and language among everyday teenagers. Now, five years on, there's less controversy, in part because viewers have gotten used to the show and because it's not quite as edgy as it at least seemed to be in its first season.

If you've seen the British version, the first episode of MTV's "Skins" will feel somewhat familiar as we're introduced to high school hottie Tony (James Newman), dripping with oily charm and cool self-confidence - the kind of kid who thinks the world was created for him to manipulate as needed.

His best friend, Stanley (Daniel Flaherty), is a desperate virgin who can't eat lunch without getting half of it all over his face and who is not very secretly in love with Tony's girlfriend, Michelle (Rachel Thevenard). When Tony decides to focus on finding an accommodating female to liberate Stanley from the "desperate virgin" category, it may be out of actual affection for his scrawny pal, but it's more likely that Tony just finds it momentarily amusing.

The other major characters include Tea (Sofia Black-D'Elia), who is open with her friends about being a lesbian but not with her family; Chris (Jesse Carere), a sweet-natured kid whose insatiable consumption of drugs and sex masks a deeper loneliness not readily apparent to his friends; Abbud (Ron Mustafaa), whose strict Muslim family would never approve of his typical teenage fascination with drugs, sex and rock music; and Cadie (Britne Oldford), beautiful but damaged, in and out of rehab as she tries to moderate her self-esteem issues with drugs.

How close is the American version to the original? While some plot elements and characters have been imported intact from the United Kingdom, the American show makes its own statement and will move away from its British roots in future episodes. A few character names have been changed, for no readily apparent reason - Stanley used to be Sid, Cadie used to be Effy, Abbud used to be Anwar - and at least in the first four episodes, the character of Maxxie, the proudly out gay boy from the British show, is MIA.

The cast members, most of whom have little or no previous film experience, are appealing in their own way, but a few performances stand out: Flaherty's floppy-haired Stanley, Black-D'Elia's Tea and Carere's big-hearted party boy, Chris.

It isn't entirely fair to compare the casts of the British and American "Skins," but note that the original advanced two significant careers: those of Nicholas Hoult, who played Tony, and Dev Patel (Anwar), who went on to co-star in "Slumdog Millionaire."

Even if you never saw Hoult's astoundingly self-focused turn as Tony, though, Newman comes up short here. He certainly looks right for the key role of the manipulative heartthrob and, in repose, he projects a properly icy air of superiority. But his acting feels a bit too much like acting, especially compared to the more naturalistic performances of Flaherty, Black-D'Elia, Oldford and Carere.

Although punches are pulled, especially in the area of which words are bleeped and which aren't, "Skins" remains edgy enough to offend some viewers. So why should we bother? Because the dirty little secret of "Skins" is that, beneath the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll beats an almost old-fashioned drama. For all their brash talk and apparent indifference to the possibilities of consequence, the "Skins" kids are all trying to figure out who they are, and even the most self-assured remain more clueless than they let on. The more we learn about the kids, the more universal and, often, poignant their stories become.

E-mail David Wiegand at dwiegand@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle