Why it’s probably best to stop rewatching Skins, and preserve the good memories we have of it

We all love Skins. I know I do. The first time most people watch it (before the countless times that follow after that) is in those late high school years, bingeing compulsively to see what any member of the Stonem family will do next to screw up somebody's life completely. We watched hoping desperately that all the drugs, parties and good times that the three generations encounter would be in store for us upon getting to college, only to be met with some weird middle ground between that and The Inbetweeners.

But is Skins' "rewatchability" going to be the thing that kills our enjoyment of it?

I began watching Skins again recently, and I noticed something. As a 19-year-old uni student, I couldn't relate to the stories this show was trying to tell anymore, at least not to the same extent. Skins broke new ground when it began in 2007 with its unflinching representation of what it's like being a teenager living in the UK, covering topics such as sexuality, drug addiction and mental illness. However, no matter how great a set of characters are or how much we enjoyed their stories, it's always going to be an uphill battle continuing to be able to relate to people experiencing a period of their lives which for you, sadly, is pretty much over.

Gone are the days when we could watch Skins as high school students with something to look forward to and then again as college students, comparing our experiences with the likes of Tony, Chris, Effy and Cook. Now we don't have any A-levels to revise for, no real/present attachment to what it means to be 17 and discovering all these new things for the first time. Unlike a show like The Inbetweeners which will most likely always be funny, the emotional and dramatic core of Skins has always been what made it so good, with the more we keep watching it as we get older leading us to resonate with what will inevitably become 'a nostalgic show about teenagers' less and less. Do you really think we'll look at Skins the same way when we're 25, 35 or even 50?

Skins ended in 2013 after a respectable seven series, and with everything it gave so many people, it should always be acknowledged as one of the greatest shows to ever grace our screens. I understand why it gets revisited so often by people, myself included, but I think the best way to honour such an essential part of our youth is by leaving it as exactly that, a memory of something from our past that we cared about and loved deeply. Otherwise, all we'll be left with is something that we barely recognise and disregard while we continue to grow and change, which in my opinion would be a disservice to something so valuable.

Much like the show itself, I think it’s time to move on and allow a new generation to discover Skins and everything it has to offer just like we did, that way it'll be preserved and adored by many more sesh-heads to come.