girls rock !!

If we think of the past 12 months in terms of a teen tv drama triathlon - competing on acting, storylines and style - the results are in.

Overall, 2009 has been a great year for teen drama series, with some ongoing quality and a few outstanding performances. For us, Skins has been the best in a number of ways. There are excellent features in some of the other series as well, so here is a summary of the shows and our medal table.

Skins - UK - series 3 - Gold Medal

Now in its third season and with a deliberate freshening of the characters and cast, Skins has been praised worldwide, including Gordon Farrer writing in Melbourne’s The Age newspaper. He called it “refreshing, entertaining and worthy” and decided it should be “compulsory viewing for parents of teenagers as much as for teens.”

Alongside the many acting, writing and production awards, Skins has led the field with clever, up-to-the-minute marketing. The show has won Best Advertising Campaign and Best Interactive Marketing awards in 2008. The actresses are sure to be nominated as well for their parts in Skins (photo 1 shows Effy on the cover of Super Super).

Skins scorecard 2009
Acting - 5 stars
Storylines - 5 stars
Style - 5 stars

Gold Stars this season
Emily Fitch (photo 2), superbly played by this season’s outstanding new talent, Kathryn Prescott.
Naomi Campbell in wonderful, understated performances by Lily Loveless which, at times, have chilled with their perfection.
Katie Fitch portrayed in blazing performances by Megan Prescott.

Silver Commendations this season
Pandora Moon, whose bright and colourful performances are handled by Lisa Backwell.
Karen Mclair had extremely impressive early showings by Klariza Clayton.

Gossip Girl - USA - series 2 - Silver Medal

While nowhere near the grit and “real life” tone of Skins, the second season has done a few things really well. And while not as “sexy” as the books, the tv show suggests enough teenage game-playing and bed-hopping to echo the lives - if not the money - of many. Gossip Girl is also better than many other teen dramas which are little more than paper-thin storylines of the soap variety.

Gossip Girl scorecard 2009
Acting - 4 stars
Storylines - 4 stars
Style - 5 stars

Gold Star this season
Jenny Humphrey is one of the youngest of the Gossip Girl characters and rapidly rose to a central role. This has been an impressive season for Taylor Momsen (photo 3) in the role, as both her real-life acting and modelling have fused in one key role.

Silver Commendation this season
Blair Waldorf as the “queen bee” has been both a problem and a clever story hook. The haughty, beautiful and insecure character is played with skill by Leighton Meester.

90210 - USA - series 1 - Bronze Medal

Created as a contemporary spin-off from Beverly Hills, 90210, the all-new 90210 is not that new. There are still many early weaknesses like goody-goody central characters (Annie, Navid) and cardboard-baddies (Adrianna). However, the cast is rich with adult and teen characters with space to grow, and the arrival of Rebecca Rand Kirshner (formerly of Gilmore Girls and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as executive producer/showrunner should see some deeper storylines.

90210 scorecard 2009
Acting - 4 stars
Storylines - 4 stars
Style - 4 stars

Gold Star this season
Erin aka Silver is one of the major characters to return from the original series. Her blog The Vicious Circle often leads to conflict. As a number of the other characters are still one-dimensional, and because the role is played with flair and strength by Jessica Stroup (photo 4), Silver stands out so far.

An extended review and more detail can be found at Cheerleaders in High Heels .

According to Dan, too much of life in high society is “reading, writing and aristocrats” and perhaps that is true off screen as well as on.

In our favourite show we hate ourselves for loving, Blair is on the warpath and, as usual, will probably hit the wrong target. The vendetta against Jenny will bring long term bad karma - we hope.

Serena is off the rails again and will end up in the gutter again, but not before she wrecks more lives, again. Sigh.

Meanwhile, back on the catwalk, disaster is averted: “How handy is it that society girls are so thin.” Although the storylines are a bit cringeworthy, Gossip Girl still acts as a great mirror on the rather fine line between fact and fantasy in our modern world.

One of those girls, Poppy, may be bringing some common-sense to the mix, and certainly looks amazing on the runway, although I doubt she will last long in the same circles as Blair.

Speasking of, loved the Blair “mix-up” which totally backfired and gave Jenny her big break.

And love that Jenny finally told her dad that she may be more talented than him, and also is not afraid to chase her dreams. He has been a limp wimp all through - and definitely no match for Lily.

XoXo - Blogit Girl

Photo shows Serena (sorry Blake Lively) in the real world, wearing Oscar de la Renta.

Teen drama on TV has the power to make stars of both upcoming child actresses and new entrants into the profession. There are many examples of both programmes and the stars they have made, so the return of 90210 will be an interesting exercise.

Will it be possible for the newcomers in 90210 to compete with Gossip Girl and the massive popularity of its stars like Blake Lively. For example, Tiffany Amber Thiessen (photo left) was in 5 seasons of the former show. There has also been a, perhaps unexpected, series of successes for Skins internationally, even in the very competitive American market.

Taking the process of introducing new people to new levels, the creators of Skins announced there would be virtually an entire cast change after every two series, introducing a new group with just one or two characters carrying over to provide necessary links. The open auditions for season 3 (in effect the second generation of cast members) were held in Bristol in the UK where the show is set. They attracted 1,500 young hopefuls in the 16-18 years range, followed by a further 2 days of auditions in London.

Skins achieves viewing figures at around 60% of its target TV demographic, the 16-24 age group. It will be interesting to see how the twins (and real-life sisters) Emily (Kathryn Prescott) and Katie (Megan Prescott) develop as the season progresses, especially as they seem to be getting quite a lot of screen time in the early shows.

For example, time will tell if the new stars of these current shows reach the popularity (and notoriety, even) of earlier actresses like Tiffany Thiessen (she has dropped the Amber now) and Shannen Doherty.