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OLIVIA ~ THE LIBRARY ~ ONLINE ARTICLES & TRANSCRIPTS |
Fox Drama 'Skin'
Sas Right
Touch Of Fast-Paced
Fun, Slick
Sex Appeal
By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff
If you were to write a book about MTV's influence on series television,
you'd have to devote a long chapter to "Skin." The new Fox drama is so video-ed
up, it practically soars off the screen. It has the head-rush pace of a TV
commercial, the artsy lighting of a Baz Luhrmann movie, the heightened
emotionality of a rock opera, the coolest-looking cribs in LA, and the comely
casting of a Calvin Klein ad. It's probably the most arrestingly beautiful of
the season's many new series, a model artifact of our visual culture. Now, of
course, I'm supposed to remind you that beauty is only skin deep, and tell you
that beneath its pretty surface, "Skin" is pretty shallow -- for short attention
spans only.
But the show, which premieres tonight at 9 on WFXT-TV (Channel 25), is
also an irresistible guilty pleasure, a darker cousin to Fox's other guilty
pleasure, "The O.C." Predictable yet addictive, it's a prime time soap opera for
people who shamelessly enjoy melodramatic ado about nothing even remotely
attached to reality. Hurrying breathlessly from cross-generational family
screamfests and tender romantic love scenes to high-stakes business deals,
"Skin" is "Dynasty" for speed freaks.
Like "The O.C." (which returns Oct. 29),
"Skin" targets two age groups at the same time. It's a classic "Romeo and
Juliet" tale, featuring a pair of star-crossed teens and a set of warring
parents. The plot toggles between the innocent wanderings of the hip young
lovers, Adam (D.J. Cotrona) and Jewel (Olivia Wilde), and the cynical battles
among the adults. The reason for the family clash? Adam's district attorney
father, Thomas Roam (Kevin Anderson), is on a holy mission to bring down the
pornography empire owned by Jewel's father, Larry Goldman (Ron Silver). While
the kids are feverishly instant-messaging each other and doing the "From Here to
Eternity" thing in the waves, his dad is trying to throw her dad into jail.
The show pulls a neat twist, in that
despite their porn link, the Goldmans are portrayed as a happy, morally
conscious family, and the righteous Roams are a total mess. Goldman is intensely
bonded to his daughter, and when he learns that his company has unknowingly
supported a child-porn site, he mutters -- as only Silver can mutter -- "I hate
kiddie porn. There's a reason we call it adult entertainment." And Jewel is
comfortable with her father's business, telling Adam, "We're more like the
Osbournes than Ozzie and Harriet." On the other hand, Roam is a stranger to his
family, and Adam hates him for his showy crusading and his obsession with public
image. "Skin" isn't nuanced, but it does manage to slip in this little
unexpected gray area amid all the bursts of color. If you're looking for a
dramatized condemnation of the porn world, you've come to the wrong show -- and
network.
Naturally, there's some flashing of flesh
in the premiere, usually courtesy of strippers in the background, or the
wet-T-shirted prancings of Cotrona and Wilde. The show is titled "Skin" not
simply because it's about the porn industry, but you probably knew that already.
Matthew
Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company. |
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"It’s
actually been really fun. We get along really well, Olivia’s a cool girl and
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that they bring on the show to be my love interest."
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