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Hannah Murray, Pure, review, Skins, Skins Pure, TV
Warning: This review contains spoilers for the Skins episode ‘Pure: Part Two’
What’s been most interesting about this season of Skins is watching it break away from the stylistic and narrative choices. While the second part of ‘Fire’ was a step in the right direction, it seemed to keep that same rise-and-fall dynamic that characterised the first six seasons. ‘Pure: Part Two’ is different because it completely maintains the tone and style of its predecessor, it doesn’t fall back on the same tricks, which helps to elevate it (and ‘Pure as a whole) above the story that came before it.
‘Pure: Part Two’ begins with Cassie taking a trip to Wales, which, on account of her father’s presence, and his inability to deal with the loss of Cassie’s mother, carries with it the ghosts of the past, and exactly the kind of harsh reality that her relationship with Jakob allows her to try and avoid. The landscapes of Wales, and indeed every image of ‘Pure’ is wonderfully captured, which seems fitting for something in which photography plays such a major role. It is at once distancing and intimate, a fascinating contradiction.
While, as with the episode before it, ‘Pure’ is truly Cassie’s story, and Murray is once again spectacular, Neil Morrissey’s performance as Cassie’s father Marcus is excellent. As a man who cannot let go of the tragedies of his past, Marcus finds solace at the bottom of a vodka bottle, and while we never see the impact that this has on him, the damage it does to his home situation is made clear by the cold alienation that Cassie greets him with, as well as the stern indignation that Jakob shows him (in one of his disappointingly few interesting moments).
Cassie returns to London afterwards, and during a night out at a club, discovers that Jakob’s pictures of her have gone viral, and are being projected onto a screen in the club. Skins does a lot of nightclub related shtick, but this time its done differently. This time it’s not about excess and parties, this time its genuinely rooted in a character, and the direction and below the line work manages to make one of the many Skins scenes set in a nightclub into something genuinely interesting. It’s after this that the plot develops more. Cassie is introduced to a photographer at the cafe and does a paid photo-shoot.
‘Pure’ isn’t without problems. A lot of the scenes after the photo-shoot often veer dangerously close to covering typical Skins ground (which ‘Pure’ almost entirely avoided), especially when Cassie seems to rekindle her brief passion with Yaniv, who, after discovering Jakob is still stalking Cassie, runs out into the rain to beat him up. Jakob as a character is someone I have problems with as well. A bit like Dominic in ‘Fire’, he’s simpering and disappointingly un-engaging, even though there was a lot of potential for interesting material across from Cassie.
Fortunately, those are basically the only issues I had with ‘Pure’. It ended on a much lighter note than ‘Fire’ – which was something of an emotional wringer in places – which makes it perhaps the only Skins story to not have positive conclusions overshadowed by negative ones. Cassie looks after Ruben (her brother), after Marcus goes away on a trip to try and escape the past, she even goes so far as to say “everything’s good” (a phrase that wouldn’t normally be associated with the end of a Skins story).
‘Pure: Part Two’ picks up wonderfully from where the first part left on, creating some of the best television Skins has ever produced. It’s engaging, unique and wonderfully realised. A meditation on the past, the future and the little moments in between, ‘Pure’ – when taken as a feature of both episodes – is a minor masterpiece.
Episode Grade: A-
Episode MVP: Hannah Murray