JJ (Skins episode)
Encyclopedia
"JJ" is the seventh episode of the third series of the English teen drama
Skins
, which first aired on 5 March 2009 on E4 in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The episode was written by the series' co-creator, Bryan Elsley
, and was directed by Charles Martin. The episode focuses on the character of JJ Jones (Ollie Barbieri
), who has Asperger syndrome
, and his confusion about his life and his desire to be normal. He strikes up a friendship with Emily Fitch (Kathryn Prescott
) and attempts to solve the dispute between his friends James Cook (Jack O'Connell
) and Freddie Mclair (Luke Pasqualino
) over their shared love interest, Effy Stonem
(Kaya Scodelario
).
"JJ" was filmed in November 2008. Barbieri undertook various measures to get into his character's mindset, including research, creating part of the set himself, and later destroying it. The episode featured numerous cameo appearance
s by the series' crew members. "JJ" drew just under one million viewers on its first broadcast and was E4's highest-rated programme of the week. It was received generally well by critics, though the writers' decision for Emily to have sex with JJ drew criticism from the lesbian community.
to him and he shares with her his longing to be "normal" for a day so that he could lose his virginity and reunite Freddie and Cook. She advises him to just ask for the things he wants, so they visit Freddie to tell him to make up with Cook. At Freddie's house, though, they walk in on Freddie having sex with Emily's twin sister, Katie (Megan Prescott
), and JJ accidentally reveals that Emily is a lesbian
, leaving Katie looking visibly shaken. JJ asks Freddie to make up with Cook, but Freddie refuses and tells JJ to choose between him and Cook.
Returning home, JJ sees his mother, Cecilia (Juliet Cowan
), overwhelmed by all of his issues and blames himself. He calls Cook to tell him how he feels, but Cook is preoccupied with having sex with a girl who JJ assumes is Effy. When he visits Effy, however, she reveals that she has not seen Cook in days. He asks her to leave Freddie and Cook alone; she refuses but offers to be his friend. JJ then visits Cook and discovers that he is having sex with their friend Pandora Moon (Lisa Backwell
). Pretending not to have seen this, he then confronts Cook about ruining their friendship with Freddie. Cook tells JJ that he loves him and brings JJ with him to buy drugs. They are almost arrested and, after running from the police, JJ pressures Cook into taking his prescription drugs instead before they meet their friends at a club. In the queue, Effy tells Naomi Campbell (Lily Loveless
) that she knows about Naomi and Emily's relationship. Naomi reveals that she is unsure of her sexuality
and realises that Effy is in love with Freddie, not Cook. JJ and Cook arrive and Thomas Tomone (Merveille Lukeba
) lets them into the club where British electronica duo You Love Her Coz She's Dead
are playing, announcing that Emily is already inside. Cook gets into a fight on the dancefloor and Freddie moves in to help when he discovers that JJ gave Cook his prescription drugs.
Cook, under the influence of JJ's drugs, is compelled to tell the truth and confesses that Effy loves Freddie. Cook says that he loves Effy, but knows his feelings are not reciprocated and that is why he is having an affair with Pandora. Thomas, Pandora's boyfriend, overhears this and is furious. JJ leaves the club and finds a tearful Emily, who does not want to go home to face Katie. JJ invites her to spend the night with him and, after they agree to be friends, she gets him to have sex with her, as a "once-only charity event". JJ's mother meets Emily the next morning and watches them discuss the night before. She is overjoyed that he has made a real friend and believes that JJ will be alright after all.
. He said that, in initial episodes, he played JJ as "quite mad and I jumped around a lot", though by this episode his portrayal was "watered down a bit". Charles Martin shot an unscripted scene that involved Barbieri destroying the set of JJ's bedroom; Martin believed this would help Barbieri to get into JJ's mindset. Barbieri was also able to learn more about his character by creating the collage in JJ's room himself, in which JJ has tried to organise his thoughts about his friends and his life. Martin said that he and Barbieri had a "very involved director-actor relationship" and that he enjoyed "JJ" the most out of all the episodes he directed in the series. According to runner Laurence Wigfield, JJ's clinic was described in the script as "a desolate shabby place, the kind of place you went to die", with the bracketed suggestion of Fishponds Studio, where the Skins offices are. Though Wigfield initially "couldn't believe" this, the studio was used for filming the scene, which Wigfield admitted "worked quite well". The scene in which JJ and Emily bond after meeting at the clinic was filmed in Bristol
's Brandon Hill
Park, near Cabot Tower
.
Skins assistant director, Seth Adams, had a cameo appearance
as a nurse at JJ's clinic, while floor runner Tom Meakin featured in a minor role as a policeman. The men who fight with Cook at the club were played by members of the Skins crew, Chris "Fagin" Lynd, Toby "Ziegler" Welch and "The Slasher". The show's location manager appeared in a non-speaking role as a mental patient being pushed in a wheelchair at the psychological clinic. The episode's soundtrack comprises mostly piano works composed by Claude Debussy
and recorded by David McGuinness. This was the result of a suggestion made by Bryan Elsley for Debussy's music to accompany an entire episode.
, E4+1.
"JJ" was received generally positive reviews from mainstream critics. One critic for PopSugar.com
"love[d]" JJ's friendship with Emily and his mother's smile at the end of the episode, which they felt was "a touching moment to end with". They credited Cook's likableness, in spite of the character's flaws, to O'Connell's "great" acting. Ellie Newton-Syms of InJournalism Magazine wrote that "digging into slightly deeper issues is what Skins is good at" and "there is clearly lots left to be revealed", as signified by Cook's drug-induced revelation that he has "nothing". Digital Spy
's Dan French reviewed the episode positively, finding JJ to be a "lovable" character. He considered Cook's confession that Effy truly loves Freddie and the revelation of Cook's affair with Pandora to be "shocking". Fergus Shiel of The Sydney Morning Herald
called "JJ" a "top episode", praising its portrayal of "teenage uncertainty that pack[s] an emotional punch". Keeley Bolger, writing for The Sun
, sympathised with JJ, commenting that "JJ's drama doesn't end".
The episode drew criticism from the lesbian community, however. Kate Murray of lesbian-based website AfterEllen.com regarded Emily's willingness to have sex with JJ as the use of a "classic and highly offensive stereotype" and felt that this "undermine[d] what it means to be a lesbian". She thought that the episode fell short of the previous episode, "Naomi
", which focused on Emily and Naomi's relationship, suggesting that this could be because "Naomi" was written by a 19-year-old female, Atiha Sen Gupta, while "JJ" was written by Elsley, a 47-year-old male. The entertainment editor for eurOut.org
, a website for European lesbians, was critical of the episode, writing, "Welcome to the wonderful world of television, where being a lesbian and sleeping with men always goes hand in hand." She did believe, however, that Emily's coming out to JJ was "very funny" and Effy's nonchalance about Naomi's sexuality was "cool".
Teen drama
A teen drama is a dramatic television series with a major focus on teenage characters. The genre was relatively non-existent for the first 45 years of television; it came into prominence in the early 1990s...
Skins
Skins (TV series)
Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness , adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death...
, which first aired on 5 March 2009 on E4 in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The episode was written by the series' co-creator, Bryan Elsley
Bryan Elsley
Bryan Elsley is a Scottish television writer, known most notably for the co-creation of E4 teen drama Skins with his son, Jamie Brittain...
, and was directed by Charles Martin. The episode focuses on the character of JJ Jones (Ollie Barbieri
Ollie Barbieri
Ollie Barbieri is a British actor, best known for his role as JJ Jones in the hit British TV drama Skins.- Career :In 2008, he was cast as JJ Jones in Skins.He was later cast as Enrique in Anuvahood....
), who has Asperger syndrome
Asperger syndrome
Asperger's syndrome that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development...
, and his confusion about his life and his desire to be normal. He strikes up a friendship with Emily Fitch (Kathryn Prescott
Kathryn Prescott
Kathryn "Kat" Prescott is an English actress. Born in Southgate, London, Prescott is best known for her portrayal of teenager Emily Fitch on the teen drama television series Skins.-Career:...
) and attempts to solve the dispute between his friends James Cook (Jack O'Connell
Jack O'Connell (actor)
Jack O'Connell , is a British actor, from Alvaston, Derby, England. He went to St Benedict Catholic School and Performing Arts College...
) and Freddie Mclair (Luke Pasqualino
Luke Pasqualino
Luke Pasqualino is an English actor, best known for his portrayal of Freddie Mclair in the television series Skins.-Early life:...
) over their shared love interest, Effy Stonem
Effy Stonem
Elizabeth "Effy" Stonem is a fictional character in the television series Skins, played by Kaya Scodelario. She is the only main character to appear in more than two series. She appears in all of the first four series...
(Kaya Scodelario
Kaya Scodelario
Kaya Rose Scodelario is a British actress and model. She is best known for her role as Effy Stonem in the E4 drama Skins.-Skins :...
).
"JJ" was filmed in November 2008. Barbieri undertook various measures to get into his character's mindset, including research, creating part of the set himself, and later destroying it. The episode featured numerous cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
s by the series' crew members. "JJ" drew just under one million viewers on its first broadcast and was E4's highest-rated programme of the week. It was received generally well by critics, though the writers' decision for Emily to have sex with JJ drew criticism from the lesbian community.
Plot
JJ visits his psychiatrist, Dr Felly (Paul Ridley), seeking help for his recent bouts of rage and his confusion about his life and friends. Dr Felly has poor advice for JJ and prescribes him more drugs to calm him down. As he is leaving, he meets Emily, who came to the clinic to receive counselling in being more honest, but was simply prescribed the same drugs as JJ. She comes outComing out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
to him and he shares with her his longing to be "normal" for a day so that he could lose his virginity and reunite Freddie and Cook. She advises him to just ask for the things he wants, so they visit Freddie to tell him to make up with Cook. At Freddie's house, though, they walk in on Freddie having sex with Emily's twin sister, Katie (Megan Prescott
Megan Prescott
Megan Elizabeth "Meg" Prescott is a British actress who is best known for her role as Katie Fitch in the double BAFTA-winning teen drama Skins.-Background:...
), and JJ accidentally reveals that Emily is a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, leaving Katie looking visibly shaken. JJ asks Freddie to make up with Cook, but Freddie refuses and tells JJ to choose between him and Cook.
Returning home, JJ sees his mother, Cecilia (Juliet Cowan
Juliet Cowan
-Career:She may be recognizable to fans of ITV1 cop drama The Bill when she guest starred in over 20 episodes as Julie Saunders, the mother of the boy who accused PC Tony Stamp of sexual assault...
), overwhelmed by all of his issues and blames himself. He calls Cook to tell him how he feels, but Cook is preoccupied with having sex with a girl who JJ assumes is Effy. When he visits Effy, however, she reveals that she has not seen Cook in days. He asks her to leave Freddie and Cook alone; she refuses but offers to be his friend. JJ then visits Cook and discovers that he is having sex with their friend Pandora Moon (Lisa Backwell
Lisa Backwell
Lisa Backwell is a British actress, best known for her role as Pandora Moon in the hit British TV drama Skins.-Career:...
). Pretending not to have seen this, he then confronts Cook about ruining their friendship with Freddie. Cook tells JJ that he loves him and brings JJ with him to buy drugs. They are almost arrested and, after running from the police, JJ pressures Cook into taking his prescription drugs instead before they meet their friends at a club. In the queue, Effy tells Naomi Campbell (Lily Loveless
Lily Loveless
Lily May Loveless is an English actress, best known for her role as Naomi Campbell in the BAFTA award winning drama Skins.-Career:...
) that she knows about Naomi and Emily's relationship. Naomi reveals that she is unsure of her sexuality
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
and realises that Effy is in love with Freddie, not Cook. JJ and Cook arrive and Thomas Tomone (Merveille Lukeba
Merveille Lukeba
Merveille Lukeba is a Congo born, British actor, best known for his role as Thomas Tomone in double BAFTA-winning E4 teen drama Skins.Born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, he was raised in Woolwich, southeast London....
) lets them into the club where British electronica duo You Love Her Coz She's Dead
You Love Her Coz She's Dead
You Love Her Coz She's Dead are a British electronic music duo formed in 2007 whose music has been compared to acts such as Digitalism, Crystal Castles, The Prodigy, and occasionally Daft Punk...
are playing, announcing that Emily is already inside. Cook gets into a fight on the dancefloor and Freddie moves in to help when he discovers that JJ gave Cook his prescription drugs.
Cook, under the influence of JJ's drugs, is compelled to tell the truth and confesses that Effy loves Freddie. Cook says that he loves Effy, but knows his feelings are not reciprocated and that is why he is having an affair with Pandora. Thomas, Pandora's boyfriend, overhears this and is furious. JJ leaves the club and finds a tearful Emily, who does not want to go home to face Katie. JJ invites her to spend the night with him and, after they agree to be friends, she gets him to have sex with her, as a "once-only charity event". JJ's mother meets Emily the next morning and watches them discuss the night before. She is overjoyed that he has made a real friend and believes that JJ will be alright after all.
Production
"JJ" was filmed in November 2008 in the same production block as the series' eighth episode, "Effy". Ollie Barbieri did some research to help him in playing JJ, who has Asperger syndromeAsperger syndrome
Asperger's syndrome that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development...
. He said that, in initial episodes, he played JJ as "quite mad and I jumped around a lot", though by this episode his portrayal was "watered down a bit". Charles Martin shot an unscripted scene that involved Barbieri destroying the set of JJ's bedroom; Martin believed this would help Barbieri to get into JJ's mindset. Barbieri was also able to learn more about his character by creating the collage in JJ's room himself, in which JJ has tried to organise his thoughts about his friends and his life. Martin said that he and Barbieri had a "very involved director-actor relationship" and that he enjoyed "JJ" the most out of all the episodes he directed in the series. According to runner Laurence Wigfield, JJ's clinic was described in the script as "a desolate shabby place, the kind of place you went to die", with the bracketed suggestion of Fishponds Studio, where the Skins offices are. Though Wigfield initially "couldn't believe" this, the studio was used for filming the scene, which Wigfield admitted "worked quite well". The scene in which JJ and Emily bond after meeting at the clinic was filmed in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
's Brandon Hill
Brandon Hill, Bristol
Brandon Hill, also known as St Brandon's Hill, is a hill close to Bristol city centre, between the districts of Clifton and Hotwells, in south west England....
Park, near Cabot Tower
Cabot Tower (Bristol)
Cabot Tower is a tower in Bristol, England, situated in a public park on Brandon Hill, between the city centre, Clifton and Hotwells. It was constructed in memory of John Cabot, 400 years after he set sail in the Matthew from Bristol and landed in what was later to become Canada. The foundation...
.
Skins assistant director, Seth Adams, had a cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
as a nurse at JJ's clinic, while floor runner Tom Meakin featured in a minor role as a policeman. The men who fight with Cook at the club were played by members of the Skins crew, Chris "Fagin" Lynd, Toby "Ziegler" Welch and "The Slasher". The show's location manager appeared in a non-speaking role as a mental patient being pushed in a wheelchair at the psychological clinic. The episode's soundtrack comprises mostly piano works composed by Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
and recorded by David McGuinness. This was the result of a suggestion made by Bryan Elsley for Debussy's music to accompany an entire episode.
Reception
"JJ" brought in 997,000 viewers and was E4's highest-rated programme of the week with an audience share of 4.8 percent. Another 325,000 viewers watched the episode an hour after its initial broadcast on E4's timeshift channelTimeshift channel
A timeshift channel is a television channel carrying a time-delayed rebroadcast of its "parent" channel's output. This channel runs alongside their parent: the term "timeshift" does not refer to a network broadcasting at a later time to reflect a local timezone unless the parent is also available...
, E4+1.
"JJ" was received generally positive reviews from mainstream critics. One critic for PopSugar.com
Popsugar
PopSugar.com is Sugar Publishing's celebrity news and gossip site. Founded in March 2005, the site is based in San Francisco, California.PopSugar is the flagship site for the Sugar Network, which now includes nine additional sites.-Editors:...
"love[d]" JJ's friendship with Emily and his mother's smile at the end of the episode, which they felt was "a touching moment to end with". They credited Cook's likableness, in spite of the character's flaws, to O'Connell's "great" acting. Ellie Newton-Syms of InJournalism Magazine wrote that "digging into slightly deeper issues is what Skins is good at" and "there is clearly lots left to be revealed", as signified by Cook's drug-induced revelation that he has "nothing". Digital Spy
Digital Spy
Digital Spy is a British entertainment and media news website. According to Alexa Internet traffic statistics, as of February 2011, Digital Spy is the 93rd most popular website in the United Kingdom, with an overall Alexa ranking of 2,088....
's Dan French reviewed the episode positively, finding JJ to be a "lovable" character. He considered Cook's confession that Effy truly loves Freddie and the revelation of Cook's affair with Pandora to be "shocking". Fergus Shiel of The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
called "JJ" a "top episode", praising its portrayal of "teenage uncertainty that pack[s] an emotional punch". Keeley Bolger, writing for The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
, sympathised with JJ, commenting that "JJ's drama doesn't end".
The episode drew criticism from the lesbian community, however. Kate Murray of lesbian-based website AfterEllen.com regarded Emily's willingness to have sex with JJ as the use of a "classic and highly offensive stereotype" and felt that this "undermine[d] what it means to be a lesbian". She thought that the episode fell short of the previous episode, "Naomi
Naomi (Skins episode)
"Naomi" is the sixth episode of the third series of the English teen drama Skins, which first aired on 26 February 2009 on E4 in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The episode was written by Atiha Sen Gupta and Jack Thorne, and was directed by Simon Massey...
", which focused on Emily and Naomi's relationship, suggesting that this could be because "Naomi" was written by a 19-year-old female, Atiha Sen Gupta, while "JJ" was written by Elsley, a 47-year-old male. The entertainment editor for eurOut.org
EurOut.org
eurOut.org, founded in September 2008, is a European website dedicated to bringing their readers the latest news about lesbian and bisexual women in entertainment and politics in the English language. The website was founded by Sandra Showtime who also functioned as its editor-in-chief until...
, a website for European lesbians, was critical of the episode, writing, "Welcome to the wonderful world of television, where being a lesbian and sleeping with men always goes hand in hand." She did believe, however, that Emily's coming out to JJ was "very funny" and Effy's nonchalance about Naomi's sexuality was "cool".