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"&amp;quot;Do they even still have raves?&amp;quot; Anyone still reeling from the pitch-black Skins Fire and hoping to find a little light relief in Skins Pure can guess again. As with its predecessor, there&amp;#039;s little of the debauchery here that once made E4&amp;#039;s teen drama so notorious - in its place is the grim notion that once your youthful exuberance has dried up, there&amp;#039;s little waiting for you in the &amp;#039;real world&amp;#039; but disappointment.  Hannah Murray&amp;#039;s Cassie - last seen fleeing to New York following the death of Skins favourite Chris (Joe Dempsie) - is now spending her days working in a sweaty London caf\u00E9 and her nights in a raucous bedsit. Life seems to have worn Cassie down a little and she&amp;#039;s a less whimsical, more grounded character than the one we knew in 07-08 - the &amp;#039;Wow&amp;#039; count is at zero, for one thing. She&amp;#039;s perhaps a little less enchanting as a result, but also feels more like a real person than she did previously and, returning to the role that made her name, Murray remains a compelling watch. The thrust of Skins Pure concerns Cassie&amp;#039;s discovery that she&amp;#039;s apparently being stalked - with a mystery photographer posting secretly-snapped images of her online. Unlike Fire, this instalment features just one major character from series past - though Neil Morrissey does appear (initially in voice only) as Cassie&amp;#039;s dad.  Now I&amp;#039;m not of the opinion that this final run of Skins &amp;#039;movies&amp;#039; should simply act as fan service, but equally, some questions feel like they need answering. Sid&amp;#039;s complicated relationship with Cassie was crucial to both characters&amp;#039; journeys in the show&amp;#039;s first two series and in brushing it off in such a passing fashion, Skins Pure feels incomplete. Her new suitors leave a lot to be desired too - first, there&amp;#039;s rather unsavoury colleague Yaniv (Daniel Ben Zenou) and then there&amp;#039;s Jakob (Olly Alexander) - a nervy and obsessive photographer who, it transpires, is the one behind Cassie&amp;#039;s new online following. Perhaps it&amp;#039;s just me, but Skins Pure felt like it was on slightly dubious moral ground here - the suggestion that Cassie should be grateful for Jakob&amp;#039;s odd attentions seems a little perverse. Her initial reaction - to belt him one - seems like the appropriate response.  The &amp;#039;Jakob idolising Cassie&amp;#039; angle - with lines like &amp;quot;People look at you - I think you like it&amp;quot; - feels creepy and no amount of twee piano twinkling on the soundtrack is going to convince me that it&amp;#039;s anything else. It&amp;#039;s perhaps not surprising that Skins Pure shares the same strengths and weaknesses as Fire - with uniformly solid acting, writing and direction, it&amp;#039;s definitely worth buckling down and persevering with. But lacking as it does a sense of fun, some may find it too heavy-going to handle. So far, this series of Skins has been easy to admire, but difficult to really enjoy. On that basis, I&amp;#039;m hoping Cassie gets a happy ending next week - us Skins fans could use it.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/skins/review/a498517/skins-pure-review-hannah-murrays-cassie-faces-tough-times/>