SKINS

Seriously, without any hyperbole, the single greatest show about young adults that the world has ever seen. Better than Dawson's Creek, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Degrassi (both generations), South Of Nowhere, Pete & Pete, and The Wonder Years (Not that I watch these, *nervous laugh*). Better than My So Called Life. And that is not something you can claim lightly.

The cast of seasons 1 and 2 consists of:
Tony: the ring leader and all around tool
Sid: Tony's best friend, trapped in the endless love/abuse triangle of Tony and Michelle
Michelle: Tony's grilfriend, who's mother marries EVERYONE and who stays with Tony more than Jennifer Lopez in the first act of Enough
Cassie: Seriously eccentric and almost mystical in her insights, Cassie spent the first season at war with food. It just keeps trying to make her eat it.
Anwar: A Pakistani Brit who struggles with his religion versus his love of breasts and pills. And nudity.
Maxxie: Wants to be a dancer. Wants it all, really, but he cant have it.
Jal: Overachiever and musical prodigy, her father is like the British P.Diddy. Or he used to be, before her mom left. Jal always does what she's supposed to, that's soemtimes a good thing, sometimes terrible.
Chris: "No one on the corner has swagger like Chris." He is the crazyest character on the show by far, with a say yes to absolutely anything attitude and a tank full of fish hopped up on speed. Chris is the one your parents dont want you hanging out with, but also one of the greatest, well rounded characters ever on TV.
Posh Kenneth: A kid with both posh (upper class) and east london accents and personalities. He DJ's and raps as MC Toby Welch. Theres no such thing as a party without Kenneth.
Abigail: Bat shit crazy, goes to private school, would do anything to get Tony. And does.
Effy: Tony's younger sister, who doesnt speak a single word until the 8th episode. The only one who could ever outdo Tony. Effy is the only original character that will be in the 3rd season.

Season 3 premieres in early 2009, but everyone should watch seasons 1 and 2 as many times as possible before then.

THE TAKING BY DEAN KOONTZ

I've been a real fan of Dean Koontz for years, but when I read The Taking, I turned on my computer and started going over my own writing, using the digital equivalent of a red pen to dissect my own work into incomprehensible graffiti. Nothing was good enough. No point I made, no insight, no turn of phrase meant a goddamned thing in comparison to this book about an alien invasion. And when I'd finally talked myself down from that ledge, I still wanted to be a writer. Probably even more. Dean Koontz has never, in my memroy at least, wasted a word. Everything is important, much in the way that Battlestar Galactica (awesome) or Skins (too awesome for words) can take seemingly mundane information and turn it into a seizure of revelation when they finally drop the bomb. Just read it.

WHAT I'M READING: SANDMAN

There's a reason that this is the only comic series to win the World Fanstasy Award. It's completely and utterly worth reading and if you don't read it, then its because you're "utterly a banker" (a reference you won't get without reading volume 1).

WHAT I'M READING: SCOTT PILGRIM

Scott pilgrim was one of those things that I managed to avoid for years, just on the virtue of being an "art snob". I have a thing for photorealism in comics, and Brian Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim didn't appeal to that part of me. Then one day I picked up volumes 1 and 2 in the library. This isn't a review. It's a threat. READ SCOTT PILGRIM OR I WILL FIND YOU.