I guess Cook died in the last episode of Series 4 because Skins certainly has so far. It is definitely in need of a revival.
Have to agree strongly here with some of the comments.
Grace - seems to be the link between the chavette and the other group (Metalhead, friend and Franky). << Please always spell it like this as spelling it like Frankie would make me think of series 3 and 4 and make me severely depressed.
Metalhead (Rich) - seems strange as a character to be fair - not in that hes a metal head but at one point in one episode he was so much FOR being a metal head and then suddenly opened up and changed without too much to make it happen. Him changing as a person and opening up should have happened over a number of episodes rather than in one single episode as it seems very false, just as it was with Grace but not to such an extent. Grace seemed more open to start so the thought of her dressing as a Metal Head to get to know him and understand him really wasn't as bad as his sudden change.
Alo - seems the most genuine so far to me - wants to pop his cherry by any means and is trying to change his mates ways - also comes out with the typical teenage slurs of calling Rich 'gay' to wind him up which happens so much in real life as banter.
I think at the moment, as we've only seen 2 episodes, the characters do not seem as complex as what has gone before them but then again, some people could go through the whole of series 3 and 4 and still not understand Effy as she was so complicated it was beyond belief.
Its not as bad as it could have been and obviously time will tell whether this series will get better. After the first episode with Franky and the gun stand off plus the random guy who turned up, I think thats going to come back into play possibly in Series 6. Its usually in the 2nd series of a generation that takes the darker turn.
To me this is series may be good but I don't think it'll be as great as I though the 2nd generation and the 1st generation were. After seeing the characters so far in series 5 I am very happy that the film is being based mainly on the 2nd gen of characters.
I highly expect more complicated characters to come into it in the next few episodes.