I watched the first season of "In My Skin" back in March of 2021 after it appeared on the best of 2020 list in the Guardian. This second and final season was apparently released late last year, a fact that had eluded me into a week or so ago, so I downloaded the season and burned through it pretty quickly. I thought the first season was funny, varied and dramatic and that Gabrielle Creevy was phenomenal. I'd say that review stands for this second season two.
With the end of school on the horizon, Bethan's (Gabrielle Creevy) thoughts turn to the future. Though her mother Katrina (Jo Hartley) is in a good place, working with Nana (Di Botcher) at the bingo hall and finding genuine love in the arms of a colleague, this does increase the risk of the kids at school finding out their truth. But then she meets Cam (Rebekah Murrell), a new student from Manchester and sees an opportunity to really open up.
It feels reductive to just say that this is more of the same, but like the first season, this balances the trials of being a school age kid in a relatively deprived location with the horrible personal situation that Bethan finds herself in. Plot wise it gives less focus to Lydia and Travis this time, but replaces Poppy with a more balanced relationship with Cam. There are some truly dark moments to the series this time, and that familiar feeling in the pit of the stomach - that it's all going to end badly again never goes away.
Gabrielle Creevy is again magnificent in central role, and Jo Hartley is phenomenal as her bi-polar mother. Warm and uplifting, Funny and comical, grim and dark. A Masterpiece.