I initially wrote off the drastic shift in tone between the first and second episodes as the typical differences that occur between pilot episodes designed to sell a series and later episodes that offer a more realistic portrait about how a series will look (that is, if the Brits even do things that way). You could easily see a show putting together a sexy pilot episode like "Tony" to get attention before calming down (whether by design or by network decree, not that the second episode is suddenly devoid of taboo subject matter). But as the season wore on, with episodes that focused on tightly-wound Jal (Larissa Wilson) and the group goof Chris (Joseph Dempsie), before giving Sid his own spotlight episode (with Sid playing a significant role in each of the four episodes that precede his episode), I began to realize that the episodes don't merely spotlight the character for whom it is titled, but is also filmed from their perspective as well.
The show doesn't rely on obvious cues to reveal this, like character voiceovers or character POV shots, so I can be forgiven for taking a bit of time to clue in (please?). But as I got a feel for the series, I started to clue in to the fact that each episode had a distinct feel, taking on the personality of the feature character. Cassie's episode was ethereal and surreal, full of hallucinations and allusions to food, while Jal's is stressed out, and Chris' is a drugged-fueled nightmare that doesn't make sense at times, but ultimately gives a feeling of isolation and abandonment to match his literal nakedness. When viewed this way, it not only gave me a greater appreciation of the surprising complexity of the series, but also retroactively forced me to appreciate the "Tony" episode more than I originally had. It wasn't simply a case of a show trying to generate buzz through controversy, but it was also the world according to Tony: where everything comes easily, and things that don't immediately concern him are dismissed as unimportant. His raison d'être is to entertain himself and to see how much he can manipulate others in order to keep things interesting, and thus his episode reflects that.
It's these nuanced touches that set the show apart, making it more than your typical teen melodrama, and more than it initially appeared to be. The sex, drugs, and boozing are there throughout the series, but my focus was set on the personalities of the kids, the genuine drama of their situations, and the pervasive humour throughout. I know I've been focused on the controversy of the show and the tragedy of characters like Cassie and Chris, but it must be said that the show is really, really funny. Despite the harrowing ordeals of his spotlight episode, Chris keeps a light, humourous tone throughout (not in small part due to the fact that the rest of the characters all see him as the happy-go-lucky clown, and the rest of the episodes are from their perspectives). Dev Patel's (of Slumdog Millionaire fame) Anwar is a mostly goofy kid, whose Muslim beliefs come in conflict with his desire to party with his friends, leading to an odd contradiction where he prays five times a day, in between drinking and talking about boobs, or hanging out with his best friend Maxxie (Mitch Hewer), an openly gay teen.
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