What we should really be talking about is its vast potential for licensed merchandising.

Fellow teen drama Gossip Girl's designer duds were too ritzy to sell outright, but Skins strikes a balance of aspiration and grit that could move a lot of mid-range gear.

The show's fanbase is already clamoring for the spider bed sheets (Teenagers! Demanding bed sheets!) that Tony and Stanley lay under at the end of the premiere episode.

On the MTV Skins community board "spencer b." says:

"I've asked these twice now, but we've gained a lot of traffic, so I feel asking again is necessary.Anyone know where I can get Tony's sheets with the spiders on them?"

"they would make a mad killing off those sheets if they sold them off this website, no joke," future marketing guru em m. responds.

But they're not just baby consumer robots. amber t. wonders what the sheets mean.

is Tony's bedsheets symbolic for anything??? I mean, there's billions of spiders on them. Does he just have an obsession for arachnids, or is it to show how he's a pig. lol? (no offense to the character)

Later in the thread a scary-savvy teen points spencer b. to the Skins production assistant's twitter account, who informs them they were custom-made.

"And available at exclusively MTV.com," if they know what's good for them.

kstoeffel@observer.com :: @kstoeffel