You either love them or you hate them. However, there’s no denying that shows such as Skins and Lost are successful franchises, though they are worlds apart.

Skins timidly slid onto British screens in January 2007 on satellite TV channel E4. Since then, it has been run on parent station Channel 4, with Series Two following in February. The show has been a breath of fresh air to 21st century teens, building a steady fan base with its mix of comedy and drama.

Equally, Lost has also gathered a huge cult following, but the difference is that the finance behind them is massively different. Produced by ABC, owned by entertainment giants Disney, Lost is running on a budget close to that of big film franchises.

On the other hand, Skins didn’t use big special effects or glamorous shooting locations to put forward its thrills. It used gripping storylines and didn’t try to overcook itself, a trap which Lost’s later series fell into.

The series finales of these types of shows are what usually makes or breaks them.

With films, the director will get a measly 120 minutes to put across an entire story arc containing an array of characters.

JJ Abrams and his team get an hour, or 40 minutes, excluding the never-ending adverts, for each episode and the series has run for as long as 23 episodes. At just over 15 hours in a series, even for the most developed storylines, this is going to contain a lot of filler.

So, they just leave cliff-hangers, forcing their viewers to watch the next episode, until the final episode where ‘all will be revealed’. But, as everyone knows, this never quite happens. After all, they need viewing figures for the next year.

Skins runs only eight episodes a series and replacing almost the entire cast after Series Two means the characters don’t get stale and no time is allowed to dawdle on minor plot-lines.

Along with this, each main character gets their own episode and most episodes have a very standalone feel to them.

At eight hours of running time in a series, could Skins have simply been cut down and made into a very stylish, independent film by Channel 4? Or could 23 hours of Lost be crammed into a huge blockbuster thriller?

It has been a mixed ride for TV shows being translated into film. The beginning of the summer saw Sex and the City being released to mediocre reviews, but millions of devoted women flocked to the cinema to enjoy it.

The Simpsons Movie was another to make a commercially successful crossover to the silver screen. Critics and fans, however, still found both big screen counterparts lacking something that their small screen siblings had.

Numerous other American television programmes have been made into movies, from cartoons to cop shows. It seems everyone wants to make a film based on a show.

Britain hasn’t had anything close to the same amount of shows transformed. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are the only recent examples that come to mind, and still only appear as semi-follow-ups to Spaced. The Channel 4 programme used the same style, actors and production team.

But could Lost ever make it to the big screen? Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is on the brink, with TV movie 24: Redemption airing on Sky in November, and no doubt other franchises will follow.

As Lost and 24 are heading into their fifth and seventh series respectively early next year, the question arises of how many more series can hit shows go on for? Skins is due back early next year with its brand new cast, but can they be as good as their predecessors?

It is possible that the American production companies are too hungry for money, while on this side of the pond, things seem to be taken a little less seriously.

Throwing endless supplies of cash at franchises and trying to make them last as long as possible can work, but sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.