Review of ‘Skam’: different shows, same narratives, eight times
“Skam,” the Norwegian teen drama that has been remade into seven different languages, takes an innovative approach to television and leaves viewers wanting more.
Source: NRK
Starting as a late-night random suggestion on YouTube, I was unexpectedly entranced by the world of “Skam France” by the early hours of the morning. The early hours of the morning arrived when I finished devouring the entirety of the first and second seasons and I was prepared for the fifth episode of the third season after watching the final clip the night before. The following morning I was ready for the next clip. I began watching the original series “Skam” and started digging into the other remakes of the original show. I was obsessed.
Skam France, Season 3, Episode 4, Friday 20:27, ‘The First’
“Skam” is a Norwegian teen drama that aired from 2015 to 2017 and translates to “shame.” Each season focuses on one character; their life and the problems they are currently facing. The series features the same storylines we are already familiar with, such as “Euphoria” and “Skins,” but “Skam” is not your conventional show.
There is a brutal honesty in the way the show tackles the issues teenagers and young adults must learn to navigate. In its short, four-season run, “Skam” focused on loneliness, misunderstandings, eating disorders, mental health issues, date rape, sexuality and perceptions of religion. These are only a few of the key themes in the original series. “Skam France” has been the first remake to be renewed up to eight seasons. The fifth and sixth seasons of the show largely deal with disability, grief and bullying.
It quickly became a cult show on the internet. There are dedicated fan pages and blogs across all social media platforms that chart the release of clips, social media posts, text message updates and they go as far as translating the content into several different languages. This goes both for the original and the remakes. There are digital archives that contain all the elements that go into each of the “Skam” series which can be readily consumed by old and new viewers of the shows.
But why? What is the appeal of a show that addresses the same issues as other teen dramas? The answer is all in the immersive delivery of the show and the unapologetic realness regarding the depictions of teen issues that people of all ages will eventually come to reckon with. That is why I was so hooked when I was sitting in my university accommodation at the age of 20.
Skam España, Season 3, Episode 9, Clip 7, ‘Our Moment’
“Skam” is an immersive experience as the episodes are dispersed into clips. They can be less than a minute long or a few minutes at most and are posted on the day and time the moment occurs in the fictional reality. The group and text messages are released on the show’s profile page, while the characters also update their Instagram accounts. We exist and live alongside the characters in “Skam” — we have a private viewing into the lives of others — even when the clips are stitched together into finished episodes at the end of the week.
While the technology we love has arguably created increasingly atomised societies, this form of television is still a communal experience even if it departs from the traditional form of communal and passive concepts of consuming television. We become players, side characters and spectators in each world “Skam” produces.
The show’s approach to television is innovative and showcases how the experience is no longer passive. It is an interactive experience. Think back to “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.” It was up to us to decide the course of action of the characters and we were immersed in the narrative ourselves. The screenshots of private text conversations, the group messages and Instagram profiles of the characters are what make each of the “Skam” series a highly immersive experience.
“Skam” breaks the boundary between the screen and the viewer since we can now browse into the characters’ lives and place ourselves as interactive spectators within the storylines. I am a friend watching over Noora’s relationship with William in the original “Skam” series. I am a spectator of Lucas figuring out his sexuality with Elliot in “Skam France”. I completely understand Hannah’s struggles in “Druck.” I fully immerse myself in the subtle and overt changes to the storylines of “Skam Italia” and “Skam España” — and there is still so much to say about “Skam NL,” “Skam Austin” and “wtFOCK.”
Our proximity to the characters enhances the realness of issues we have previously faced, still do and will eventually have to navigate for ourselves. I see parts of myself in all of the characters. In the original series, there is an epochal line — ‘du er ikke alene’ — ‘you are not alone’. The teenagers who consume the show can feel less alone in their struggles. The same goes for young adults, even those who are much older who look back on those moments in their lives.
Skam NL, Season 2, Clip 51, ‘De Hele Reis’
We are set with the task of discovering the different aspects of a character’s identity by following them throughout the days by waiting for their clips and checking their social media accounts. As viewers, we are reminded that we should be part of the characters’ lives at the end of each clip as it lists their socials. These connections between fiction and reality are fostered on “Skam” and to exhaust the series narratives you must check in on the texts characters send to each other and the hidden meanings behind their Instagram posts.
Strangely, the series works against the grain of binge-watching. Sure, you can wait for a series to finish and then binge-watch it, but then you are missing out on the full experience of existing alongside the characters of the show. Without realising it, “Skam” fits into our current short-attention-span society, one where we only engage with the show for a few seconds or minutes at a time which suddenly leaves us wanting to know more. The show is addictive because the viewer is out of the loop if they are not in close proximity to the character. Those atomised experiences of the internet are altered with “Skam” into relationships, communities and genuine interactions instead.
The third season of “Skam France” coincided with a class trip to Paris. I was thrown into living in the same city as the characters. I explored the same spaces that tourists would not take a second glance at and felt as if I were part of their group of friends when they posted — I was often only twenty minutes away from where they supposedly were on their stories.
The approaches to television on “Skam” illustrate how the viewer is not simply a spectator, but a producer as well. Arguably, it signals how thanks to the rise of social media, traditional media such as television and cinema should utilise interactivity and immersion to keep viewers thinking about the stories told. We do not have to experience “Skam” as a fictional world that is entirely separate from our own. Rather, it is an extension of our own lives, we can physically and digitally place ourselves in their narratives and ‘lived experiences.’