As pop culture has begun to extend its influences further into the rest of the world, outside of Western countries, we’ve seen a rise in forms of media that celebrate different cultures, histories, and languages. As seen with the popularity of shows like Squid Game and Dark as well as the phenomenon of K-pop all over the world including mainstream American media, there’s a clear desire for diversity among modern audiences. There’s efforts to branch out and consume all forms of music and storytelling from other countries. One show that had been an early proof of just how well internet audiences could take to shows that didn’t speak their language or share their culture was SKAM. A Norwegian show that premiered in 2015, SKAM was considered an internet phenomenon when it was airing. The show made rounds all over Norway and got teens so invested in the day-to-day struggles of the characters that they were petitioning their government to postpone their exam season. Makes you wonder just how this small show in Norway created such a big impact.
The word skam translates to shame in English. Each season of the show centers around a different character’s shame. This isn’t necessarily something that they’re actively shamed for in the narrative, but it highlights what society finds shameful and how that affects young people going through those things. Watching this show made me think back to the popular American TV shows out there. Young kids often either get shows that are very censored and sanitized or they get overly glamorized and gritty teen shows with actors who have been out of high school longer than they ever attended it. One of the reasons SKAM was so refreshing and became such a widespread and well loved show outside of its initially small Norwegian audience is because of how real it felt. The actors were age-appropriate, or at the very least could actually pass for high school and weren’t sporting five o’clock shadows, and they had real flaws and characteristics believable of a teenager.
The main word that comes to mind when thinking of SKAM is “authenticity”. The show put a lot of thought into making the storylines and character interaction feel authentic and organic. At times it might’ve felt like they were sacrificing fast pacing for realism but that effort to slow scenes down and display the raw emotions of their young characters put a much finer point on the problems they were facing. Some of the core themes and ideas explored in SKAM are relationships, infidelity, slut-shaming, sexual abuse, homophobia (including internalized homophobia), bullying and religious conflicts. Every season only had 11-12 episodes of around 22 minutes to tell a cohesive story and they often made full use of every second they had. Another clever choice on the showrunners’ part was creating social media profiles for the characters. This was one of the first times a show fully incorporated social media through real instagram posts as well as having text threads appear on the screen as a character was reading/writing them. They added to the interactive experience between the show and its viewers.
Overall, SKAM was told through conversations. The characters would often have misunderstandings and arguments stemming from their lack of maturity as young teenagers but those scenes propelled them further to grow and develop both as individuals and in their relationships with each other. It sounds like a very simple premise; kids going through high school, but that relatability is what the show primarily owed its success to. Kids watching could see themselves not just in the storylines but also how the characters acted and the way they looked. Most of the actors were around the same age as their characters so there wasn’t a disconnect with having a 25 year old playing a 16 year old. They weren’t afraid to show the reality of teenagers as they not only dealt with the larger issues the seasons are centered around but with more subtle things. The actors didn’t always look perfect on camera. They had acne and would wear the same clothes they’d worn before. There would be long conversations between characters with awkward pauses and sometimes a character wouldn’t know what to say; they wouldn’t have all the right words in the moment. The conversations themselves, despite any awkward pauses, also felt real to watch. There were times the characters would just talk about something that seemed like nonsense but would bring the two characters closer and help them bond. The whole show was about people bonding through these struggles they had within the pressures of an unforgiving society.