Watching «SKAM» for the first time? Here’s what you need to know
The successful Norwegian drama-series which aired in 2015 and has conquered millions of hearts and minds all over the world ever since, is now being remade in several countries, America is one of them.
SKAM WorldGUIDE TO BEGGINERS »
Many people discovered it because of Tumblr, where it was labeled as the most talked-about topic on that social network in the 2017 «Tumblr Fandometrics», beating world-ranked series such as Game of Thrones, Stranger Things and 13 Reasons Why, informed VG. Others just jumped right into the third season where «Evak» appeared, one of the most popular couples in LGBT television in Norway, and now, in the world.
«Evak» –the relationship among Isak and Even– became so famous, even more than the last two seasons who had Eva (Lisa Teige) and Noora (Josefine Pettersen) as main roles, so as it overcame the geographical boundaries and reached unthinkable audiences, for example, China, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil, where Norwegian is not even spoken for majorities.
SKAM has got now and ever since, a fan base of over 5 million people around the world –wich is almost the whole Norway's population– and they've supported the series even after its season finale, which aired in June 2017, getting it to win world prizes. But, what made SKAM become such a public-TV success in a world where people are getting rid of their TVs, giving space to platforms like Netflix and related? Let us show you.
Is «SKAM» a TV-show or a web show?
Surprisingly, it is both of them. This may be quite hard to understand at the beginning but soon, as many of the fans did it, you’ll understand. This is just one of the reasons why we just can’t let go of the idea that it was so real and «SKAM» still happens somewhere in Oslo streets because as a «reality» developed on TV-screen, another «reality» developed on social media. But, what does this really mean?
Not to make this long, every single character had their Instagram and Facebook profile and, as soon as something happened, it would be immediately posted on the SKAM web page; selfies, chats between Sana and Isak, fights between Eva and Jonas and more. In addition to that, short video clips with scenes would be uploaded on the page just in time. For example, if there was a party going on Saturday at 20.00, a clip of Vilde hooking up with some guy at the party would be uploaded on Saturday at 20.00. Yes! The magic of television and social media.
At the end of the week, the clips would be put all together in one single episode that would air on NRK every Friday in the night and only Norwegian viewers would be able to watch it, the other fans in the world, had to wait until the big fan bases translated the episodes to English, Spanish and even Chinese.
«SKAM» handles a lot pf POVs
One of the advantages of «SKAM» is that it contains a lot of topics, speeches, opinions and point of views. Every season we would have a brand new story to look at but without leaving the development of the others behind. Thus, we had four seasons that handled issues like low-confidence, developing of one’s own personality, finding forbidden love, rape, homosexuality, acceptance, Islam speeches, prejudice, and lies. We have decided not to go deep into this because it may cause spoiler to the new fans, but those are not the only issues handled in «SKAM» and you, as a loyal viewer, will identify them.
Geographic boundaries and restrictions
When it aired in 2015, the TV-show didn’t get some or any advertising from NRK, the main purpose was, as the format of «SKAM», the young people to find it through social media. And it certainly worked so. The first story of a low-confident girl who had lost her best friends didn't get too many viewers, the main users on the web page came from Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway itself).
Nevertheless, language, land or even a low knowledge of the Norwegian culture weren’t even obstacles in the race to spread «SKAM» all over the social media, which was a hard work to do due to time difference, the long wait for Norwegian to translate into English and then into Spanish and so on. It’s remarkable that not only the entire episodes were translated and subbed, but also the chats, the picture captions on Instagram that were posted on the website.
After all this «SKAM»-revolution on the internet, NRK had to geo-block the website having in account the IPs of the devices, letting only Nordic people watch the show. Later, they pleaded it had something to do with re rights of the music used in the episodes, which were only thought for Norwegian public.
A culture in expansion
After «SKAM», Norway stopped being one more country from the Scandinavian area, becoming such a great destination for all of those who would want to see the places where the series was shot, especially Hartvig Nissens Skole, the school where the main events take place. In addition to that, many fans around the world have confirmed to be learning the tiny Nordic language, this, in order to get the whole «SKAM»-experience which includes videos, texts, pictures, dialogs and everything in the possible audiovisual world.
Who else became confused once heard the word «Russetiden»? How would have we known about «cardamom» or the hashtag «#WhenYouHaveFoundTheManOfYourLifeAndItTurnsOutHeLikesGabrielle»? Who hasn’t cried his/her eyes out listening to «O Helga Natt» and also «cried in Norwegian»? Who hadn’t been up all night refreshing the skam.p3.no tab waiting for an update? Who had to open a Google Drive account in order to watch the epdisodes? Who hasn’t dowloaded Duolingo and set himselg/herself to learn Norwegian? Svaret er alle oss.
«SKAM» has left us a lot of songs that soon became anthems for the fans, one of the most beautiful soundtracks in TV that combines music from Scandinavia and the rest of the world. Unforgettable are those songs like «5 Fine Frøkner», «Fy faen», «Lover Where Do You Live», the ones from Sigur Rós, «Nattergal» and obviously, the queen of Evak, Gabrielle, but this, without forgetting that the queen of all this universe, is called Julie Andem.
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