Daisy Barrow-Perry

SKAM, the Norwegian drama series that had a real approach to European youth, aired in June 2015 and took everyone by surprise. The show amalgamates both an interesting plot for all 4 seasons and well-written characters; it ultimately being a drama that teenagers can relate to and for anyone to enjoy. I first went into SKAM without knowing what it really was about, only seeing screenshots of the actors and knowing that it was filmed it Oslo, Norway. Each season revolves around one of the characters from the series, showing their development, relationships and even struggles. Every character from the story link to each other in some way, whether it be a roommate or friend. To my surprise, it wasn’t exactly like many other ‘cliché teenage series’ like i had expected it to be. All characters seemed to have something about them that captivated my attention from the start and as i watched on i began to realise that the show didn’t just revolve around your everyday teenage struggles. Not only did it focus on identity and friendship but also more difficult themes such as sexism, homophobia, racism and mental illnesses and in my opinion, everything was conveyed rather well. To most of the world it must’ve been a pretty interesting show too, especially since it went off on some controversial subjects; this probably being why there are now multiple different remakes to SKAM that take place in other European countries (and even an American version!) Despite having some dull scenes where things don’t exactly add up and it being hard to find versions with good English subtitles, SKAM is definitely a show that i encourage people to watch. It’s entertaining and has a somewhat diverse cast, the director and creator ‘Julie Andem’ even going out to interview teenagers to ensure that it really was something that young adults could relate to — which it was.