#Auroras SKAM analysis

[auroraayyye]

SKAM: An analysis

Part 3

Tonight i’m analysing one of my personal favourites, a beauty among the remakes. It is none other than...

SKAM Italia (The one that rose from the dead)

Likes:

This is probably the most basic thing but italian is such a beautiful language. Sometimes i forget to put on subtitles to understand what they’re actually saying.

I like Eva’s red hair

All the curly curlssss

Norwegian and Italian culture is very different. So it was fun to see which major changes had to be made to make the series Italian in a cultural way.

I personally find Martino’s season to be one of the most interesting interpretations of the «Isak-season».

Many international viewers did react to the lack of parents in the original series. Which is true! In Norway youth tend to become independent from an early age and often move away from their parents as early as 15. That doesn’t mean that parents are not a part of their life at all, but ofcourse less than if the youth was living at home. Therefore it was very nice to see how SKAM Italia changed that and the role especially Martinos mother played in his season, which was not as physically present in the original.

I also liked that they switched out the bus with a radio station! This is not something that’s regular in my country, so it added this foreign, interesting background that mixed up the story slightly.

I think this remake is very beautiful. The cinematogrophy really gives me an «italian vibe» and a certain beauty to scenes i haven’t necessarily paid as much attention to in other versions.

The boys in this remake are supreme. They’re all really funny and supportive, and they’re probably one of my favourite remakes of the boys.

I think Eva og Martino’s friendship is very well displayed in this one, including the drama from Eva’s season. I really think putting those seasons right after eachother, not with a season between, really helped that storyline. I think Eva, Isak, Noora, Sana, is a much more natural progression that the original one.

The struggle of homophobia and discrimination based on that was a much clearer and concrete topic in this version. Which Martino also speaks about in the «speach» at the end of his season.

I like the Filippo/Elia thing that the fandom really pushed on with. It was fun and sweet. Generally a very nice fandom.

The scenes with the boys at the cabin in season 2. They’re all great, honestly the best part of the season.

Based on the subtitles i could find many of the dialogues are very good and actually discuss the topic. Some remakes are guilty of just never talking about the shit that happens, but Italia isn’t one of them!

First off I am not Italian myself, but through my experiences and research about Italian culture I think i can say that some of the topics from the series are definitely even more taboo than they were in Norway. I appreciate that courage to make a series about topics such as homosexuality and Islam, in a culture where it isn’t as easy as in my own. I hope that doesn’t sound arrogant and that you understand what I mean. OG SKAM was a brave show, although in a very liberal country.

Dislikes:

The inavailability. Some versions have geoblock and some don’t. I respect both solutions. But when TIMvision was asking people to pay for that content alone, it got a bit frustrating. The SKAM concept has a very large international audience, and to shut not only them but also the national ones out was a bad move. I understand that the budget was low but I still don’t think that was the way to go. One did not «stumble upon» SKAM Italia, you searched for it, badly.

The cancellation and The Netflix take over. Don’t get me wrong, i LOVE netflix for taking on SKAM Italia (which was very much thanks to engaged fans!!!) and giving it it’s fourth and final season, and making sure that the important Sana season was made. But there was a big gap between the third and fourth, which for me harmed the continuity. Also season four didn’t follow the original SKAM posting pattern, just dropping the entire season at once. All of this i really think cost them a lot of viewers, as it became less exciting to follow.

I’m gonna admit right now I have not seen the last season. It was just recently uploaded to Italian Netflix and there are much fewer accounts that are posting it online. For me Martino’s season stands out as the golden star of the show. Eva’s season was okay, and I feel Elounora’s season (although the rainscene was beautiful) was very predictable and less exciting. Might be an unpopular opinion, but that’s what I think.

You know I love Italian, but compared to my own language, my oh my are your words and sentences long. They’ll be talking for ages, and the english subtitles will consist of five words. Sounds beautiful though, it’s not really a complaint.

Favourite characters:

Martino Rametta. If you read through all of this it probably doesn’t come as a shock. It’s a very well written character and Federico Cesari performed it beautifully. I think it really portrays the loneliness, anger and frustration within the Isak-character, at the same time as Martino made it his own. Because it also shows all the love and will within the Isak-character, which are two different emotional weights that can be hard to balance, so kudos to the writers and actor. Building the character so well made sure that the «Martinico»-storyline didn’t take over the entire season. Additionally i also enjoyed his relationship with his mother, the boys and Eva.

Giovanni Garau. If Gio isn’t one of your favourite characters, did you even watch the series? He’s such a nice and trustworthy guy, and such a good friend. The coming out scene is almost better than the original. Although I love the fact that Jonas simply does not give a single frick is great and also a bit funny, it was nice to see a reinvention of the scene. It still wasn’t a «big deal» but you can still see that it meant something, in a greater deal than other remakes. You can tell that Gio finally understands and that he’s also relieved that Martino told him. And you can also tell how much it meant to Martino. Idk man, i just think that scene is beautiful. Gio was a good friend before that, and follows that up after that scene as well. There’s a reason that multiple remakes’ tumblrtags have at some point contained posts like «Fly in Gio Garau».

Filippo Sava. Fun twist to make him Elounora’s brother! Defintely played an important part in multiple seasons. He was a great Eskil, and I like him for many of the same reasons that I liked the original character. He’s caring, serious and funny, with slightly better timing than the norwegian one. He’s more of a natural part of the gang, and I like him. And the last episode of Martino’s season when he sees Niccolò, and just gives this thumbs up and «not bad» face to Martino, priceless.

Okay so that’s it for SKAM Italia, hopefully I will get to watching the fourth season sometime soon. If I were to give this one an award I would say it is the most beautiful remake and I think it is slightly more poetic and artistic than the rest. Let me know if you agree or disagree! Which one should I do next?

[myfreakingcookie]

Tagged

Got tagged by @olenoley. Never been tagged in anything before omg

Name: Ina (Pronounced Ee-nah. None of that “Eye-nah” English bullshit.)

Nickname: My name is really too short for nicknames, but my friends sometimes call me Nusse (Nuh-seh)

Zodiac sign: Capricorn

Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw all the way

Height: 164 cm (Google says that’s 5 feet 49⁄16 inches)

Orientation: Heterosexual

Ethnicity: Very Swedish (apparently I’m 3% Sami)

Favorite fruit: Raspberry, mango, strawberry, passionfruit 

Favorite season: I can’t pick between winter and summer, I like them equally in different ways

Favorite book series: Maybe Harry Potter? Or Graceling? Hunger Games? I really don’t know

Favorite fictional characters: This is so difficult omg, there’s so many characters I like. But maybe Katsa or Po from the Graceling books. Or Aang from The Last Airbender

Favorite flower: Purple lilac (syringa vulgaris) is like the prettiest thing in the world (called “syren” in Swedish, pretty name)

Favorite scents: Like the scent of nature, like pine and leaf forests, and grass and flowers. Men’s perfumes are usually really nice too, and I also like that special scent of a cottage in the fells (in Sweden, fell cottages have a special smell that’s just really cosy and it reminds me of my childhood)

Favorite color: Pretty much any shade of blue

Favorite animal: Cats, dogs, tigers, wolves, sea otters (they are the cutest), pandas

Favorite artist/band: I listen to so much different music I can’t say who my favorite is. What my prefered music is shifts quite rapidly over time. Right now I’ve listened a lot to Tommy Genesis. 

Coffee, tea, or hot cocoa? Hot cocoa or tea. Coffee is ew

Average sleep hours: Depends. On school nights, I can sleep from 4 to 8 hours, when I’m free up to like 11 hours. I try to not sleep that long though

Dream trip: I would love to go somewhere warm and sunny and lively with my friends and chill on the beach during the day and then go out and have fun during the night.

Last thing google: sea otter (had to check what they were called)

Blog created: Honestly can’t remember, maybe in 2012 or something?

How many blogs do I follow: 180

Number of followers: 129

What do I usually post about: I’m a reblogging trash can. I’ve only made original content recently now that Skam has ended and I made the analysis on William and all that. What I reblog is usually just random things I find funny or important, or I reblog things I find interesting relevant to shows/movies I like.

Do you get asks regularly: Nooooooope

What is your aesthetic: Omg I don’t know. I like nature and plants and forests, like serene stuff that just make you relax. Waterfalls. Nebula, aurora borealis. Shades of blue. A nice, strong jaw on a nice looking guy.

Tagging @northscorpio and @thehottestsocialist. Visst är det kul att bli taggade i nånting??!?!!?!?

[auroraayyye]

SKAM: An analysis

Part 1

This is not anything anyone has ever asked for, but I can’t sleep so here you go. A personal analysis of my likes, dislikes and favourite characters from every version of SKAM. Starting of with:

SKAM (The OG, Norwegian one)

Likes:

My own language and culture

A well written interesting teen show that tackled important problems you meet in life and brought out stories you didn’t see much of in media at the time.

The cast consisted of litteral teens. Tarjei who played Isak was a first year at the real school «Nissen».

The actors were so good. They all played such important roles, and you could tell they put a whole lot of personality into it.

I LOVED the format. SKAM has a lot of references to Henrik Ibsen (norwegian author), and he was known for writing plays in a style that in norwegian is called «Titteskap teater» (rough translation: a cupboard you can look into). The minimizes the distance between the audience and the action, creating much more debate around the plot. By giving us the clips online while they were happening «in real time» and giving the characters real SoMe accounts SKAM did exactly that. (Our teacher would seriously pause the class if any clips came out during).

I also liked how short the clips were. I don’t watch a lot of shows as I simply don’t have the time or attention span. But watching 2-10 minute clips and reading small text exchanges, thats something i could do!

None of the characters were «simple». They were all written and acted quite dynamic, deep and dimentional, and i loved that.

SKAM was brought up so goddamn much in our norwegian classes i swear. I did so many papers on it.

Unpopular opinion: i liked that it ended after 4 season. Ended on a high.

GREAT SOUNDTRACK

Dislikes:

SKAM is made in certain part of Oslo, which is the capital and biggest city of Norway. I don’t think it should’ve been changed, I just didn’t relate to a lot of the cultural youth references as I am from the north myself. And yes those enviroments are very different! So I just feel like letting the fandom know that that not all of norwegian is definitely like that.

They definitely could’ve done more with Sana’s season. I do not think that it was a bad season, i just think that there was too much focus on Noorhelm and girl drama which were topics that didn’t really need more focus.

Eva’s season just being overlooked in promos and in general. I get that it was the first season and the show gathered more attention around the second season but come on. Eva and her storyline is so important, the acting was so good and it laid a solid foundation for the rest of the show. I just feel like Eva’s character didn’t get the justice it deserved.

Favourite characters:

Vilde. Now my people let me tell you a little bit about Vilde. Vilde was the most important character in the entire show. She was the glue that brought together all the other characters. And she was so devoted to everthing she did: her friends, the bus, all the small gatherings. And i feel like everyone went to school with a person like this. Who was maybe teased and looked at like weird, but in hindsight you realise how much they really did for their community. In the last season we get a little peak into the life Vilde is living when she’s not at school and it’s absolutely heartbreaking. And again unpopular opinion but i liked that we never got a Vilde season, cus thats the reality of it. Most situations like these are hidden, and they are hidden so well. And not giving Vilde a season really enhances that. Vilde really just wanted to be good for the world and for the world to be a better place. And that scene from season 4 between Vilde, Chris and Magnus is honestly one of the most beautiful scenes of the entire show and both Vilde and Chris’ friendship and Vilde and Magnus’ relationship is so healthy and lovely. I love Vilde fight me.

Eskil. He is, without any doubt to ever excist about it, the funniest character on the show. He really gives me «Will and Grace»-vibes. But I also love that even though he is funny, he is not reduced to just funny lines. He is an example of how important one person can be to anothers life. He really did take care of the people around him, even though not everyone perceived his behaviour that way. He took care of Noora and brought her out of her shell. He took care of Isak and helped him come to terms with his sexuality and internalized homophobia. He took care of Linn and accepted her as she was while simultanously helping her be a part of their social community. He was also an very important counterpart to Isak’s character in season three. It gave out the message that there is definitely not one way to be gay. Although he wasn’t the best roomate, he was a good character.

Isak. My most favourite thing about his character is that i don’t 100% like him. It’s like having a friend that doesn’t agree with you on every single subject and i honestly feel like that enriches the relationship. And he is such a realistic norwegian boy, so many of my guy friends act similar to him. Guys and their feelings are very under-represented in the media, and i think as much as the third season is praised for its focus on lgbt+ and mental health, it should get some credit for putting guys and the way they face issues in the limelight. I love that he’s such a snake sometimes, because people do dumb, selfish shit no matter how much of a nice person you think they are. His friendship with Eva? Amazing. And also veey realistic. Sometimes friends grow a little apart before they come back together, and i think their friendship is a strong one. His friendship with Jonas? Amazing. That coming out scene at the bench says it all i need not write any further. His friendship with Sana? Amazing. Isak was such an important character in her season and she was so important in his. The talk they have at the bench in Sana’s season is such a nice scene. Also Tarjei, the actor who plays Isak, is one of norway’s finest. He’s so good, i’ve seen him in other things as well and he’s just astonishing. The «O Helga Natt» scene is good, but it wouldn’t be nearly as good without that amazing acting.

That concludes my personal analysis of OG SKAM that no one asked for, but if you wanna tag along make sure to look out for my next! And hopefully i will get to sleep now.

[auroraayyye]

SKAM: An analysis

Part 2

Still can’t sleep you guys so i’m just gonna go ahead and give you another analysis that no one asked for. The next one in the series is:

SKAM Netherlands (The one that got away)

Likes:

They had a lot more POC characters and actors which a lot of the other versions did not.

The girls in this one are just so pretty. I’m not even gonna say something smart about it, i just appreciate it.

The dynamic between Kes and Lucas is so dumb and i love it

The colours of SKAM NL are so much brighter than many of the other remakes, which stands out to me.

Characters with curly hair. Honestly as a person with very curly hair, I don’t feel like curly haired people are very well represented in the media. (It’s not the biggest issue in the world but still!). Curly haired characters are quite often portayed as the «before-picture» or the funny guy. It’s been a stereotype that the media hasn’t quite gotten rid off. And when it is represented it’s usually Black characters (which is very important representation!). I just finally saw some girls that looked like me and it was nice.

SKAM NL was funny. Like just very chill, normal, hanging with friends funny.

As a speaker of a germanic language i understand some of the dialogue, which is always fun. I also just think dutch is a fun language, and have quite a few dutch friends.

I like the names. Overall i just like the names, but especially Kes (haven’t heard that one before), Liv (very normal norwegian name) and Engel (which means Angel in norwegian).

Dislikes:

Really did not like the «Noorhelm» pairing in this one (Liv and Noah). Like i never grew to like Noah, he was just a pretentious ass? They just never grew on me. And what on the actual earth was that weddingdress scene? It was so demeaning and i did not see what is was for?

Ofcourse that they got cancelled after only two seasons! And by something as small as budget cuts. I wish they’d kept going, even with a tiny ass budget. I’d still watch it.

The fact that Imaan just dissapeared? Like the actress left, and there was some messing around and it was all very chaotic. Season 3 and 4 would not have been the same without Imaan, if they were to continue they would have to clean that up.

Favourite characters:

Isa. She’s so cute. I think SKAM NL definitely gave the Eva character more attention and made her more dynamic and layered. I love the scene where she shows up at Liv’s with the heart balloon thingie. I tell you my heart melted. She’s quite different to the OG, but I think this Eva fits this SKAM better.

Liv. Out of all the remakes I think this Noora is the one that captures the OG characters fire and stubbornes the most. You know, she’s got more of that «bitchyness». She’s also beautiful.

Kes. He just seems like the chillest fucking person, honestly that’s it.

Okay so I know this one’s quite a lot shorter than the last one! That’s mainly because I had a lot to say about the OG, and SKAM NL only has 2 seasons and isn’t one of my favourites. I still hope you have fun with this, i know i do. Let me know which one you want me to do next!