Creator: | Julie Andem |
Developer: | Julie Andem |
Director: | Julie Andem |
Composer: | Christian Wibe |
Country: | Norway |
Language: | Norwegian |
Num Seasons: | 4 |
Num Episodes: | 43 |
Producer: | Marianne Furevold |
Location: | Oslo, Norway |
Runtime: | 15–59 minutes |
Company: | NRK |
Network: | NRK1 |
Related: |
Skam (stylized as SKAM; in Norwegian pronounced as /skɑm/; English: Shame) is a Norwegian teen drama streaming television series about the daily life of teenagers at the Hartvig Nissen School, a gymnasium in the wealthy borough of Frogner in West End Oslo and Norway's oldest high school for girls. It was produced by NRK P3, which is part of the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
Despite no promotion ahead of its 2015 launch, Skam broke viewership records. Its premiere episode is among the most-watched episodes in NRK's history, and by the middle of season two, it was responsible for half of NRK's traffic. With season three, it broke all streaming records in Norway, along with viewership records in neighboring countries Denmark, Finland and Sweden, and attracted an active international fanbase on social media, where fans promoted translations.
The series ended after its fourth season in 2017, reportedly due to high production stress.
See main article: Hartvig Nissen School. The series focuses on the daily life of teenagers at the Hartvig Nissen School (Hartvig Nissens skole), a gymnasium (preparatory high school) located in the Frogner borough in Oslo's West End, with the address Niels Juels gate (Niels Juel Street) 56.[1] The school is informally and widely known simply as "Nissen." Originally named Nissen's Girls' School, it was founded by Hartvig Nissen in 1849 as a private, progressive girls' school which was owned by its headmasters and which served the higher bourgeoisie. The school was described in the British House of Commons in 1907 as "the pioneer of higher girls' schools in Norway."[2] It was both the first higher school and the first higher education institution (through its former affiliated teachers college) in Norway which admitted girls and women.[3] The girls' school gradually became a co-educational school from the mid 1950s, after four boys were admitted in 1955 alongside hundreds of girls.[3] Its alumni include many famous individuals and two members of the Norwegian royal family. The then relatively new progressive girls' school is also featured in the 1862 play Love's Comedy by Henrik Ibsen.[4]
Skam follows a new main character each season. While airing, a new clip, conversation, or social media post was published in real-time on the NRK website on a daily basis. Each season has a focus on particular topics that range from relationship difficulties, identity, eating disorders, sexual assault, homosexuality, mental health issues, religion, and forbidden love.
At the start of a week, a clip, conversation or social media post is posted on the Skam website. New material is posted on a daily basis, with the content unified and combined into one full episode on Fridays.[5] The main character differs from season to season,[6] and the fictional characters have social media profiles where viewers can follow their activities.[5] The show allows public interaction over the duration of the episode. The format has since been used in other NRK P3 series, Blank and Lovleg.[7] [8]
The following are characters in Skam.[9]
! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Character | Portrayed by | Seasons | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||||||||
Central | colspan="1" | ||||||||||
Central | colspan="1" | ||||||||||
Central | colspan="1" | ||||||||||
Central | |||||||||||
colspan="1" | |||||||||||
colspan="1" | |||||||||||
colspan="1" | |||||||||||
colspan="1" | |||||||||||
colspan="2" | |||||||||||
colspan="1" | |||||||||||
colspan="1" | |||||||||||
colspan="3" | |||||||||||