Will the transmedia, real-time format of this Norwegian hit be effectively translated to American audiences?
Skam, the Skins-like multi-platform TV show that has taken Norway (and the internet) by storm is getting an English-language adaptation. Simon Fuller, the man who brought us American Idol, has bought the rights to the format for the series from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) with plans to adapt it for American and Canadian audiences, according to The Guardian.
So what is Skam(Shame, in English)? The Oslo-set teen-centric show is currently in its third season, and is known not only for its honest, risque portrayal of teen culture through the exploration of complicated issues like sexual assault, drugs, drinking, sexuality, religion, and (of course) social media culture, but also its unique format. Skam operates across storytelling platforms, with characters posting and interacting in real-time on Facebook and Instagram, as well as exchanging text messages with one another.
The video content itself is also posted in real time. Four to six scenes are shared weekly via the NRK's website not at a designated time, but when the scenes are set, giving the illusion that these are peeks into the characters lives are happening in real time. On Friday, the scenes are put together and broadcast on TV.
Like Skins, each season follows a different point-of-view character as they navigate the highs and lows of being a teen. All of Skam's characters attend Oslo's Hartvig Nissen School in West End Oslo. Skam uses unknown young people as its stars and purposefully eschews traditional marketing techniques in an effort to meet teen viewers where they are (mobile platforms) and keep the actors themselves from developing personas outside of their characters'.
Skam is the most popular web TV show in Norway ever, drawing 1.2 million visitors to the show's website and more than a million viewers for the main weekly "broadcast." This represents a fifth of Norway's population. The show has also become popular enough on the internet that fans have started a petition for NRK to include English subtitles for the episodes. Thus far, it has been in the hands of fans who speak both Norwegian and another language to translate the episodes and create subtitles for non-Norwegian speakers.
Fuller said of the decision to buy the rights to Skam for English-language development:
[Skam] has become an enormous hit in Norway and has the potential to become an influential show in America, where there is simply nothing like it. Scandinavia and Norway in particular is at the forefront of innovation and creativity in the shaping of the world’s digital and creative industries right now.
While Skam is definitely revolutionary for the ways in which it has brought a major national broadcaster into the transmedia game and most especially for its innovation in real-time storytelling, it's worth noting that transmedia storytelling (i.e. storytelling that takes place across multiple platforms) has already enjoyed some popularity in American internet-based media. Most notably, perhaps, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a vlog-style web series adaptation of Pride and Prejudice set in modern-day California launched in 2013, finding a passionate audience and becoming the first digital series to win an Emmy.
More recently, Tumblr-based web comic Check, Please has enjoyed internet success as a transmedia property that mainly exists on Tumblr, but with an in-character Twitter account (currently set to private, as to avoid real-time spoilers) for its queer hockey protagonist.
Will the Skam model catch on in the U.S. and Canada? After all, we've seen the European scandalous teen show adapted for North American audiences before when Skins was made into an MTV series and promptly flopped. However, Skam's appeal seems to lie as much with its format as it does with its raw, slightly-scandalous look at what teen life can be like. Fuller has said that the English-language Skam will follow the same mobile-first format, but, with Skam's Norwegian creators busy crafting the planned fourth season of their show, it remains to be seen what that will look like.