Will ‘Skam,’ a Norwegian Hit, Translate?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/arts/television/will-skam-a-norwegian-hit-translate.html

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OSLO — “Skam,” a racy, emotionally intense, true-to-life Norwegian web and television series, follows a group of Oslo teenagers as they navigate sex, school, drinking, depression, rape, religion, coming out and the pains of status anxiety, in real life and online.

The show is bound for the United States and Canada, courtesy of Simon Fuller, the English entertainment entrepreneur who concocted “American Idol” (and its British predecessor, “Pop Idol”) and managed the Spice Girls. On Friday, Mr. Fuller’s company, XIX Entertainment, announced a deal with the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) to produce an English-language version called “Shame.”

Created by NRK and aimed at teenage girls, “Skam” has become a sensation across Scandinavia with viewers of many ages, thanks to a clever multi-platform format and social media strategy. Each week, four to six short scenes are posted on the broadcaster’s website, without warning, at the same time the scenes are set — a Saturday night party, a Tuesday morning class — and then bundled into a full episode each Friday.

That approach — intimate portrayals, letting the digital releases drive the linear TV version, giving each fictional character an Instagram account — caught the attention of Mr. Fuller.

The English-language version will have new characters and actors but use the show’s format, and NRK will consult. Production is expected to start next year. “We are exploring all content outlets,” Mr. Fuller said in an email. “‘Shame’ works across all platforms and that is what gives it a point of difference. We are looking to innovate and push the boundaries of how modern content is viewed and experienced.” (Neither NRK nor XIX would comment on the financial details.)

“Skam,” a low-budget operation, was originally created for NRK’s children’s division to draw more young viewers to its site. Now finishing up its third season, it’s become the most-watched web TV show in Norwegian history since it first aired in September 2015, averaging 1.2 million unique visitors a week to the site and more than a million people streaming the weekly TV episode, in a country with a population of five million people. NRK has confirmed it will produce a fourth season.

Teaming up with XIX Entertainment is a huge leap. “It’s crazy,” said Julie Andem, 34, the show’s creator, writer and director.

Each season of “Skam” centers on one character. Season 3, which wraps up next week, has focused on Isak (Tarjei Sandvik Moe), who is coming to terms with being gay and has fallen for an older boy, Even (Henrik Holm).

Isak’s big reveal is quiet and understated. (He comes out to his best friend in person, and to his mother via text message.) In another scene, Isak discusses homosexuality with Sana (Iman Meskini), an observant Muslim classmate who wears a head scarf and doesn’t take flak from anyone.

Hardly any adults are present. “I wanted the kids to solve their problems on their own,” Ms. Andem said.

The show’s strength is its authenticity, said Cecilie Asker, a television critic for the Norwegian daily Aftenposten. “If this were a movie and there were a big movie director doing it, they’d make every moment big,” Ms. Asker said. “But instead, these are small moments, and the realness is in those moments.”

To write “Skam,” Ms. Andem spent half a year traveling around Norway, interviewing teenagers about their lives. “We found one main need,” she said. “Teenagers today are under a lot of pressure from everyone. Pressure to be perfect, pressure to perform. We wanted to do a show to take away the pressure.”

To get strong performances from first-time actors, Ms. Andem auditioned 1,200 people and created the characters after she cast them. As she writes each episode, she uses feedback from the actors and viewers — who write comments on NRK’s website, as well as on Facebook and Tumblr fan pages — to keep the story line believable. They shoot two episodes over three days because most of the actors are still in high school or working other jobs.

NRK has promoted “Skam” only through social media, with the exception of one television interview with two of the actors once the show had already taken off. “The idea was for teenagers to find it themselves, not from their parents,” said Hakon Moslet, the show’s executive producer. Soon their parents were watching, too. By late May, much of Norway was in suspense after Noora (Josefine Frida Pettersen), the main character in Season 2, hadn’t received a response to her text message in days from her boyfriend, William (Thomas Hayes). When the two finally agreed to meet on Friday at 5 p.m., the hashtag #williammustanswer blew up on social media.

The characters all have Instagram accounts and there are Facebook pages for some events (but not for fictional characters, which is against Facebook’s rules). When Isak spends a weekend with Even and forgets a friend’s birthday party, the NRK page had text messages that Isak’s friends sent him, asking where he was.

“‘Skam’ is combining reality and fiction and the line between them isn’t so clear,” said Mari Magnus, 27, the web producer for the show, who writes the text messages and masterminds the Instagram accounts.

This fall, the show has become a cult hit internationally, with double-digit audience growth in the United States, Russia and France, especially among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender social media circles. The internet is full of fan sites and GIFs of the hot young couple. (Fans have taken to adding subtitles of their own.)

In Norway, the show has even helped propel certain issues into the national conversation. During Season 2, Noora tells a boy it was a criminal offense for him to have posted photos online of her semi-naked and passed out drunk. That caught the attention of the Norwegian police, who posted on Facebook saying, “Way to go, Noora,” and urged other teenagers to report similar violations.

Ms. Andem said that she was surprised to discover in her research how girls use their sexuality today. “When I was 16, we’d use sex to get love,” she said. “They use sex so they can be more popular on Instagram.” She paused. “I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing.”