Why Everyone Suddenly Loves 'Skam Italia'

Just a few months ago, Skam Italia had no future. Born as a webseries about Generation Z and immediately become a cult among Italian teenagers, despite the success of its first three seasons TIMvision (that was the first to produce and distribute it) decided for its cancelation. And it would have been canceled if Netflix had not turned the tables: the streaming platform, in fact, acquired the rights for transmission and uploaded the first three seasons on January 1st, 2020. It took a few weeks and a lockdown, but its “buon viaggio” (literally "good trip", an easter egg for those who have already seen the second season) went on for two years straight, convincing a larger public even from different generations. In the end, Skam Italia has definitely gone viral: a must-watch, one of those series that you can't miss for any reason, almost as it happened last week with Normal People on Hulu.

Last Friday Netflix made available all the 10 episodes of the fourth (and last) season. The response has been huge: for all the weekend, social medias have been fulfilled with pictures from the series, "out of context" quotes and any kind of celebration, while many articles appeared on papers and online magazines claiming more or less that Skam Italia is just too good to be true. Though the series came out almost three years ago, last weekend it became the most favorite of mostly everyone. And this is not only because of Netflix.

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Skam Italia is a remake of the original Norwegian format Skam (“shame”) that was exported in many Countries as France, Spain, Australia and China. The Italian version arrived in 2018 and it was adapted by Ludovico Bessegato and produced by TIMvision with Cross Productions. The plot is pretty simple: being just a normal teenager in a normal high school in Rome, without paying attention to the high class-scions so loved by television nor the problems of the popular classes. Though, the project was ambitious: following the original version, its nature has always been interactive and related to the virtual world of social media. Exception made for the fourth season, that had to face many difficulties due to the pandemic, each episode came with many original extra-contents: the clips uploaded on the series' official website; the special Whatsapp group chat for fans; and mostly the posts on each character's Instagram profile.

For example: in the first episode of the second season you can see that, on the night of October 6th, 2018, Giovanni (Ludovico Tersigni, recently seen in Summertime), Martino (Federico Cesari), Elia (Francesco Centorame) and Luchino (Nicholas Zerbini) came back home on a nocturnal bus. Well, on the night of October 6th, 2018, Giovanni posted a selfie on his Instagram profile (@garau.giogio) that was shot during the ride.

Not just another teen drama

Skam Italia is not just another teen drama, but is made of flaws and mistakes. In one word: of reality. Its characters have pimples, they don't dress very good (as almost in every Italian tv series), they can't get in to the most exclusive birthday parties of their elder schoolmates and can get very paranoid. In Skam Italia everything is just real. The series is a realistic representation of Generation Z, made also of virtual logics and social networks (that were never so well represented in any other tv series), managing to include also the life style of the late Millennials who may be 30 years old, but when it comes to love share the same logics with a teenager.

Inclusivity

Last but not least, in its four seasons the series faced some of the most important problems of the contemporary society: coming out, slut shaming, mental illness and the cultural abyss due to a different religious belief, just to name a few. In doing it, it never lost its key principles: using a tone that was light and deep on the same time, it promoted a precious attitude to inclusivity that is so close to the spirit of many "real" teenagers.

Furthermore, Netflix was supported by the biggest and most faithful community that Italian television has ever had. Including the greatest passion of its author, who worked day and night despite the difficulties to write the new and last season and stayed close with the actors (who lately became some of the most important faces on the new generation of Italian cinema), the fourth mission became a mission. A mission that, after all, seems accomplished.