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lightsandlostbells · 6 years

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Skam Italia season 2, episode 1 reaction

Hello, how’s everybody doing? We survived the first week of a S3 remake. I wrote a little (a lot) about it.

Just to be clear: I completely understand if people just want to hang on and enjoy the ride because it’s S3 again, we love it, it’s an important story for many people! But so far there are aspects of Skam Italia S2 that I am positive about, and there are areas where I have criticisms. Don’t read if you don’t want to hear some comments that are not 100% enthusiasm. For real, I’m not trying to be a buzz kill, like I’m fine with posting these to crickets, lmao, because it’s a fun exercise for me to analyze the remakes even if I’m essentially talking to myself.

Thank you so much to everyone translating this show! Imagine if no one was translating this season. The fandom would lose its goddamn mind. You are literally saving the planet from destruction, thank you for your service.

At the risk of sounding pretentious, I’m going to put additional disclaimers here, because people have strong feelings about Skam S3, and people also have strong feelings about Skam Italia, and there is already drama when those feelings bump up against each other:

The reason why I started doing reactions to the remakes was to compare the versions of Skam and analyze what worked and what didn’t in the adaptation process. This was a clever change to fit this culture, this was awkward and didn’t work, etc. While I do want to judge S2 of Skam Italia on its own merits, I’m not going to leave the original series out of it and look at this season as something that exists in a Skamless void, because that’s not my aim with these recaps. So if you are really not interested in comparisons to the original show (positive, negative, or neutral) then perhaps don’t read further.

I’m also taking into account this is a different culture than the original show and noting how that might affect this story, and that it’s a big deal to have an LGBT Italian lead in a series and Italian fans are very excited. So I’m keeping that in mind! But I also think that, should Skam Italia bungle something, it’s okay to call it out, it doesn’t get a free pass. We criticized parts of the original series while praising it where it succeeded. Sana’s season, for example, is extremely progressive as a concept (a Muslim girl lead is extremely rare) but had numerous aspects where it stumbled, and as a fandom there was no shortage of criticism. This goes for both the social justice and educational aspects of Skam as well as writing, directing, acting, and other basic storytelling stuff.

Okay? Okay.

Episode 1

Clip 1 - GET OUT OF THE FUCKING TUB, LOSERS

Right away, I loved the voicemails. They sound like real accounts of homophobia, and I don’t know if these are actors recreating them or real people sharing their own experiences, but it was a powerful intro to the season.

I also like zooming in over the city while these voicemails played, over all these dark apartment buildings, because it felt like those voices could be coming from anywhere. They were anonymous. Your neighbor could be gay, the woman who lives downstairs could be a lesbian, and you might never know because they’re in the closet. You might never know how much they’d suffered due to homophobia. But they’re also everywhere. Despite their treatment in society, LGBT people aren’t “the other” but can be anyone you know. That’s why it zooms into the party, to link these anonymous voices to a face that we we do know.

I saw some people suggesting that maybe these have to do with Martino’s involvement in the radio station, and that this will be some part of a project that he does, and while I think it’d be awesome if the radio station came into play with his personal development, I’m ehhhhh about these turning out to be part of Martino’s project all along because it doesn’t seem like it goes with the real time format, and IDK, it seems too literal. But I’d be OK with it these were more of a thematic device and Martino has a literal confession along these lines later on.

Rainbow logo 🌈🌈🌈

...who’s that blue-haired girl?

I feel like Edoardo being immediately on screen was to reassure any OG Skam viewers and Incantava fans who hadn’t yet gotten the message that EDOARDO IS DEFINITELY NOT GOING ANYWHERE THIS SEASON DO NOT PANIC.

Silvia is watching some girls dance and for a hot second I hoped they were finally hinting at the lesbian Vilde story we deserve, but it seems like she is watching them because of their slim figures, because she reconsiders the piece of cake she was going to eat. Silvia, no.

Silvia is very upset about the hotties at the party and Sana says there only would have been four people there and reassures her that she’s beautiful, awwww. But Silvia is upset about some Argentinean girl, who I assume is an apex hottie that she fears will outshine her, perhaps?

Silvia waves at Edoardo, who ignores her. You know, Edoardo’s apology to Silvia would feel more genuine if he acted like a baseline decent human being toward her instead of refraining from basic politeness because OH NO he has to shake her off his back (except when he can exploit her interest for his own gain).

It’s Italian Eskild! He says that Edoardo’s hair is indeed shit, suggesting Eleonora has told him all about it (something for the Incantava shippers) and I mean, I support him giving Silvia a boost, and I support any dragging of Edoardo, except Edoardo’s hair is like the one thing about him that is not shit.

He takes Silvia to dance and comments about checking her boobs to see if she is a virgin, so this is filling in for S2’s “It’s Britney bitch” moment. I guess they’re going to incorporate some Skam S2 material into this season in order to accommodate for the switch in storylines.

Hey, you know what I could have strongly done without? Filippo grabbing Silvia’s tit out of nowhere. There’s sometimes a tendency for gay men to grope women and get away with it because it’s obviously not sexual, so what’s the problem? Except the problem is that men, no matter what their sexuality, feel like they have unfettered access to women’s bodies. I’m not saying HE’S CANCELED or anything, but it irritated me that they threw in such a small moment that wasn’t needed, especially because this is our introduction to this character. Thanks, I want casual groping to be my initial impression of this guy. (Just to be clear, this dialogue happens in the original, but there is no unauthorized tit-grabbing from Eskild.)

And the fact that this moment went so unremarked upon is a sign of how normalized this behavior is, frankly. But they played it off as a funny moment so it’s okay!! Lol Filippo, you’re supposed to be gay!!!

Incantava shippers get a morsel before Eleonora leaves for London as she and Edoardo share a ~glance.

So Filo is Eleonora’s brother, which is a good way to incorporate his character considering it’s unlikely for Martino or Eleonora to live with a random roommate instead of their families, and they hadn’t set up the Filo character in S2 so his appearance in Martino’s life is going to need to be established quickly. So that makes both the Eleonora-Filo and Martino-Filo relationships more plausible in this culture.

Although lmao, imagine some of Eskild’s S2 scenes now that he and the Noora character are related. I’m sure Eleonora will need to bleach her eyeballs if she walks in on her brother getting his dick sucked to Circle of Life.

Eva catches up to Martino in the kitchen, and the flirtatious vibes are there right away, you know this isn’t going anywhere good. She tries to kiss him, so this is basically that scene from S2 where Eva tries to make out with Isak at a party, except way more awkward because this Eva actually manages to get a few kisses on Martino. Yikes.

Of course he’s not into it, and she’s just like yeah, go to your friends. Go find Gio. She knows where his real interests like.

Martino answering some random landline is pretty endearing, especially when he has cans of beer he needs to balance to do so.

Him being like “I am not the owner.” Lmao, he’s a sweetie. I suppose this was maybe a neighbor or someone wondering about the noise level and activity at the party, and that was why the police show up later? But I like to imagine that they were filming in this building, the phone rang randomly, and they were like, eh, throw it in.

So now we’re moving into the OG S3 content, with Martino entering the bathroom and sitting in the tub with his friends drinking and getting high.

Elia is the second person to mention the Argentinean girl, so I guess she must be a stone cold babe. Are we ever going to see her? Or will her hotness exist only in legends?

They do the whole song and dance where Martino pretends like these girls aren’t hot enough for him, while the other dudes are not having it. Well, to be fair, he really isn’t into them. I’m not sure what to make of his reactions, because Isak was very performative, and Martino just seems indifferent.

The boys claim to have gotten Fede a present, I wonder what it was? Probably just booze or something?

Lmao I was wondering why this girl would use this random out-of-the-way bathroom, but apparently two dudes are fucking in the other one (what are the odds it’s Filo).

What assholes, get out of the fucking tub for two minutes and let the girl pee in peace! I guess they’re just lazy and stoned, but JFC.

Instead of saying the girl looks like Eleven from Stranger Things, Martino tells her she looks like a frog… I kind of see it? But she’s also a babe, soooo.

Not gonna lie, I really did not like how they adapted this scene. “We’ll leave you alone to pee but you have to hook up with one of us” is not … cute … like it takes it out of negging teenage asshole territory and gets creepy. Maybe because of the hellscape that has been RL politics for the past few weeks, but I’m not in the mood for any of this boys-will-be-boys shit.

We know that one new dude must be Magnus because he is instantly rejected.

Martino gives the boys the thumbs up once Italian Emma starts making out with him and they’re leaving.

Martino didn’t actually do anything to win over this girl, really? With Isak it was a performance: Emma came in and he made a determined effort to flirt with her, he negged her, he complimented her, he got out of the tub and was more active in his pursuit. All of that was because he was trying to seem straight in front of his friends. Martino, on the other hand, was far more passive. He made the frog comment but that seems less like negging when all four of them are sitting there being dicks to this girl, rather than him alone, and she just happened to choose him out of the four. Isak was putting some effort into it and pretending to be interested until the boys left and things got steamier, but Martino just plain is not trying. He ain’t feeling it.

This is one of the disadvantages of writing recaps episode by episode as they air and not when you can look at the full season, though. Because on the one hand, making Martino more of a passive participant in his fake heterosexuality is fine, but on the other hand, if that’s not their intent - if they’re more or less going to follow Isak’s character arc for him - then I think they missed a big point of this scene in not making Martino pursue this girl more actively. But we don’t know exactly if this is a thoughtful, deliberate choice or an oversight. (For example, in S1 of Skam Italia, several of Eva’s key moments of “who are you?” were eliminated, Gio’s skate park speech was rewritten with a different focus, etc. which made me wonder about her character arc. It could have worked if they had intentionally made these changes to arrive at a different conclusion, but in the end Eva’s final speech to Gio is the same, the arc is supposed to be the same even though crucial points have been left out, and it didn’t feel as strong. So it’s hard to say whether Martino’s character is supposed to be written with subtle differences that change his characterization, or if they don’t realize how small edits can affect the perception of this character.)

I am a little alarmed that the girl goes for the blowjob like immediately after choosing Martino? Isak was hardcore flirting with Emma so it made more sense she was trying to do that with him. With this girl, she’s just trying to pee and some random guy’s like “Hook up with one of us and we’ll leave you be” and she’s like, “Sounds like a plan!” Damn girl, didn’t you need to really use the toilet? But you’re going to stop to blow him? Okay.

Eva is stumped by seeing that Martino was in the bathroom with a girl, probably moreso because he just rejected her upstairs. Well, this girl isn’t his best friend’s ex, sooooo it makes a smidge more sense, Martino’s sexuality aside.

Incantava moment: Edoardo brings up the deal with the apology to Silvia, so that made it into this remake. Part of the deal was to erase the wall of conquests - smart of Eleonora - and I guess Edo did that, hopefully, but he also reminds her that she agreed to a date.

What a power move of Eleonora to go to England to avoid this date.

At least Edo was not pursuing her prior to this, apparently. It would be a shame if they suddenly had him pressure her into a date in Eleonora’s season.

Okay, I realize that Martino didn’t appear to have the best options to hide his weed, but he’s really just gonna put it in a box on the railing where it could easily get knocked over the balcony or blown away or something? Lmao.

The scene of the boys running away from the cops was cute and had that “reckless youth enjoying the night” vibe.

So Martino clearly still has Giovanni feelings, and Giovanni is going to be crashing at his place tonight. Look at that hand on Martino’s shoulder, probably burning through his shirt. I like perhaps acknowledging the idea that all this casual affection between guys in this culture can take on a hidden toll for a closeted gay kid.

Martino mentions that his mom is freaking out, so they’re openly acknowledging Martino’s mom situation in front of the other guys (when Isak was less open about it) and Giovanni gives him a hug that fucks Martino up. It seemed like Martino didn’t want Giovanni to come over, probably both because of his crush and because of his mom situation.

Clip 2 - Sad boy slumber party

Martino wakes up and stares at Giovanni, who’s still sleeping. Martino is not on the bed, but on the floor, ostensibly because Giovanni threw him off the bed but really because he doesn’t want to be so close to Giovanni. He pointedly turns down Giovanni’s invitation to get back in the bed. This is a really delicate situation; this is such a casual thing for Giovanni that he doesn’t even think about it, but for Martino it’s this extremely loaded scenario that comes with dangers, so better not risk it.

Eva calls and wants to talk to Martino, but he can’t since he’s with Giovanni. Giovanni says that he’s been trying to get back together with Eva, and making a fool out of himself, so Martino is certainly not enjoying about this reminder that Giovanni likes girls, Giovanni loved (loves?) Eva, it will never be Giovanni and Martino in the way he wants. Also, awkward of course because Eva tried to kiss Martino, which says a lot about how she thinks of Giovanni - probably not keen to get back with him if she can make a move on his best friend, even when drunk.

Okay, I have a deeply unpopular opinion and that is: while Skam Italia’s cinematography is often visually impressive, at times it does not work with the material it’s supposed to be conveying. It’s not style over substance, but style against substance. There are several examples, but to go into one now: why the fuck is the lighting so dark in certain moments. Whyyyyyy.

And before you tell me, I do know why the director is perhaps doing this. It’s supposed to reflect Martino’s state of mind, it’s supposed to make things seem bleak, it’s supposed to contrast with the sunnier scenes such as later in the episode with Niccolò, etc. etc. The problem is that I do not think it is effective for the format of this show. Here’s the thing: we are supposed to be in Martino’s POV for a reason. His reactions should not be hidden from us, this audience, and to me the lighting is a barrier from getting closer to him and getting fully into his mindset. Like, the camera should be eating this shit up! Give me all the microexpressions! Federico Cesari is doing a nice job of acting so far and it bugs me that the lighting is obscuring some of his facial expressions. Now it makes sense for ambiguity on the part of say, Niccolò, who will be keeping secrets for most of the season (based on Even’s role) but this is Martino’s season, and we as the audience should be deep into his head every step of the way. This is supposed to be an immersive experience. There is zero reason to obscure Martino’s reactions from the audience. Martino may have a barrier between him and his friends, his family, his schoolmates, society at large - but not us, the viewers. (And not just the lighting, but for example, that his face is shot in profile for part of this scene, which again doesn’t give us a full range of Martino’s reactions, or the amount of distance between the camera and Martino at times. Even if you can assume what Martino is thinking and feeling enough that you don’t need really clear reaction shots, it’s like there’s a gap and we’re not supposed to get too close.)

Like obviously this cinematography is working for people, and if it is for you, great! If this were a different show, I could be fine with it. But not with a series that is supposed to put me fully into this character’s head, not keep me at a distance.

Covitti is the girl from the bathroom? She’s followed Martino on IG. I feel like, if they’re doing a repeat of Emma’s involvement, then it doesn’t work as well as to why she’d suddenly be interested in Martino. With Isak, there was something karmic about it, because he blatantly pursued when he met her, and it’s like he reaped what he sowed, you know? Don’t get me wrong, he absolutely did not deserve the much later repercussions with Emma outing him, but the immediate aftermath of him flirting with Emma showed that his actions had consequences. He couldn’t just make out with this girl for the benefit of an audience and then drop her. With Martino, he was so much more passive with Covitti, that it feels less earned. I mean he’s very cute, but him being doggedly pursued by her doesn’t have as much to do with his characterization, unless the point is that he refuses to put his foot down and reject her. (A valid characterization choice! But hopefully an intentional one.)

We get to see Martino’s mom and on the one hand, it’s pretty cool that she’s around in this version, but on the other hand, goddamn am I apprehensive about how they will depict her.

Martino really does not want to eat lunch with her. Apparently they have chicken and potatoes four times a week. Credit to Giovanni, he acts normal and is polite to Martino’s mom and is eager to eat with her.

Eva apologizes for trying to kiss Martino. So Giovanni is trying to get back with Eva and Eva made a move on Martino. Awkward! Eva is also probably dying to bring up the topic of that girl in the bathroom with Martino, let’s be real.

Giovanni chides Martino for being an asshole and says if he didn’t treat his mom like shit, maybe he would help her! Hey, no offense, Giovanni, but fuck off. I agree that Martino was not nice to his mom, I agree that he should treat her better. But Giovanni is a visitor. He is a guest in this household. He doesn’t know shit about what it’s like to live there or what’s the best course of action. No, actually it’s not as easy being kind to someone and it’ll fix their mental illness.

If I sound weirdly pissed about this, it’s because I am speaking as someone who has been a caretaker to a mentally ill parent. One of the most frustrating things was when people who were completely outside of my situation told me how to deal with it. It’s fucking easy to think you have the answers when you don’t live in this situation, when you have the freedom to go back to your own home when shit gets really rough. When you likely haven’t seen a loved one at their worst.

To clarify, this isn’t necessarily a flaw of the show, just an area where I think a character is flawed. But I would hate for Giovanni’s POV to be validated. Of course Martino should not treat his mother poorly, but he needs to do that on his own, not because some outsider who has no idea what is going on in this house thinks so.

Anyway. Shut the fuck up, Gio.

Eva also doesn’t want Martino to tell Gio, so you know Gio is going to find out at some point. Here’s the thing: if this drama is more along the lines of ~ooo Eva kissed Martino and he didn’t tell Gio and Gio feels BETRAYED when he finds out~ then it sounds tedious and exactly the kind of drama I don’t want. It’s not necessary, it’s honestly a very low-stakes situation. However, if it’s more of a lead-in to S1’s drama being revealed, and Gio learns about what happened with Martino ratting out Eva, that would be interesting. I’d be very interested in seeing where it goes. I think the writers have to know that this would be the most compelling aspect, so here’s hoping.

Not gonna lie, one thing I liked about S3 was the lack of heterosexual relationship drama (other than what directly serviced Isak and Even’s relationship), and I don’t want this season to stray too far into Eva/Gio stuff. Though I realize that by switching S2 and S3, they probably feel like they have to account for their relationship.

In S2 of the original, we saw the remnants of Eva/Jonas more on Eva’s side, through Noora’s eyes. Eva told herself she was over Jonas and they were just friends, but we could see that wasn’t totally true. With this season, though, we’ll probably see Eva/Giovanni more through Giovanni’s eyes, because even if Martino is Eva’s friend, he’s Giovanni’s best friend.

Clip 3 - The Phantom Clitoris

Lmao, Luca being like “Guess what happened to me” and Gio being like “Did you put an egg in the microwave again?” (I mean, you can cook eggs in a microwave even if it’s not the best way!)

Luca hooked up with a girl! If we believe him. She didn’t have a clitoris! Except he didn’t know what it was called. I don’t know whether to think that if it he didn’t know what it was called, he probably didn’t know how to look for one, or that he’s straight up lying. But this is interesting because Jonas was the one who went down on girls in the original and had this dialogue, and then Magnus was the virgin seeking wisdom from Isak, and here apparently Luca is already banging girls? Or he’s pretending to.

Martino sees Niccolò for the first time! Niccolò is adorable. He’s got the Even denim jacket and a nice smile. Sana and Silvia are shown going up to him while he’s talking to another dude.

Luca is like, I watched a 20-minute porn tutorial of how to eat a girl out. No offense bro, but I doubt you were in a very studious mindset during that. Or maybe he was! Maybe he made flashcards.

Martino gets a text from his dad about having dinner “with us” and I’m guessing that his dad has a new girlfriend or something, because it’s kinda weird to text your kid “have dinner with us?” about both his parents when his dad left his mom.

Silvia and Sana come up, Elia brings up the girl with no clitoris to them (why was that the first thing out of your mouth, dude), and Silvia mentions that she and Sana are now in charge of the radio. So this is our kosegruppa! I wonder if the radio itself will have more plot relevance for the season.

The guys are conveniently too busy to help on Thursday! But Sana thinks they’ll be helping soon enough.

For a moment I thought Luca was frightened by Silvia and saw that as a point toward Luca/Silvia happening, since it would be in line with Magnus’ sado-Vilde dreams, but then I was like, oh right, he probably means Sana, lol. (Silvia is way less intimidating than Vilde. Silvia is cheerful, Vilde was sugar layered over a core of menace when she pitched kosegruppa to the guys.)

Martino checks out Niccolò again, because who wouldn’t, and Niccolò is talking to the other guy … maybe Niccolò is flirting with that guy?

The boys suggest smoking a joint but Martino didn’t get the weed back yet, so the boys are bummed, but Gio keeps his disappointment restrained to a few jovial throttles of Martino’s neck. Martino dies inside and tries not to develop a choking kink.

Niccolò did not look at Martino in this clip, there’s no evidence he saw him in this scene, and he was in fact preoccupied with conversation with another dude. So ... has Niccolo seen Martino yet? In an “I saw you the first day of school” way? Because with that knowledge in mind, in the original we could look back at Even’s first appearance in the cafeteria and see that he had obviously grabbed a seat with a good view of Isak and was sitting there alone, possibly sketching him. I guess you could say that Niccolò was standing there to get Martino’s attention, maybe even trying to make him jealous by talking to another guy, but that seems .... really convoluted. If they do include the “I saw you the first day of school” line, they should have had Niccolò look at Martino for even a brief moment. It didn’t even need to be eye contact! Like you could show Niccolò looking toward Martino when he’s out of focus, as a background event, a little Easter egg for the eagle-eyed viewer.

This is one of those original clip comparisons, so hold on to your butts. In the original clip, the way the scene is shot and acted combines multiple details to demonstrate Isak’s alienation from the other boys. Tarjei’s acting shows that he is disconnected from this conversation - he’s picking at his sandwich, checking his phone, he’s not really engaged with the cat tongue/clitoris talk. He has a few mild smiles but his facial expressions and body language show he’s checked out. He doesn't participate in that conversation at all, actually, other than a look or two. There’s no dialogue from him. And the camera contributes to this impression that he’s withdrawn: it’s often just on Isak with the conversation coming from off screen, rather than showing him in the shots with the guys. It shows him alone instead of showing him connected to the group. When it does show him with the group, he’s not reacting to them much. So when he hears a boy's laugh, it seems plausible that it would get attention as the boys’ conversation is not holding his interest.

With this clip, Martino might make a comment like "Oh no, don't tell us your dirty story" but he is otherwise very engaged in this conversation. He leans into it, he's listening, his face makes him seem eager. He's frequently shown in the shot with the other guys, part of the group rather than isolated. Gio repeatedly looks back at him and shares looks with him so there’s something reciprocal happening. Martino speaks to Luca and he high fives him. He's just a definite participant in this conversation, so there isn't much of a feel of alienation here. I mean, we know he's gay, and maybe we can assume that his participation in this conversation is forced or half-hearted, but that's not coming through in how it's portrayed. And I like Federico, I think he's one of the better actors on the show, but I also think he's playing it too comfortably, though I blame Bessegatto more for that since his direction is what guides the performance. It seems like Martino's a nice guy with some friends, who doesn't seem too detached this conversation and who seems totally fine with looking at a cute guy over there. Not much of an internal struggle. Not much of an external struggle either, really.

It felt like there were missed opportunities. For example, when Martino says he doesn’t want Luca’s TMI, and Gio is like, “Yes we do, don’t listen to him,” we don’t even get a reaction shot from Martino to see how that affects him? We could have seen him annoyed, or exasperated, or uninterested in this conversation. We could have seen him drifting and doing something with his body language to indicate he’s not comfortable, and then THAT is when he sees Niccolò, because his mind is already wandering. Not when he’s engaged in this conversation. Or keep in Luca asking Martino about going girls and wanting to know how Martino finds the clitoris, and Martino having to struggle to answer that when the boys are all looking at him.

I mean, again, it makes me wonder what they’re going to do with Martino’s characterization because they’re playing up his struggles with his attraction to Gio, but he does not seem to be struggling as much with the public performance of liking girls. Or even perhaps the internal conflict of liking boys. And that would be fine except it seems like it should be. Martino was the one who introduced the idea of liking Eva back in S1, before Eva had even suggested it herself. He was definitely on the defense then, so what’s going on now?

Also, Isak glanced at Even and Even looked back, which made Isak look away. Julie pointedly did not show Even again in that clip because Isak was clamping down on his attraction and forcing himself not to look. Martino allows himself a second glance. It frames the scene way more comfortably.

Clip 4 - Fede almost had it all

12:12 ...it begins...

Martino sees Fede and Sana, so he approaches them. He calls them “rays of sunshine,” which is cute! Though he’s totally doing it to butter them up so he gets his stash back.

LMAO I love the part where Federica is like, I found a drill, who brings a drill to a party? (Someone you pray to God remains sober.)

He asks if he can come over and Federica chokes on her drink. She’s really cute in this scene. Honestly, she didn’t make a ton of impression on me in S1 compared to other girl Chrises from the remakes, but I enjoyed her here a lot, she’s sweet.

They can “study” together in the living room because Fede’s parents are gone. Oh babe, I think you’ll be disappointed at the amount of actual learnin’ that would take place were such a study session to take place.

Sana sits there texting Martino that she has his weed while he’s right there next to her. I guess Fede was just really excited by the prospect of having Martino in her house, but did she really not notice that Sana was texting and Martino just so happened to receive a text at the same time?

Sana saying that it’s “a friend of her brother’s” who has Martino’s “necklace.” Is that an actual nod toward Niccolò or just a coincidence? If she means Niccolò, then why is she bringing him up?

Like I know people like this theory, but I don’t think it makes sense that Sana was trying to hook up Isak and Even all along (or Martino and Niccolò if the circumstances are the same), because how does that explain her reactions to being asked about Islam’s view of homosexuality, or to Isak being outed? Of course they could be going for a diferent approach in this remake.

Federica is really adorable freaking out over how she ALMOST had Martino within her grasp. Poor girl, I’m sorry to tell you that your day is never coming. (Lmao, I guess one day a remake could swap out Emma for Isak hooking up with the Chris character? I mean Chris >>>>> Emma, but then I’d feel so bad for her.)

Clip 5 - Here we gooooooooo

So the carrot cake (made by Silvia) suuuuucks. Martino’s disgusted face is pretty good.

The girl squad is trying to Skype with Eleonora. Meanwhile Martino sits there by himself, not having a great time. As a contrast to the girl squad who are laughing and having fun, Martino is on his own because his dumbass friends ditched him.

Sana wants Martino to let them use his Internet connection to continue the Skype call, he’s like lmao, she’s ditching you guys on purpose. Gonna go out on a limb and say that he’s projecting.

Tbh I do think it’s odd that they wrote out Eleonora so much if they didn’t need to. Like I know people think they switched S2 and S3 for dramatic, important reasons, but I get the feeling it was just a matter of actor availability. I could be wrong!

That random curly-haired dude at the meeting is the true star of this clip. He was INTO everything that was happening.

SIlvia says it took forever to make her cake. And it still sucks, apparently. Good thing that the girls never seemed to get her pineapple cake from S1? Was Silvia behind the Jell-O disaster, too?

She doesn’t want another piece, which might be another hint at her ED, but the cake is garbage soooo maybe she just has taste buds and a self-preservation instinct, IDK.

It’s actually intriguing that Silvia seems to be baking cakes for people and yet she monitors her own eating so closely.

Lmao at there being dead noise when Martino sees Niccolò enter the room. Everything fades except this smiley hottie. (For a second I was like “is he flat-lining?”)

Niccolò walked in with some other people, including Covetti. He sits on the table beside Martino. Martino keeps glancing at him but Niccolò will NOT glance at Martino. Again, if they’re going to go with “I saw you the first day of school,” I don’t think they set it up that well. It’s fine if they don’t, but there are really no fun “extras” you get from these scenes with that reveal. In both of his scenes Niccolò has been hanging out with other people, he’s not glancing at Martino. There’s no foreshadowing. You can be like oh, Niccolò positioned himself outside the school for Martino to see, he DELIBERATELY didn’t look at Martino for reasons! But that’s not very enjoyable on a rewatch.

The way Martino begrudgingly greets that Uglydoll or whatever is the best part of the episode.

Covitti notices Martino looking over at Niccolo, by the way.

Okay, WHO IS THAT BLUE-HAIRED GIRL. Like it seems as if she would make a good Sonja, she reminds me a little of Theresa.

Covitti whispers something to Martino but we don’t know what.

“Bad story about Chicco Rodi” Who was that? I vaguely remember the name from S1? Oh wait, was he the guy who got the award for worst attendance? I hope that “tutorial” is foreshadowing for Martino and Niccolò breaking into the school at some point.

Silvia comes across as positively chill compared to Vilde. It must be Osvaldo’s influence.

Why is Covitti even there, since she’s not interested in what Silvia’s saying? To stalk Martino? How did she know he would be there? Emma knew Isak was going to be there because of signups, were there signups for this? (This is nitpicky and I’m sure that’s what they meant, it’s just that they’re skipping over some parts where her motivations become clear.)

Martino: Sorry I have to take this totally real and not at all imaginary call!!!!!

Wow, no finesse, just like our man Isak.

Martino’s fake phone call is pretty funny, like he lets it go on way longer than necessary.

He plops down in a chair in the radio room and then he starts talking to himself and pretending to be on the radio. I really do like the idea of Martino finding his voice through the radio, literally and metaphorically. And actually, when he starts speaking by himself, he sounds pretty good to me! Confident, composed, his voice sounds good, the words come easy. So maybe this is a move from him being passive to speaking up for himself.

That shot of Martino, fractured in the glass, when Niccolò turns on the light is fabulous. Showing how Niccolò’s introduction is going to break apart Martino’s sense of self. And Niccolò‘s image is clear and whole so Martino perhaps sees him as this cool, confident dude who’s got his shit together. So he thinks. (Plus Niccolò literally turns on the light on and all.)

Niccolò says it’s a shame Martino stopped talking, basically, and they laugh about Silvia’s dry-ass cake.

Niccolò has a shitty ancient phone? Would that play into his avoidance of social media because of his manic episode? Since you can’t post to IG/FB/any apps from one of those. Or is he just a hipster who hates technology? Or something else?

Lol, I didn’t have to wait long before the “breaking into the school” prophecy was fulfilled. They end up climbing into a part of the school that’s closed.

Beautiful view on the roof, obviously. I guess for O Helga Natt, Martino is going to run and find Niccolò here, maybe? And then he’ll be in the radio room instead? Will they stare at each other from behind the glass?

Niccolò asks if Martino knows Silvia, and he says no, she’s a friend of a friend. Niccolò asks which one, so he’s probably wondering if Martino is good pals with Sana.

Niccolò notes that Martino doesn’t seem happy to be there, and neither does Niccolò. Taking him at his word, he’s doing this as part of school-work interchange. So I guess he didn’t show up just to meet Martino? Again, I have no problem with that changing that (I loved it with Evak but I’m fine with them not repeating it), I just want them to do a good job of foreshadowing if they do go with that.

We get the conversation about Niccolò being from a different school, but there’s no line (as in the original) where Isak notes with some incredulity that he transferred during his last year, so there isn’t as much of a hint that something happened to Niccolò, provided they are still keeping in his backstory. (I think he’s still in his final year?)

The camera gets very close up in the boys’ faces as they talk about more personal topics, THANK GOD. Like I do think the coldness and distance in other clips is intentional, I just don’t think it works with this show, but at least we can get warmer, closer scenes when necessary.

Covitti (whose first name is Emma, by the way) shows up and literally comes between them. They do the whole thing where Martino “introduces” Niccolò to Emma, except they’re not trying to pretend they’re already partners to avoid her.

“Fares” means horseman or knight in Arabic, so I guess Niccolò is going to be Martino’s knight in shining armor? Or fight for him? That would explain his flipbook in the trailer with stick figure Niccotino on a horse.

Covitti isn’t very awkward as a person. She and Niccolò have a polite, maybe even flirty conversation when filtered through certain jealous ears; it’s Martino who suddenly feels like a third wheel. Covitti is still making eyes at Martino, though. Niccolò says he and Martino will stay back and smoke, which pleases Martino, but she invites herself to smoke with them. It’s awkward but way less so that with Isak, Even, and Emma, in my opinion, maybe because Covitti seems like she’s enjoying herself even if the boys aren’t.

The poppy indie song at the end of the clip feels out of place. Like if they wanted to emphasize the awkwardness, they should have just ended in a stranger song or complete silence to drive home how Martino did not want her there. If they wanted to use this song to emphasize Martino’s crush, show closeups of Martino glancing at Niccolò with the sunlight bouncing off his face without including Covitti in there.

Oh god. Don’t kill me for this. Okay. So we have Niccolò’s introduction in this clip, obviously, and I like him in the sense that he's a friendly guy with an utterly beautiful smile. But I felt like they made him just like ... a really nice, smiley guy, in a way that was one-note. And I’m NOT criticizing the actor’s abilities, because I’ve seen his acting clips from other projects and I think he could do justice to the character. This is more about directorial decisions.

Part of the reason I love Even is because he’s fucking strange. Sure, he’s Isak’s dream boy with his denim jacket and styled hair, and he’s got a smile like the sun, and he just feels cool, but he’s also a bouncy, twitchy weirdo coursing with energy. In his first clip he makes a HELL of an impression and it’s by pulling a bizarre stunt in the bathroom with paper towels and then by making a blowjob joke as one of his first lines to Isak. Now I don’t think every Even of the remakes need to do that, not at all, but Even felt like a really specific character to me, someone who was weird and strongly himself and presented in a way that made us fall for him piece by piece. And one fear I have about the remakes is that they’ll remove some of his weirdness to make him more of a general artsy hipster type who gets along with the Isak. (Or maybe him an artsy hipster asshole, but that’s another story.)

I feel bad because I do actually want to love Niccolò I think the actor is tremendously adorable and enthusiastic about is role, and I think he can make Niccolò into someone specific and memorable. But the way this scene was directed and performed, it felt like Bessegatto told Rocco to be charming by smiling a lot. And I mean, he DOES have a great smile, but Niccolò has the same amused, benign friendliness the whooooole clip, and my gut feeling was that they were trying too hard to make us like him and eliminating anything that might make the character off-putting, which is unfortunately some of what makes the character compelling, especially this early on as he should be something of a mystery both for Martino and the audience.

Where this approach would have worked more for me is if Niccolò was this unstoppable force of sunshine against Martino’s constant grumpy iciness, and he couldn’t help but melt in the face of it. But the thing is, Martino isn’t a constant grump who’s freezing people out. He’s actually pretty friendly to people. So it was like radiant sunshine against slightly less radiant sunshine, and there wasn’t a lot like I felt I could mull over, IDK.

And yes yes I know this is only the first clip. Niccolò has tons of time to make himself into a distinctive, memorable character. I’m aware of that. But I don’t want to lie about my reaction.

General Comments/Social Media:

Continuing with Martino’s crush on Giovanni makes sense considering only a few months have passed. Though it should be said that I never thought Isak getting over Jonas from S1 to S3 without any elaboration was like .. a flaw of the show? It depends on how deep you think Isak’s feelings were. Personally I never saw him as in love with Jonas, I saw it as an intense crush, compounded by Isak’s bad home life so that Jonas, his best friend who was always there for him, was someone who really made his life better at the time, and whose attention he craved.

There was almost a year between the end of S1 and the start of S3, and during that time, Isak had seen Jonas go from Eva to other girls, so I’m sure it sunk in that Jonas wasn’t suddenly going to go for him just because Eva was out of the picture. And Isak had moved out of his parents’ home so there was less of an immediately chaotic situation where he was more dependent on Jonas for support. I mean he’s clearly not in a great place at the start of S3, but he was able to get some independence and distance from his parents. I think his life was more stable on a day-to-day basis. So it’s not hard to see how Isak’s crush would have faded with those factors in mind. Martino, on the other hand, has had less time to get over Giovanni, Giovanni perhaps has not moved on to other girls since he’s still trying to get with Eva, and Martino is still probably depending on him for more emotional support since he has to deal with a more directly stressful environment at home.

In the texts, Giovanni refers to Sana as “Sana Escobar” in reference to her taking the weed. Pablo Escobar is obviously extremely well-known on his own, but I do think it’s a nod to all the Narcos/Escobar mentions in Isak’s season. Or at least they took inspiration there.

Elia is apparently one hell of a dumbass according to an essay he wrote that showed up on IG.

I wonder if they’re going to swap out the Grindr clip with Eskild for the first meeting with Filippo. I really do wonder how that relationship will come across, because I know people are excited about seeing them meet (and I am too) but the thing is, a big part of what made Isak and Eskild’s relationship in S3 meaningful was that they had months of trust to be established between them. Eskild saw Isak repressing his sexuality for months, and when Isak finally came out to him, there was pride in seeing this kid’s long journey to acceptance. We also got plenty of little scenes between them so the dynamic wasn’t just a big dramatic thing, we saw the casual side of their relationship. So I’m not sure how they can replicate that with a relationship that cannot help but have less buildup.

Niccolò is a pianist and there’s a video of him playing on YouTube! I’m really glad they incorporated the actor’s talents into the character and gave him his own artistic skill to make him a little different from Even. I assume that Martino will find the piano video and watch that endlessly. And it’ll be fun if Martino is all convinced Niccolò is a serious classical music snob but then Niccolò is like, “YES, this is my JAM” over a cheesy pop song.

One big problem I have is that it feels like a lot of potential for conflict or tension (both internal and external) is being minimized across various relationships, in multiple situations. It just feels safer for Martino despite him still going through some major problems that Isak was not at this point, and so it really shouldn’t. And that makes it harder to get involved in his POV or to immerse ourselves in his struggles. For example:

The boy squad isn't angry or annoyed with Martino for losing the weed, they're just kind of like lol, get it back.

Sana and Martino don't clash with as much tension, and does Sana even explain why she’s holding onto Martino’s weed instead of giving it back? Sana B. was disgusted that Isak left the weed in Eva’s house where Eva could get in trouble if it was found; Sana A. is just doing it to be sassy, so far? Knowing that she found Isak’s actions distasteful upped the animosity of the Sana-Isak relationship, whereas Sana-Martino doesn’t have that element. I mean it’s certainly a reasonable inference that Sana is mad at him for potentially getting Fede in trouble, but it’s not a clear motivation. Martino doesn’t know why she’s randomly holding on to his weed. Does he think she’s doing it because she’s Muslim and disapproves? Because she wants it for herself? Just to torment him?

Italian Emma comes across way more of a chill, tolerable girl than Nowegian Emma and less of a persistent nuisance causing him stress just by existing.

Martino is less alienated and uncomfortable and more like a chill dude who likes to look at guys. The boys talking about going down on girls doesn’t make him uninterested and detached from the situation, he just mildly protests about TMI but continues to engage. He can look at Niccolò without having to make himself look away. He puts up less of a show to perform heterosexuality than Isak.

Martino doesn’t want to get involved in the radio show, except when he’s left alone he starts talking into a mic and pretending he’s on the radio, suggesting that it is of interest to him even if he’s not into Silvia’s leadership or whatever (as opposed to Isak who just didn’t want to deal with kosegruppa).

Even the Martino and Niccolò meeting had them bantering right away, practically as soon as they spoke, rather than encountering any moments of uncertainty or confusion, no time where they had to find their groove. And people are going to be like “They got along right away when Isak and Even didn’t!” when the reason Isak and Even were a little awkward at first was not because they clashed but because they were attracted to each other. Isak was shy about talking to a cute boy and taken aback by Even’s approach; Even was overwhelmed about talking to the boy he’d liked for weeks. It’s also a mark of how genuine Isak’s interest was: with Emma he was all slick and insincere, with Even he was real and tongue-tied. I mean, think about episode 2 and what a great moment it is when Isak runs into Even on the tram and they fumble for words at first. It’s so good! It’s human and real. It’s vulnerable, especially from Isak’s POV since we know how hard he has been pining over the last week, but also from Even’s POV especially when you know he’s liked Isak for a long time. The thing with Martino and Niccolò is that they settle into conversation so instantly, without any bumps, that I don’t think I would buy a moment like that happening. It’s not like I expect them to immediately become best friends but it would feel strange after this scene. And personally, it’s not like this relationship needs to develop the same as Isak/Even, but it’s good to leave some room for build-up from a narrative perspective. That’s why it’s so satisfying when Isak goes from barely being able to speak to Even to getting so comfortable with him that he can joke around and laugh with him. Like, let Martino say the wrong thing, or not know what to say, or make a mistake, so he can earn that more comfortable place with Niccolò, or so we can savor the moments that show him as vulnerable. (I mean, did people not enjoy Isak and Even being shy around each other? Because the awkwardness, the long silent pauses, the fumbling for what to say ... I ate that shit up. I loved it.)

Now on their own, it’s not wrong for any of these plot threads or scenes to go more smoothly. But do you see how cumulatively, they don’t contribute that much to creating a stressful internal and external climate for Martino? He’s just so much milder about everything, and the people around him are milder to him, and from a dramatic perspective it’s not as engaging.

I mean fandom does this thing where it’s like “These characters get along better! Things are Softer! Cinnamon rolls!! It’s an improvement!!!” but that’s not ... actually great from a narrative standpoint. We’re at the beginning of Martino’s story and it makes more sense to emphasize what a shit place he’s in so we can build him up over the season.

The conflict that IS there, and felt like it had more of a presence on screen when it was addressed, is Martino still having feelings for Giovanni and Martino’s issues with his parents. I’m not sure how much farther they’ll take Martino’s crush on Gio, since now Niccolò is in the picture, but they’ll likely have Martino keeping secrets from Giovanni that are Eva-related. And we have Martino living with his mother and dealing with her problems, but I felt like that should have been more emphasized in this premiere episode and not just one clip, since it’s really fucking huge. It’s not a problem he can kind of repress like Isak because Isak can just ignore his mom’s texts. Martino has to go home and deal with it every day. (Like I would have put the radio/weed stuff for episode 1 and kick off with Martino’s parental problems and meeting Filippo, since that should set sooo much of the stage for this season, emotionally.)

I’ve also seen the idea that this season will focus more on Martino dealing with external homophobia than internalized homophobia, and that’s certainly a good idea, but then they really should have hit the ground running with that theme. Show the boy squad making casually homophobic comments, show him fearing what his mom will say. Show some random assholes making gay jokes about Filippo at the party and Martino overhears.

I think they’re doing the meeting with Filippo in episode 2, so hopefully we get more meat to Martino’s conflicts.

I sound like I’m being negative, probably, but I’m aware this is only episode 1, and there’s plenty more to come. There are things that I do like, such as Filippo being Eleonora’s brother and the introduction of the radio. I think those could be really cool for the season. And I’m still intrigued by everything else, because this is S3 and of course I’m wondering how they’ll adapt it!

Please feel free to correct me if I missed or misinterpreted anything!

If you got this far, thank you for reading! Especially if you disagreed with me, lol.

#skamit reactions #skam italia reactions

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lightsandlostbells · 5 years

Text

Skam Italia season 2, episode 3 reaction

Thanks to the people who read and left comments on my previous recaps, especially the one for episode 2! I appreciated hearing from you ❤️

I wrote some stuff about this episode. I don’t have much of a preamble, except the usual: I make comparisons to the original show because I’m interested in the remakes as adaptations, I don’t have 100% positive things to say, if you want to just enjoy the season and not see criticisms, avoid this.

Episode 3

Clip 1 - Dudes being dudes

Martino is sitting on a couch overlooking the city, for … reasons. I don’t know why he came here specifically to brood. Is this his special place? Is this a boy squad hangout? It’s certainly got a nice view.

So the other boys made it to Emma’s, it was just that Martino skipped out. Then they have less reason to be mad at him, to be honest; yeah, it sucks that he blew them off, but they made it to the party.

Elia throws a ball at Martino when Martino is clearly not paying attention. Dickhead!

Dudes, he didn’t even lie to you? He ignored you. Which is not great but if a friend ignored me when we had plans, I would be worried something happened to them. Of course the thing that happened to Martino was an attractive boy feeding him garbage noodles, but still.

Martino finally lies to the boys in a more active way, spinning them a story about fighting with his mother and getting anxious, which is certainly believable knowing his home situation and is likely drawn from his real experience. In the original, Isak also uses his mom as an excuse, although he lies less blatantly than Martino does. Isak lies more than Martino overall, I think, but in that case, he sort of vaguely alluded to there being “stress” with his mom, without going into details, and Jonas was able to pick up on what he meant without Isak having to say more, and Mahdi was able to pick up that there was something more serious going on even if he didn’t know the exact situation. This time, Martino’s lie is more fleshed-out, and Giovanni is vocally supportive and claps Martino on the shoulder. (I guess it’s possible that he knows Martino is lying and is covering for him, but he’s playing it pretty sincere. He knows Martino’s family life is difficult so he probably buys it.)

This is why I had to laugh at some comments I read that were like “Giovanni is able to read Martino when Jonas couldn’t read Isak.” Lmao, no. There are plenty of times when Jonas could pick up on Isak’s mood and situation without it needing to be spelled out to him.

Anyway, after the situation is ironed out, we get an anecdote about Elia’s lack of success with the Argentinian girl, telling the story of ... putting Luca in a suitcase? He is petite. Martino laughs with the boys and all seems okay for now. The dynamic has been restored.

Again, all the chasing of the Argentinian will have been for nothing as she is a lesbian.

Elia kicks a ball at Martino as punishment, because Boys Will Be Boys. Then again, I’m sure Martino prefers balls flying at him to having to arrange another party with the girls.

Clip 2 - Gay test

Martino arrives home with some food. The fridge looks pretty empty, so I guess they aren’t keeping on top of groceries. Or this is Martino taking care of it because his mom can’t.

Then his mom enters, and he says he’s going to cook for her. So he’s being nice to her, which is sweet. Mom is too tired and needs to lie down after a long meeting.

It seemed like Isak’s mom had schizophrenia or schizotypal disorder, correct? She had delusions and was actively sending him Biblical texts that were confusing. But we haven’t see any of those from Martino’s mom - I don’t think there’s been any hints that she’s been seeing things or believing in things that aren’t real. So far it seems like she’s dealing with depression, mainly. Apparently she is holding down a job. (I’m wondering what the reasoning was behind this change, and honestly, I suspect that they didn’t want to deal with depicting stuff like psychosis on screen, now that the mother character is visible rather than existing via text message.)

I’m curious how this relationship between Martino and his mom will play out, because a) we have not seen a single clue that she might not accept his sexuality - I mean it’s definitely possible that it will come up, but there are no warning signs like how Isak’s mom sent him hellfire and brimstone texts, so is there supposed to be anxiety there on his part? b) he’s clearly not estranged from her the way Isak was with his mom - so what’s the climax of that relationship going to be? It was a big moment when Isak came out to his mom because it was not just her accepting him for being gay, but sealing a rift in that relationship overall. Of course I’m sure it will be lovely when Martino comes out to his mom, but his sexuality doesn’t feel like a huge issue separating them so far. There are obvious issues in this relationship, but he’s also trying to reach out to her and make dinner, they’re capable of some connection even though they’re also heavily struggling and Martino often seems frustrated and wants to get away from it all.

Martino is chilling and eating dinner. He sends a message to Emma, saying that things were stressful and he’ll tell her about it, he heard her party was great, etc. He’s very friendly and natural. Not coming on in a performative way, not seeming regretful or like he doesn’t want to have this conversation. And Emma texts him back in what seems like a not too much of a confrontational way? She calls him an asshole but it makes Martino laugh, he’s not stressed about it. Also, putting the “asshole” in parentheses makes it seem softer, not like a serious insult but a humorous aside. I don’t know if that holds for Italian, though.

Okay … are they seriously leading into the Gay Test clip like this? Really? Really? Look, I get that Martino and Isak are different characters, but why is so much tension being sucked out of the narrative?

Isak was lying in bed at 3 am staring at the ceiling, miserable, dealing with insomnia, and reading Bible texts from his mom, and he went and did the gay test out of desperation. He really, really had hit a low point and wanted to work out the issues gnawing at his brain. And it sucked because he had gotten his hopes up for Even, but Even was apparently taken (by a girl) and Isak thought he was reading too much into it. That much Martino can identify with. But Martino has absolutely not shown the same level of inner struggle as Isak. I mean, this clip is taking place at a reasonable hour, he seems in a reasonable mood, just eating and watching TV, laughing at Emma’s message. His mom’s condition earlier was not great but it wasn’t terrible. This doesn’t seem like a low point.

Again, Martino isn’t Isak, but then you have to ask why is he getting Isak’s scenes? For every single clip that has been adapted from Isak to Martino, you have to consider: what’s the point of this scene in Martino’s journey, and why was it recreated rather than deleted or altered to fit his particular characterization or story? It’s not unfair to ask these questions, and it’s not unfair to question whether this scene fits the narrative they’ve been building, or discuss how changing the details of a scene affects the tone and purpose. I’m not saying this clip has no place in Martino’s story, or that you can’t tone it down somewhat, but it’s just weird how the setup for a clip like this one gets dialed down, because the setup is a huge part of its emotional effect, and presenting it more casually makes it feel far less necessary to the story.

Martino looks at Emma’s picture with some fondness and types in “how to get turned on by a girl if you’re gay.” I guess I can rationalize this as Emma being friendly and cute and wouldn’t it be so much easier if Martino could just go out with her instead of wanting to be with Niccolò? But yeah, the internalized homophobia has not landed.

Martino starts with how to get turned on by girls if you’re gay, rather than googling to see whether he’s gay or how not to be gay or something else. (Isak took the gay test first and then googled that bit about getting turned on by girls. Though I don’t think Isak actually was unsure about being gay or not - like. He knew.)

Here’s the thing - this is a horrible thing for a gay kid to look up regardless, instructions on how to be straight are always shit. But because Martino seems like he’s in a pretty stable (even good or amused) mood prior to this, because of the way we lead into the scene, this search seems more like …. really fucking misguided, rather someone dealing with a lot of pain. Like this isn’t something Martino is pressuring himself to do because he’s feeling like shit, it’s an idle web search.

An idle search that takes him to a gay test! Not the same as the one Isak took, though. I think the questions do lean on stereotypes on what gay men like/do, though it’s less obvious than Isak’s quiz? What kind of cuisine you like, for example - answering like vegetarian/vegan food would probably make you “gayer” than liking Italian or Mexican food, because vegetables are for weaklings and meat is for men men men men manly men. There is a moment where Martino appears to debate and says that he sees a vagina rather than a snail in an ambiguous image, so I guess that’s him trying to make his answers appear straighter.

The quiz says Martino is exclusively heterosexual. Martino does not seem too impressed with that result.

Lmao, that ridiculous cartoon of the Kinsey scale.

Clip 3 - Martino makes up with Emma

The boys are playing table football. Martino and Giovanni are on a team against Elia and Luca and they lose, so they must crawl under the table. Martino has to endure some creative punishments in this episode, doesn’t he? All at the hands of Elia.

I’m not terribly judgmental about character wardrobes or anything like that, especially since I don’t know what the fuck is trendy for The Youths in various countries, but is there a reason Martino wears so many shirts buttoned up all the way to his neck? Is that supposed to be an example of his repression, or is that just his personal style? I’m serious.

Martino sees Emma and goes up to her. She does not seem happy to see him, sooo … I guess she really was mad at him? His reaction to her texts seemed amused, so I assumed he read them as her not being 100% serious? Okay, guess not.

Isak was very, verrrry slick when he did this part with Norwegian Emma. It was all part of his heterosexual facade, it was a performance he had done many times, and there was a noticeable contrast between how he had acted with Even in the last episode (shy, vulnerable, gradually becoming more open and unguarded, silly, comfortable). In fact, you could even see a huge difference with him seconds before with Vilde, when he was flustered and unable to get out of hosting the party even though he absolutely doesn’t want to, and how he sees Emma and takes a moment to consider and re-calibrate, so that he’s in fuckboy mode when he talks to Emma. It’s so artificial that it’s alarming and builds up dread. Martino seems newer to this. He’s a lot more genial; he’s cute but his attitude is honestly not that far off from what we see of him in other contexts. Sure, he’s flirting with a girl, but there’s so little sign of discomfort, or any indication that he has to switch into a “mode” to flirt with a girl, that it again lowers the level of narrative tension and inner conflict. He pretty much went from hanging with the guys -> seeing Emma -> going over and talking to Emma seemingly effortlessly, not showing that there was any kind of debate in his mind about what he should do, or psyching himself up to speak to her. He just does it.

Again ... I’m sort of like, what is the point of having Martino take a gay test and make move on Emma when there are so few indicators that this is causing any sort of stress for him? I mean, I think they want us to read stress into the situation, but the way the scenes are being staged, they’re drastically minimizing that effect.

Emma gets a text from the radio group, asking for a bluetooth mic for the party on Friday. Emma wants to go and wants Martino to go with her. He seems happy, Emma seems happy, she’s no longer mad. For now.

Giovanni seems proud of Martino for making a move on her, though we don’t hear him say anything.

If they wanted some actual narrative tension in this scene other than what was in the original clip, then they could have had the boys spot Emma and ask Martino if he was going to go apologize or talk to her, putting him in an awkward spot where he felt like he had to, and where we could see some heteronormative pressure at work with the boys egging him on, feeling like he couldn’t say no.

Clip 4 - Boys watching girls in the gym

This fucking scene. First of all, I heard that the actress playing the Argentinian is apparently like 14 or 15 in real life?????? Is that fucking true?? Can someone please confirm that? Because if that’s true, that’s creepy as fuck. It means we have all these 21- to 26- year-old actors cast in a show celebrated for casting actual teens, except for this one girl who’s getting objectified and perved on by the male characters (played by actors in their 20s) Great! Fuck off!

Even if that’s not the case ... blech. I can’t fault Skam Italia entirely for male gaze here, because this scene exists in the original and showcases girls’ bodies. And well … male gaze is the point of this scene. But I will point out that the original scene did not show any stationary close-ups of a girl’s ass. Gross.

The straight dudes drool over the girls. Luca’s filming it because of course he is, Boys Will Be Boys. Nothing weird about a guy filming girls without their consent!

There’s like … one shot of Martino looking mildly not into it, so uh, maaaaybe they should have emphasized that more? Just a thought. Isak looked completely out of it, bored out of his mind, very clear in his body language and facial expression. Plus the boys are watching a sports game, them watching and cheering has a different context (rather than just applauding hot girls for being hot, more or less). Martino is even shown cheering, so this is at least somewhat engaging to him, even if not because the girls are hot.

I mean, the point of this scene was to demonstrate Isak’s lack of interest in the girls compared to his friends. This scene is filmed in a way more straight-forward cheesecake-y way, like Bessegato didn’t get that the original wasn’t celebrating those lithe female bodies and actually had a purpose in establishing the main character’s mindset.

I saw an idea that maybe they should have been watching a men’s sports team with like, sweaty shirtless dudes, and have the camera compare the neutral/bored reactions of the other boys to Martino clearly thirsting, and I like that twist on the scene. Especially if the comment about the dance teacher being too gay (or whatever it would be) comes as a result of trying to make up for checking out the dudes, hoping his friends didn’t notice, or even just checking himself for letting himself stare when he’s supposed to be attempting heterosexuality at this point in the narrative.

The gym teacher comes up and is like, hmmm, so you just happen to like volleyball, huh? He roasts them a bit, which makes him my new favorite character.

He pats Giovanni on the stomach and is like, you’re flabby, you gotta get in shape because girls like fit guys. It’s a friendly casual interaction and Giovanni is amused.

So the gym teacher is gay, as it turns out from dialogue. Which is pretty cool! The boys know him and his boyfriend.

Then Martino is like, you should press charges against him, he comes up here and touches your belly. Giovanni is like, WTF.

There is a persistent, horrific stereotype about gay men being sexual predators and pedophiles, which is awful. Completely. It’s a great idea to dismantle that belief and to educate the audience. But Martino’s comment doesn’t have much to do with his personal journey. We have not seem him struggle with being seen as a creep, or thinking gay men are predatory, or anything. I guess there’s when he thinks Filippo might be trying to pick him up? But overall, not a concern of his. If there’s something I forgot, let me know. Isak’s comment about the dance teacher flowed directly from the gay test (and his internalized homophobia) which was all about judging gay stereotypes and non-masculine behavior.

Now I do think you could say that’s why he’s reluctant to sleep in the same bed as Giovanni, and has some kind of reaction to hugging him, but the problem is that this reaction is conflated with his actual unrequited romantic feelings for Giovanni - like there are multiple reasons why Martino might react that way and not want to sleep in the same bed as him, and not all of them have to do with a fear of being seen as predatory. Sometimes it’s about getting distance from a crush who doesn’t like you back, or even just being afraid to give away his crush/sexuality without it specifically being about interpreted as predatory. But OK, I will accept this explanation even if I think they could have expressed this more clearly - maybe it would’ve been illustrated better if Martino also didn’t want to touch Elia or Luca, two guys he isn’t shown to be attracted to. In any case, they should have drawn a clear link between the gay test or whatever Martino found online (like instead of the gay test, they showed him looking at some kind of website or forum or social media where guys talked about feeling uncomfortable with gay men touching them, or thinking gay guys are pervs/molesters, or something relevant to this conversation) since that was the impetus for Isak/Martino saying dumb shit in this scene. It also would have been amazing to build up Martino’s insecurity about touching his friends as part of his anxiety over coming out, especially how that manifests in a more physically affectionate culture, and then to have his comment about the teacher clearly be a form of massive projection.

There actually WAS a conversation in season 1 at the cabin, where Elia made a joke about Martino not getting any ideas and touching him, and Martino saying that he was the last person he’d have sex with. That would have been very good to include in this season, or a similar moment, to build into Martino’s mindset and where he pulled out that comment. Because it doesn’t surprise me that he would have that idea about a gay dude being predatory, since it’s unfortunately a commonplace stereotype, but because this is a fictional narrative, you need to build up those themes and ideas.

To heap on some more unpopular opinions, I didn’t feel like Giovanni demonstrated himself as a Woke King after this scene, not that he said anything wrong, but that what he said didn’t seem to have much to do with his core values and more with personal relationships. It’s hard to explain, but it relies more on this one gay dude being an OK person rather than challenging a stereotype at its core. Giovanni is defending him because Mr. Boccia is okay and didn’t do anything wrong, rather than because he thinks gay men should not be labeled as predators just for touching their students. Like Jonas wasn’t all, “Who, the dance instructor? Fred? I know him, he’s my cousin’s boyfriend. He’s cool, he bought me some beer one time.” He was like, “Why are you dissing people for being gay? Are you just pointing out people are gay? WTF?” That cuts to the heart of Isak’s problem rather than singling out one counterexample. Giovanni doesn’t have to be a perfectly educated mouthpiece, either, I just wanted to explain the difference in how I viewed him and Jonas in these scenes. I mean, I’m sure he’ll be kind and supportive once Martino comes out to him. However, it’s less an indicator of Giovanni having some core non-homophobic principles and more like he’s fine with this one particular guy who is gay. Hopefully that makes sense.

But to be more positive, on that note, I think it is good that there’s at least one gay man who Giovanni is OK with and seems to like and respect, and that Martino can see that. There are obviously differences between how teenagers view gay peers vs gay teachers, because the adult would be “safe” and wouldn’t/shouldn’t be pursuing him, whereas teenage boys might think their friends have gay cooties and are coming on to them, but Giovanni isn’t a total 100% homophobe based on this encounter. (I don’t think Giovanni will have a problem with Martino being gay at all, to be clear, just speaking hypothetically.)

Niccolò comes up, obviously. The look he gives to Martino is good. Tension, wahoo!

He gives Martino back his earbuds and says he left them on the bus. I’m legit baffled that the boys are so suspicious of this? Martino took the bus to go home from school, after he left the boy squad, so he could have left the earbuds on the bus then. Or him being like “I was on the bus with my mom” - not that unreasonable? All he told them was that he had a fight with his mom, he didn’t say where that fight happened (Isak was wearing the hat when they left school so it made no sense to say he left it in the cafeteria, and Jonas realized this). I guess Martino and Niccolò were just acting weird enough to notice?

Giovanni sized up Niccolò so he probably suspects shit is up.

Luca gets bonked on the head by the volleyball, and the gym teacher is delighted. More of this guy, please? I like him. I wouldn’t mind if Martino has a heart to heart with him instead of the doctor. Except Martino has not been shown to have insomnia so either he’ll develop it midway through the season or the meeting will be about something else.

Clip 5 - '80s party

The girl squad is doing karaoke. Emma is singing along. Martino is sitting there not having a good time, staring blankly at something. Not singing.

He does have a pair of very small sunglasses. I don’t think Martino tried at all with the theme except for those sunglasses. Those look just like his regular clothes.

Martino and Emma talk about music briefly, and it turns out Emma likes the same kind of music Martino does - she mentions Apparat, and there was an Apparat poster-art-thing in Martino’s room. So unlike Isak and Emma, who outside of sexual orientation were also just like … not on the same page as people, Martino and Emma seem like they could fit together, were it not for the little fact that Martino is gay. I’m not sure there’s been a big indication that Italian Emma is that bad (until like a minute or two from now, with her comment about gay people). They could have played this moment a little more so Martino’s reaction is more wistful, like … oh, here’s this beautiful girl who shares some of my interests. If I were just into girls, this would be so easy.

Martino sneaks a glance over Emma as Niccolò walks in. Niccolò looks like he dressed up for the theme, at least? No version of Even is not going to dress up for a costume party. Not on my watch.

I don’t recognize his burgers shirt, is that a reference to something and I’m just blanking?

Lmao Martino just launches at Emma the second Niccolò turns around to look at him, he’s ridiculous.

I do like the part where she’s like either you’re underestimating me or you’re shy, and when she asks him if he’s shy, that’s when he kisses her. Even though he didn’t hear a word she said.

Niccolò comes over right away and places himself right between Martino and Emma, so there’s at least one way he has out-desperated Even. He slings an arm around both of them. Bold!

“Elio” is not a reference to Call Me By Your Name (well, I guess it could be that, too) but to Elio Germano, an actor - I looked up that guy and I can kind of see the resemblance? Not a big one, but in some pictures, I get it.

Martino, stop being a buzzkill and go sing a shitty song with Niccolò. The point of karaoke is to make an ass of yourself, no one cares.

In response to Martino not wanting to do karaoke, Niccolò asks, “Are you afraid of showing your hidden homosexuality?” - yeeeeeah, I’m kind of like, WTF, why did he mention it there? If Martino is closeted, then why bring it up when they’re not alone? Since Niccolò has a strong suspicion that he is gay, isn’t he just putting Martino on the spot? But Martino seems unfazed, I guess.

Now we have the famous educational moment where Niccolò calls out Emma for generalizing. Niccolò takes his arms away from Martino and Emma when he’s getting serious.

The focus of this scene is more on Niccolò and Emma than how Martino reacts. In Skam, this scene was really fucking important for Isak because Isak had ideas about how Gay People were supposed to be. That they were all a certain thing. That “gay” had a definition besides being attracted to only the same gender - that’s why he complains about why the dance teacher has to be so gay. The dance guy isn’t “so gay” because he’s showing attraction to men, but because he’s displaying a set of mannerisms associated with gay men. (I mean, it’s completely beside the point, but “so gay” dance teacher could have turned out to be banging half the dance chicks since Isak’s statement is based purely on stereotypes.) The gay test he took earlier in the week fed into these notions that Isak had because it was based entirely on generalizations. Not only is that how gay men act, but it’s how other people see men if you like certain things and act a certain way; if you act like that, they assume you are gay, and if you’re gay, they assume you act like that. So Isak hearing about how wrong it is to generalize, especially from Even, the guy he likes, is really goddamn important. It’s Even is throwing him a lifeline. Gay people are not all one thing and we shouldn’t think about them in stereotypes, even when they’re “nice” ones. That’s why the focus of that scene has a lot to do with Isak’s rapt attention, because this scene plays a specific counterpart to how we saw Isak behave that week.

However, this scene here? It’s a nice lesson for the audience to hear, but what does it have to do with Martino’s mindset that they’ve set up in this episode? At this point, Martino has not been shown to have any of these beliefs about gay men, as far as I can recall. The most is him wondering why gay people always assume everyone is gay in the scene with Filippo, but that has little to do with mannerisms. Not only that, they explicitly changed the dialogue in the dance chicks/volleyball scene to be different - it’s not Martino being like “Does that gym teacher have to be so gay?” It’s him basically accusing the gym teacher of being a pervert for touching a high school boy in a friendly way. Sooo … why didn’t they change this dialogue to reflect that? This is a clunky version of how it might play out, but what if, after Niccolò sits down and has his arm around Martino, and makes his latent homosexuality comment, Emma made a joke like, “Haha, you better not get too close, Niccolò!” And Niccolò was like, “What’s that all about?” Emma could say something like, “You know, because he’ll try to make a move on you,” and Niccolò replied, “Errrr, just because a gay dude gets close to another guy doesn’t make it inappropriate.” Then that would actually tie in to an earlier scene. But that’s obviously not the only way it could have played out. My point is, why didn’t they follow through this scene with something consistent to Martino’s story thus far?

Then again, this whole thread during the episode feels inconsistent. It’s easy to follow the story logic with Isak: takes a gay test revolving around generalizations about gay men’s personalities -> tries to distance himself from those generalizations about gay men’s personalities -> hears that it’s wrong to make generalizations about gay people’s personalities. Martino this week: takes a gay test with some generalizations (I think they were present but not as blatant as in the test Isak took?) -> makes a comment about the gym teacher basically calling him a molester -> hears that it is wrong to make generalizations about gay people’s personalities. I guess he learns not to generalize gay men as molesters? But really, vastly different, it’s not very cohesive, and Martino was not shown to be very affected by Niccolò’s dialogue. So again ... why is it here?

Also, there’s something kind of … weird about Niccolò lecturing Emma on making generalizations, because Niccolò just did the same thing, sort of? He joked that Martino didn’t want to do karaoke because he was afraid of showing his latent homosexuality, the generalization being that karaoke is a thing that gay guys do. And I get that it’s a tongue-in-cheek comment, ha ha Martino, get over yourself (and a loaded statement about his own suspicions about Martino), buuut is there a reason why, on the surface, Niccolò can make a joke about what gay people like or do or are (ha ha, liking karaoke is a sign of homosexuality!) but then Emma can make another statement generalizing about gay people and he’s like … excuse me? Yes, obviously there is a difference between them in that Emma is a straight girl (from what we know) and Niccolò is a guy who likes guys (although I’m going to assume he’s pan like Even for now), and I’m not defending what she said, but it’s a sloppy juxtaposition to have in the same scene. One’s more “neutral” and one’s “positive” but they’re both generalizations.

One thing you could get from this scene is that Niccolò has feelings about defending gay people and may be not straight himself … which should be blindingly obvious at this point.

Then Niccolò is like, “I know pretty boring gays,” which is kind of funny in the sense that he’s teasing Martino, but also, still putting Martino on the spot. Martino is nowhere near as receptive to that comment as the latent homosexuality one. I guess Niccolò just went too far.

Emma thinks this topic is boring and has Martino go dance with her. At least they show Niccolò sitting alone looking dejected when they get up, which is a dead giveaway, but a nice little moment.

People dance. This red light is very striking and all but the downside is that it’s hard to see Martino’s face (or most faces in the crowd). That might have worked if they wanted to inject some ambiguity into the scene, like did Niccolò look over to Martino while kissing his girlfriend, or was that unintentional? Is Martino imagining it? But it’s pretty clear they want it to be straightforward, so I wish we could have seen their emotions more clearly. (I feel like the lighting on this show is often a disservice to the actors, but that’s something to talk about at another juncture.)

I do like the song, though (“Self Control” by Raf) and the lyrics seem pretty fitting, about losing self control to someone. Martino is kissing Emma but can’t control himself from looking over to Niccolò. There’s also the comparison between the day and the night, perhaps related to how Martino is living for the “night” aka these moments he gets to be in Niccolò’s vicinity. Also it’s an ‘80s song, so it’s appropriate to the theme of the party, obviously.

Eva does seem to notice Martino making out with Emma and isn’t totally cool with that, like I think she’s going WTF in her head? I know his secret? Does not compute???

Federica is also sad because Martino is kissing another girl. Aww, poor girl. She came so close, or so she thought! Don’t worry, hopefully Kasper is coming.

Fede sees Silvia’s phone ringing. It’s Silvia’s mom, so they put the music on pause as Silvia talks to her mom. Silvia is adorable when she greets her mom, lol.

There’s a part where Silvia tells her mom she’s with Fede and Eva, which I thought was interesting as it excluded Sana. So maybe her parents have an issue with Sana (or rather, Silvia having a Muslim friend)? Eva looks at Sana after that, but it might just be “holy shit what’s happening?” rather than “why didn’t she mention you?”

I’m too lazy to check but is that one girl with the glasses standing behind Eva and Sana one of the theater kids from the first season?

I do like seeing Eva go into action mode and tell people what to do! What a boss.

There’s the blue haired girl from the earlier clips again, dressed like Madonna. WHOOOO ARE YOU, WHO WHO, WHO WHO (no really who is this girl)

The sudden cleanup is the means of getting Martino and Niccolò alone together, to take out the trash.

Is Niccolò dressed as Marty McFly? Did he read my post?? (don’t take that too seriously, lmao) Or is that another character/celebrity? Or just generic ‘80s style?

Their chemistry in this scene is the strongest it’s been yet. Them just standing there before the conversation starts is a really good moment. (Surprise, having a smidge of tension and some variety in their interaction does a lot for their dynamic!)

Niccolò has the nickname “Colino” based on something from middle school, so he and Maddalena go back a while. They got together when they were 16, and supposedly they’re like siblings. So it seems like they might have a foundation of friendship, and could go back to being pals after they break up, maybe? Or perhaps they’re just growing too different for that, even.

Niccolò is like JUST SO YOU KNOW WE’RE LIKE SIBLINGS. WE HAVEN’T HAD SEX IN TWO MONTHS. I mean, I get what he’s trying to say, but “I haven’t had sex with my sister in two months” is not a thing I would expect to hear from people with normal sibling relationships.

Also, two months would be the beginning of school, no? When he saw Martino?

The motive behind Niccolò’s story about Maddalena’s medical condition is very different from Even’s. Isak was very closed off and not really having it when Even started talking to him about dating Sonja for years and not being able to break up with her. He was shutting him out. That’s why Even started spinning that story about her aluminum leg, to get a reaction out of Isak and to find an opening. Martino, on the other hand, is very receptive to Niccolò from the beginning of this conversation, smiling and laughing, giving eye contact. Even when Niccolò mentions Maddalena, it’s not like Martino totally shuts down; he seems amused or perhaps reassured when Niccolò says they haven’t been having sex. So Niccolò making up this shit about his girlfriend comes across as a lot more random. Like he’s doing it just to fuck with Martino for a laugh. And he keeps going even when Martino tells him he’s full of shit (this scene goes on for about two minutes, twice the length of Even’s story). It’s not inherently wrong to change to tone of the scene, but it does make it much less fraught because there aren’t as many stakes with this conversation. They’re already more or less on the same page, or at least Martino is willing to be.

Even also had so much more vulnerability when talking about this, like … we actually saw that he felt hurt or upset talking about how he couldn’t dump Sonja. Niccolò felt so much more casual and matter of fact, which is fine, but it all feels at odds with his probable situation, because so far we’ve seen he really wants Martino and is putting himself out there. He’s not subtle. Here he’s just like, yeah, can’t dump her!

I do think that there’s some of the same subtext here as in the OG, with Sonja’s fake leg standing in for Even’s bipolar disorder; Maddalena’s hairy condition is meant to be Niccolò’s mental illness. Now she keeps it under control, she’s getting experimental treatment, etc. All things that could apply to Niccolò, perhaps.

It’d be something if Maddalena was in med school because Niccolò’s mental illness made her want to help others, or research bipolar disorder, or something like that. It’s different from Sonja seemingly being bored with her life (and perhaps channeling her energies into taking care of Even), but a nice adaptation. Even if Niccolò wasn’t her motivating factor for going to med school, it’s a potentially interesting way to show that she feels the need to “fix” people.

Skam Italia keeps doing this thing where they pull back the damn camera in a scene, away from the characters, far enough or from an angle so we can’t really see their faces (and in a way that doesn’t reveal anything compelling about their body language). They do it here and it isn’t the most egregious example, but having seen it happen in later episodes, I’m more alert to it, and a lot of times it undercuts the emotions of a scene - again, a disservice to the actors. There are some times where it really took me out, to be discussed when they pop up. I guess they do it just to add some contrast to the closeups of the characters? And I’m all for more contrast, but that’s not really what I wanted, lmao.

The pinky touching moment is great! It’s a thing that’s theirs rather than Evak’s (I guess it might be subbing in for the great hole in the sock moment from the script, but it’s still different). They’re smiling and looking at each other as they lean again, very unlike Isak and Even (when Isak couldn’t even look at Even) but it is consistent with the general vibe of their relationship so far. (Although it is kinda ehhhh that they just ... dropped all of the tension from inside the party, Niccolò’s comments on the couch, staring at each other across the room while kissing girls, and then went back to the comfortable friendly vibe almost immediately, as if none of that mattered too much in the narrative.)

Ohhhhh my God they’re interrupted by the WHOLE PARTY running out and like, that is amazing. Instead of Noora it’s fucking eeeeeverybody.

Although they’re smiling at each other as they run off and it’s cute and all but WHERE IS THE TENSION. Even from the perspective of them being friendlier and more smiley at each other, 1) they almost got caught by other people, and not just anyone, but people they know, including their girlfriends (well, Niccolò’s girlfriend and Martino’s date) and people who could talk or gossip about them, so why does this not cause any kind of alarm 2) this has changed things. They almost kissed. Show that it was some kind of big deal, like even something as small as Martino lingering a moment behind the rest of them, needing a moment to process what just happened, taking a deep breath? Smiling to himself, if you want to keep it lighter? What’s the actual difference in tone or Martino’s reaction in this scene to something like the boy squad running from the police in episode 1? Except he actually seemed concerned about getting caught by the police.

General Comments/Social Media

Emma and Martino have way more of a rapport in their texts than Isak and Emma did. She actually seems to have a sense of humor.

She says she’s found his look-a-like, and Martino is like, “Don’t say Ron Weasley,” and ahaha THAT one I do not see at all. At least not if we’re talking Rupert Grint/movie Ron. I could maaaaaybe see movie Fred and George, though. Maybe. If I squint.

Martino was also open about going to Silvia’s party, which makes sense, but also he didn’t have to hide it like Isak did. Isak was just lying all over the place in his season.

Martino also names the Luca/Silvia ship “Lulvia.” I don’t know if that will actually happen. If it does, I think it’ll be like a random Chris/Kasper-esque makeout at the end of the season.

Tbh my favorite thing from this episode might have been Silvia searching for her cat before the party on Instagram. I crave that sweet sweet Margot content.

I’ve seen all the episodes aired so far, and there are some elements that I think have been handled decently, others not so much. Later episodes have some parts that I like better. Unfortunately, this episode showcased of the weaknesses of this season, which would be, in a nutshell: lack of tension, weak depiction of internal conflict, lack of focus for Martino’s POV and character trajectory.

I know I sound cranky and overly negative in this recap. Part of it is that I’m somewhat exasperated because I feel like this episode showed that to a degree, Bessegato doesn’t like … either get what Isak’s struggle was about, or he doesn’t have a clear vision for Martino’s struggle, or he does but the storytelling is not tight enough to make every scene count. Isak and Martino don’t have to have the exact same internal conflicts, but there needs to be some consistency, and so far Martino’s arc is a weird mix of stuff that doesn’t always fit what we see of him, but is there because it happened to Isak. Either just do a straight-up close recreation of Isak’s struggle, or figure out exactly what Martino’s different conflict is and write a more focused story guided by that.

The other part is that there’s ~problematic stuff in this show that’s getting on my nerves, and constantly hearing that people need to suck it up because IT’S REALISTIC is wearing down my patience. I don’t expect characters to be perfect. The original Skam characters are not perfect. The remake characters are not perfect. But there’s a difference between (for example) racism and sexism that are included intentionally as part of a narrative to make a point, and racism and sexism that seem to be unintentional and go unremarked. And when racism and sexism repeatedly go unremarked, it starts to feel like the show is normalizing it.

Particularly about the boy squad’s behavior, including videotaping Argentina and the later catfishing, because there has been a lot of debate recently about that ... I would love for there to be a point to all of that? It would be great if their creepy-ass behavior was called out later in the season, and if this turned out to have been a point about toxic masculinity and shitty straight boy behavior. If it was all building up to something, awesome, I will give Skamit the respect it’s due. But right now? I don’t get why I should give the show the benefit of the doubt. It’s already shown its ass on racism, and there have been scenes that have jumped out at me in terms of male gaze, some of the more blatant feminism in S1 was watered down from what I remember, etc. So I can’t actually assume that the boy squad will totally be called out in the end.

Honestly, if you’d asked me to guess what some of the potential weaknesses of this season could be, I would not have guessed a lack of tension.

I believe part of the objective was to show a gay teenager in Italy falling in love with a boy and not having it be the end of the world. And that is absolutely a noble goal, and something many Italian teens can benefit from. But I have to say - I never thought Isak’s season was like, emotional torture porn just because it had conflict? It balanced the fluffy romantic content with the angsty sad stuff and was better for it. The fluff was more valuable because we saw what a triumph it was compared to the angst, and the angst was more valuable because we saw exactly how much we were losing when the fluff was gone. Isak’s severe internal struggle made every little bit of character growth that much more powerful. I’m not saying the story has to be an emotional roller coaster from clip to clip, but yes, stakes matter, especially when you’re doling out a story in 3-5 minute increments every day or two.

I do think they’ve somewhat increased tension in this episode, some of it with the boy squad, and some of it with Martino’s mom not being great, but there’s also the matter of internal conflict that is supposed to be fueling many of these scenes, and that’s where it’s falling flat. Skam’s a character-focused show - I mean, each season is about living in a different character’s head - so frankly, they should be milking the f u c k out of his inner struggles.

I’ll also say I definitely didn’t have this problem with S1 of Skam Italia. I thought Eva’s story set up her clear struggles from the beginning and kept some tension going throughout the season. She and Martino have different problems, certainly, but it’s not a case of Skam Italia being “softer” overall.

I've heard counterarguments in the tags about the lack of tension, suggesting that there is tension inherent in the story due to it being about a gay teenage in Italy, but respectfully, I can’t agree with that? Then this storyline makes even less sense, like if the level of tension due to homophobia in Italy is so great that it’s embedded that deeply, how do you explain Martino’s unfazed or casual reactions to events, such as almost being caught kissing Niccolò (multiple times, if you include later episodes)? It feels contradictory. But overall, it’s a constructed fictional narrative; some of the responsibility does fall on the show itself to establish its stakes.

Anyway, if there is cultural context I missed, feel free to let me know!

If you got this far, thank you for reading!

#skamit reactions #skam italia reactions

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