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lightsandlostbells · 6 years

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The greatest gift Skam France has given me so far is that I can’t help but see Daffy and Imane as Angela and Phyllis from The Office when Phyllis managed to take over the party planning committee from Angela.

Good: I like the girl squad.

Less good: Contrivances that come with doing a close remake.

Clip 4 (post-cabin return)

Yann saying some “not like the other girls” bullshit is aggravating but I mean … it’s very much something a teenage boy would say. I’m not really going to hold it against him. Character flaws are good. Also, if I’m being optimistic about the show, you could say they’re going to knock down all this “girls are superficial” crap with the formation of the girl squad and the power of female friendships, so potentially it’s there on purpose.

On that note, I want to give the remakes the same trust I had in Skam at its best; the thing is, I’m not sure it’s earned it yet, because it’s such a close remake that I can’t actually get a sense of this production’s own values. If the series were to write a new season about Daffy or Alex or Yann from scratch, what would it be like? The one thing Skam France has really done to build some trust on its own merit, IMO at least, is cast more POC; other than that, their choices have made me trust them less (not casting actual teenagers is the biggest one for me). Skam broke the audience’s trust in certain areas, but it also did a number of things right that created the trust in the first place. People were disappointed in S4 partly because S3 had handled so many sensitive issues well. Anyway, this will be easier to discuss later in the season as it is still early.

Emma smiling after Yann compliments her is the most I’ve liked her so far and the most natural the actress has seemed, as well as the most chemistry this couple has had.

Clip 5 (Manon and Emma in Spanish class)

I like Manon. She has a different vibe from Noora and seems a bit softer and less sure of herself, whereas Noora seemed outwardly confident and outspoken. Noora was confident enough to correct the teacher and Manon was all “I’m just trying to be nice” (although lol, mentioning that Emma didn’t do her homework is throwing her under the bus a little).

Here’s a minor example of how scene flow and motivation sometimes seem muddled, though. In the original, Noora rescued Emma by being all, “Here’s the mistake you made, teacher” and Eva was like ???? How did you know that? and Noora explained that she lived in Madrid. Whereas in this version, this is like …Manon speaking very good Spanish, from what I can tell? But not presenting herself as an authority like Noora did, but it’s still treated as this thing that needs an explanation. Like maybe Manon is just gifted at Spanish? That’s not exactly unusual. But I might be missing some other context lost in translation, I’d like to know if there’s something I didn’t notice (like IDK, Manon’s Spanish accent is different from the one typically taught in French high school Spanish classes). It’s not a huge thing, just something that seemed a bit off.

Not trying to start a ship war or anything but Noora/Eva was way way WAY gayer in this scene. Remember when Noora was talking to the teacher in defense of Eva and Eva stared at her as if she’d seen the goddess of her dreams? Remember when they looked at each other afterwards and there was a ton of eyes flitting down to each other’s lips? That was a thing that happened, very blatantly. The whole “Eva wants to be friends with Noora” thing was SO much more drawn out, over the first three episodes and ended up having a bunch of parallels to the later canon couples on the show (Eva stalking Noora’s Facebook vs. Isak checking out Even and Sana checking out Yousef). Like by all means, board that Manon/Emma ship and set sail, I can see it from Manon’s end, but nothing came close to Eva’s heart-eyes. H!

I mean this is throwing down the gay gauntlet to Skam France. Bring out yer lesbians.

This is not a substantial comment at all but I am in love with Manon’s white cardigan.

Clip 6 (girl squad UNITES)

Okay, I wanted to talk about this clip in particular, because I went back and rewatched the scene in the original, and I was really impressed at how good Julie’s directing can be. I think we know she can pull off the big showstopper moments, but she’s also great at getting the little details that you don’t even think about until you’re actually analyzing the scene. Conversely, there are parts in the remake that come across as contrived.

I was a little worried about Daphne/Daffy in the first episode, but I liked her more here. “Liked” in the sense that I felt better about the actress, not that she was at her most likeable here.

So the introduction of Imane to the group.

The original scene does something where Chris enters and is in the frame on the left and says, “This is Sana, she wants to be on the bus” (paraphrasing) and then the camera slides over the empty space to reveal … a Muslim girl. There’s kind of an element of surprise which is certainly how Vilde reacts; I don’t want to speak on behalf of Norwegians, but I wonder if it wasn’t done for the audience as well? Considering the attitudes about Muslims and russ not mixing in S4. (I mostly just want to mention this shot because I think it’s effective. The remake makes Imane immediately visible next to Alex.)

Vilde is instantly taken aback and appears to eye Sana up and down. Her first question is to ask how Sana and Chris know each other, which in this context doesn’t seem like friendly small talk, but disbelief (”how could you two possibly know each other?). Her obvious discomfort and the sudden tension is what I think makes Sana reply sarcastically about meeting at the mosque. Then we have the incredibly awkward moment of Vilde asking whether Sana can participate in russ as a Muslim. She never actually accepts Sana into the group during this scene.

In the remake, when Alex asks if Imane can join them, Daffy’s discomfort is less obvious (it’s there but it’s shorter and less pronounced from an acting perspective) and she says yes. Yes, she also says a bunch of dumb shit 10 seconds later. But the first thing she says is agreeing to have Imane on board. That should immediately set a different course for the scene, because even though Daffy is being ignorant, she is at least superficially accepting Imane into the group. Her asking how Imane and Alex know each other is therefore not quite as hostile in this context, but Imane makes the same comment about meeting in the mosque. So … did Imane manage to pick up on Daffy being uncomfortable anyway because she’s used to microaggressions? Because she figured a bunch of white girls would instantly question why a Muslim girl wanted to be involved? Or is she just making a joke by way of introduction? All of these are plausible explanations, but this is part of the problem with doing such a close remake. You end up keeping the dialogue and events the same even when the execution - the directing and acting and staging - doesn’t really flow or match. I don’t need to be force-fed explanations for why someone says or does something, but I also am not sure much thought is going into some of these interactions besides “it happened in the original.”

Just a note about the directing: In the original scene, after Sana is introduced, Julie puts the camera behind Chris, and has Vilde keep looking over to her, both for guidance (”can you help me out with this situation”) and in a “why did you bring her” sort of way. It’s a pretty interesting choice that adds an extra complexity to the scene; it’s not just this racially tense conversation between Vilde and Sana, it’s also adding the silent conversation that Vilde is trying to have with Chris and taking note of that relationship. Especially I think Vilde does feel stupid after Sana makes the comments about the mosque and the stoning. I mean, she was being ignorant and I can’t say I feel bad for her in this moment. But Chris is her best friend in the group, the only one she’s close with so far, and Chris is loudly and obviously laughing at a joke make at Vilde’s expense. Chris has taken Sana’s side, in a sense, making it a sort of betrayal to Vilde. How could you invite someone like that to be on the bus with us, how could you laugh when she’s making fun of me?

The remake doesn’t have this extra layer in its direction; it’s shot in a pretty straightforward way, the conversation between only Daffy and Imane, really. And that doesn’t mean it’s bad, but it does show how different directorial decisions can add subtext and layers in the smallest of ways.

There is a more lingering shot of Daffy toward the end, which does not bother me nearly as much as the lingering shots of Lucas, because a) Emma is sitting there anyway and b) it’s not revealing anything we couldn’t have guessed about Daffy’s state of mind from her dialogue and attitude in the rest of the scene, while the bits with Lucas hint at something that he’s hiding.

OK, I have to mention this, too. Does Imane go to parties? If so, wouldn’t it be likely one of the other girls would have seen her at some parties? Especially for Daffy who would surely see a Muslim girl and go “does not compute.” If not, then why does she want in on this one specific party all of a sudden? It made sense for Sana to want in on this specific cultural event, that has a lot to do with proving herself and tying her Norwegian/Muslim identities together, and saw the girl squad as an opportunity to be on a bus when Pepsi Max and other groups would likely reject her. It makes less sense here for Imane to … want to be popular? If she wants that, then what was she doing before to achieve that goal? Is this a new aspiration of hers and if so, what motivated that change? Does she just want to make bank on this party? But overall, it’s just murkier why Imane would want in on this random party, especially a party thrown by the school losers. Unless she just wants friends, which is fair enough!

All of this could potentially be really interesting if they explored it. Maybe they will have Imane talk about her reasons by the end of the season. And honestly, if I hadn’t seen this story already, I probably wouldn’t question it at this point. My issue is that I get the feeling they’re not going to account for this shift in motivation and just do a shallow find+replace on the situation without taking into account the different context.

That said, despite all of this, I loved Imane right off the bat. And Alex!

But like … garr, the setup of the whole hitting-on-Lucas gag is SO much more contrived than in the original, like Chris was actually standing there while Vilde was talking to Eva. Isak was sitting directly in front of her. Her flirting fit the scene while this other conversation between the girls was happening. Alex is super cute and charming and if you look at it charitably, it’s a nice establishing character moment? But less charitably, it’s an attempt to shoehorn in a moment from the original even when the blocking and directing doesn’t fit. (It reminded me of Julie’s comments in the script for 3.5 about how she changed the locker room scene because of the way the room looked, and the blocking made it difficult to film what she wrote, so they re-did the scene. I hope they feel free to do that here.)

Clip 7 (girl squad PLANS SOCIAL DOMINATION)

I don’t have much to say about this clip because it felt like a bit of a non-entity compared to the original. The original clip felt very much like an establishing scene for Sana as a character more than anything. Sana had all the answers, never hesitated, spoke so confidently, and the longer it went on the more you were astonished by this girl, until she was nodding in satisfaction and essentially congratulating herself for a job well done while the other girls sit around her in stunned silence around their new queen. I do like Imane but because the clip was so much shorter, and felt kind of perfunctory, it lacked that specific punch. Even the way it ended, like YOU HAVE TO DUMP YOUR BOYFRIEND, felt more like a ooooOOO wacky cliffhanger, what will Emma do? sort moment, more than an emphasis on Imane.

There’s one little moment I like, when Alex and Imane are talking at the beginning and Manon looks over at Daffy who gives her this look and small smile, like it’s friendly but there’s also some exasperation and disappointment behind it, “this is not the way I imagined this going” kind of feeling. It’s the sort of tiny and subtle beat that I want to see more of in the show.

Maybe I’m missing something because I don’t speak French, or I’ve missed it in the social media, but when is this party supposed to be? Because I thought the synopsis for the show said that they would be planning the party over the first two seasons?

General Thoughts:

One thing I will say is that it’s becoming clear that pacing matters. Not just the pacing of the clips as spread day by day, but the pacing within the clips themselves. I think part of the reason Skam felt really natural to us is that events took time to unfold, the show was not afraid to have long pauses or silences and to let moments breathe, to let tension build or realization dawn or slowly change the tone of a scene. With Skam France it’s apparent that the scenes are often rushed. They’re just plowing through the dialogue. If there are time restraints that mean the show has to air within a set amount of time, then there was unnecessary stuff this episode that could have been cut to make room for more important content.

The reworking of the russebuss into a generic party is pretty contrived as many have noted, but I want to get an answer on when the damn party is supposed to take place before I comment further.

I like all of the girl squad so far except Emma. Sorry! I’m not trying to drag this actress, she’s just … not there. I can’t imagine her pulling off the vulnerable moments later in this season. I would be happy to be proven wrong.

The thing about Lucas is that I don’t necessarily think he’s a bad actor, but he seems like the most obviously “acting” and the least natural and so far he doesn’t quite fit in what’s supposed to be a hyper-realistic teen drama. I could see him doing a good job in a different type of production like a stage play where everything’s heightened and dramatic.

But I also saw some people who speak French be like nah, he’s pretty bad so (shrug). I do think you can kinda see him think “here’s my line” and “here’s where I hit my mark” in his scenes.

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