Culture: The breakfast scene takes place at 10:21am on a Saturday morning, yet the sun is really low in the sky, and is used for some beautiful backlit shots. This is not a mistake, it’s easy to forget how far north Scandinavia really is, Oslo is about as far north as Anchorage, Alaska. In early December when this scene takes place, the sun rises after 9am, and sets six hours later, so the sun stays really low in the sky all day, creating this special winter look.



Subtext: Eva is showing Noora the naked pictures of Justin Bieber that leaked in 2015.



Blink and you miss it: The facial expressions of the girls when Dr Skrulle asks Vilde if she farts a lot, are absolutely priceless.



Culture: We actually don’t know the real name of the school doctor. Dr Skrulle is simply Noora’s nickname for her, and it roughly translates as Dr Loopy.



Subtext: Although neither Vilde nor Noora say it out loud, they are talking about having an eating disorder. Noora recognizes the signs in Vilde, because Noora has had an eating disorder herself.



Subtext: Vilde is of course echoing William word for word about not being pretty enough, which means that what he said really got under her skin.



Did you blink and miss it? Jonas is out Christmas shopping with his sister, Thea.



Blink and you miss it: They’re eating kebab.



Cinematography: The breakup scene does not feature a flashback or a dream sequence. It’s a cross-cut between the breakup talk, and a flash-forward scene of them having breakup sex. This was apparently very confusing for a lot of viewers.



Culture: Argentina and Igor are handing out cups of Gløgg, a traditional Nordic Christmas drink. It’s similar to mulled wine or glühwein, but it’s stronger, sweeter, and spicier.



Blink and you miss it: Isak appears to be the first of the characters that upgraded to an iPhone 6, I’m sure he enjoyed the larger screen and better quality gay porn.



Season 1 of SKAM is interesting in that it tells a love story, but in reverse. At the start of the season, we know nothing of the backstory between Eva, Jonas, and Ingrid, while all the characters know what happened. The backstory is slowly revealed to us bit by bit, and fittingly, in the last scene with Eva and Jonas together, we get to hear of their first time together.



This means that earlier episodes are heavier on subtext than later episodes, since more and more come out in the open. The few pieces of subtext we get in the last few episodes are almost all setup for later seasons, for Noora and Isak.



Finally, I hope you’ve enjoyed this series of posts, and that you’ll continue reading about season 2, coming right up…

