My two cents on the Austin/EuropeVSAmerica drama
Europe and America (I say Europe because that's where most of the skams come from, but it goes for the rest of the world too) don't share the same culture, not at all, but we do share the same tv shows/movies/pop culture. The american one.
I'm pointing this out because while I agree with americans that it's so not true that Austin is unecessary (tell that to Shay's face you cowards) when I read replies like 'if you're not from the US you have no idea how it is to grow up watching american TV' I'm like...guys, we literally do.
France, Spain, Italy, all the europeans countries that have their own remake now grew up watching American culture, we have been force fed the same irrealistic teen dramas as americans, with the difference that in our case to make them not close to reality, other than all the exagerrated bullshit that americans notice too, there is also tons of small and not so small details like 'what are they eating' 'wish we had lockrooms at school too' 'they change room for every lesson wow weird' 'omg another school ball in the gym why it's not a thing here' 'oh wait the doctor is that expensive?' and on and on with every single american daily life thing that it's different from our daily life, except that we're not surprised anymore by all that because even if it's the daily life of people so far away from us it's still the daily life that we see every single day in tv. If I had to walk to the cinema right now or turn on the tv 90% of the times I wouldn't find my culture there, I would find the american one. Because that's what there is in most channels in our european TVs.
That's why Skam and most of the remakes showing not american culture was crazy and new to us, because other than the whole thing that makes Skam great and how realistic it is for the format itself of the show, we're simply not used to see our daily life (even less used to other countries watching it too) in a show. That's why europeans fans spend their life in their remakes tag answering questions about the culture of their country and explaining how things work to people that simply don't know and are just learning through the show, since when the hell did we ever see stuff like russ bus before lol.
So if someone that loves for example learning about new cultures and languages through skam doesn't watch Austin because that's the one culture and country that he has been seeing in tv his whole life, I don't think that's hate or rude or disrispectful. It's just a choice based on something that like it or not is very true: one of the reason why Skam was so refreshing was that it showed other cultures and languages other than the one we all know and that for the teens in those places it was such a unique event to share their daily life with the world for almost the first time.
But to jump to the next level and using what is just a mere fact to justify the I hate on americans because it's cool trend it's a whole other thing. Not being interested in watching Austin (or any of the remake) is not hate, saying that it's not needed on the other hand is. The thing we always forget about remakes is that yes it's great when everyone from around the world watch them, but first of all they're meant (by the people that spend money and time to make them) for the teens of their country. So if some european or whatever feel like not needing to watch any more american culture in a show, perfectly fine, you don't need it, there's nothing wrong with it, choose another remake or culture you're more curious about, but it doesn't mean that americans teen don't need it as well. (And again, tell to Shay's face, a POC lesbian, that her season is not needed just because you don't need subtitles to understand her language. )
And I'm not even gonna go into Skam Perú because if someone thinks that a remake from a country in South America would be the same as one in North America then you're a lost cause. Like literally a lost cause.
