Impressions/Vibes of Isak remake seasons so far:
[DISCLAIMER: I know opinions/comparing remakes is taboo, but heck, I can’t stop myself. I love each remake so much so if my opinions feel biased towards any of them it’s probably because I can put my feelings/perceptions towards it (whether tinged negative or positive) into words more easily than others]
Italia: Storylines true to og flow, retelling a la shiny Italian backdrop. Beautiful landscapes and cinematography. Everything feels vivid and the setting breathes a unique life into the story that makes it shine apart from og. One scene I can’t get out of my head is the backdrop of the derelict structure with the graffiti face after he saw Nicolo back with his girlfriend in and fighting with Elia in episode 5. It so perfectly encapsulated what was tearing him apart the inside out. An overall huge sense of warmth - the boy crew actors had such easy, seamless chemistry that they gave more depth to their friendship and relationship. Like og, but unlike France and somewhat Druck, lack of girl crew in later half season felt like there was a missing piece that rounded out Italia, especially after we fell so hard for them in the Eva & Noora seasons to then be separated. Overall season felt more mature. Felt like it could be a story about university students with same storyline but not set at a high school.
France: Passionate and super romanticized with lots of fire [Lucas’ quick, rash actions made him morph into his own character right from 1st ep]. Epic artistic renditions of major scenes that breathed unique charm. You cannot watch an episode of Skam France without marveling over how beautiful and jaw-dropping the actors are. Manon is other-worldly, Lucas has the most beautiful face and expressive eyes. And Maxence...yeah no words needed. Because the actors were so painfully attractive and looked more mature (no high school kids look like THAT) it made it feel less relatable like we should idolize them instead of seeing ourselves in the characters. The addition of the girl crew was a highlight and made the story breathe in a new way. I was uneasy about Yann and boy crew relationship going into the season but you could see them melding closer together throughout the season and truly represented our flailing reactions.
Druck: Realistic unglamorized snapshot. Minimal to very limited glamour shots. Cinematography feels of a lower-budget indie movie, a lot of scenes/ backgrounds tinged with green and cold colors that gives it a harsh, more realistic like a documentary edge, but a storyline that keeps you intrigued until the end. Actors casted are very close to character age (majority under 20...Chris Veres (Axel) is the only one skewing the age group at 25). They may stand-out as attractive, pretty kids in school but are “unpolished” compared to the other remakes (example: Matteo is a mess but so pretty under his [charmingly] disheveled hair), kids you might actually find in the hallways of your school, none would be considered overwhelmingly attractive or modelesque. The way they are mixing up the og storyline is incredibly fresh and frustrating. A big anxiety for me is the way they are working to weaken the Jonas/Matteo relationship. In s2 Jonas isolated/distanced himself from Matteo (while dealing with separation from Hanna) and it pushed Matteo to gravitate towards Sara who was sweet and pretty and liked him. And now we see it subtle ways, like that text where Carlos asks Jonas to see if anything is up with Matteo and he brushes it off.
Example: In the first party Matteo could be written off as grumpy but in the second Matteo runs and hides in his room for the rest of the party. Is Jonas just blind or misplacing his priorities? Both times he looks at Matteo as he walks away so he knows something is off but let’s Matteo be “just Matteo”.
Also, they gave a new depth and complexity to the Sara/Matteo relationship because instead of straight up using her as a decoy to his undefined sexuality he truly cares and wants to make her happy and makes ending their relationship much more difficult.
