I watched this version directly after Skam Espana and that's probably why it disappointed me so much. I felt the need to jot down everything i found just so wrong with this version as i watched and it was so hard to redeem. Starting with season 1, i found it hard to get connected or care about any of the relationships or friendships from the jump, all of the characters just seemed so incompatible to me and it felt like creators were trying to make this seem like a "realistic" cast but they bothered me so much. The core group of friends seemed rushed in development and wasn't very genuine, they would always talk about how they were friends and how "friends tell each other the truth and help each other"... but since when did they even like each other so much and why? There was such bad acting on a lot of ends, it was laughable, and the car wash s** scene between megan and marlon was so cringey and weird to watch. Then the show decided to give a storyline where grace hears kelsey throwing up in the school bathroom, then it comes out that kelsey took multiple tests and believed she was pregnant. They ended up being ovulation tests, so she wasn't pregnant, but then... why did grace hear kelsey throwing up. This idea was never developed further and it truly bothered me that they made kelsey look that dumb, not even reading the test box to know it wasn't a pregnancy test. They made zoya so mean during the first season as well, which completely threw me off because amira in skam espana was never made out to be this way and i didn't like how they immediately made zoya out to be a b word. Megan also smiled while apologizing to Jo for kissing him and it was a cringey moment. I expected there to be much more tension between grace and daniel, to lead up to their relationship in season 2, but i didn't find it here. Onto season 2, i found it very strange that producers acted like hunter and zoya had chemistry after he asked her if she had any hair under her hijab, as if this was a way of playful flirting going on between them. I hated that moment actually. Viri in skam espana was very annoying but throughout this series, kelsey was so much worse and ignorant to any kind of social issues. It made the show hard and awkward to watch. I also noticed that nora and alex never got a season to themselves in skam espana, but grace and daniel did, and even though this happened, grace and daniel seemed forced and way less genuine than nora and alex ever were. This series also had a scene where megan literally assaults shay by drunk kissing her on the mouth without consent and she gained no long term consequences from this, which was a horrible lesson to send to viewers. The whole storyline that went on between grace and clay was also extremely triggering and i would've loved a trigger warning for it lol. Overall, i couldn't stand any of the characters in this series, they all seemed very generic and cliche and of course it was the one that was based in the united states, so i'm not at all shocked at this. My overall rating would probably be a 5/10 and that's probably harsh but i just really couldn't with this one.
Review of SKAM Austin
