The first season focuses on Megan Flores, who is forced to deal with the consequences of her romantic relationship with Marlon, who used to be involved with her former best friend, Abby, the captain of Bouldin High's dance team, the Kittens.

The second season focuses on Grace Olsen, one of Megan's best friends, who struggles with her feelings for Daniel Williamson, Bouldin High's captain of the football team.

These feelings cause her to question her own beliefs as a feminist and put her friendships with Megan, Kelsey, Jo and Zoya in peril as a result.

[2] Through its four-season, 43-episode run, Skam explored themes including loneliness, identity, eating disorders, sexual assault, homosexuality, mental health, religion and forbidden love.

"[6] The New York Times wrote that the American version will introduce new characters and actors, but retain the original storytelling format, with consultation from NRK.

[12] In November 2017, Andem announced on her Instagram account that she would take the part as showrunner and director of Shame, writing that she "didn't want to give it to somebody else" despite the obstacles of a foreign country with different cultures than the original series.

"[18] In another favorable critique, Common Sense Media's Joyce Slaton gave the series a rating of four out of five stars and compared it positively against other teen dramas saying, "It moves a bit slowly, true.

"[20] Christopher Pahle of Norwegian press publication Dagbladet objected to Skaret's article and specifically its negative outlook of the show's performance.

Pahle explained that, while the viewership numbers were objective and factual, SKAM Austin could not accurately be compared to the rest of the television industry due to its distribution on Facebook's new video platform, where Austin's audience numbers might be within expectations and the initial premiere rating could be heavily inflated due to a high volume of one-time viewers tempted to test the new service rather than dedicated viewers.

The article described the show's situation as "vaguely alarming", a "glamorization" of Facebook, as a contribution to the "normalization of the company’s grip on high-schoolers’ social lives", and that "content has seldom felt so indistinguishable from marketing".