Università Roma Tre

The course aims to illustrate the evolution of the forms, of the themes and of the creative processes of contemporary TV storytelling, with particular reference to TV series. The course aims to provide students with an understanding of the ways in which contemporary TV storytelling has changed as a result of a new environment, characterized by the intensification of transnational flows, by the increased numbers of TV content providers, and the diffusion of new viewing practices.

FIRST PART
This part illustrates the features of contemporary TV environments, which both at national and International levels have rapidly been changing with the rise of ‘quality cable channels’ (HBO, Showtime, etc.), of pay TV, and of VOD e SVOD, that is, video on demand and subscription video on demand services, which are offered by OTT (over-the-top) platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, Hulu. It will be shown how these new players have improved the productive, aesthetic and narrative standards of TV series. Finally, key analytical categories for understanding contemporary TV storytelling will be described (narrative complexity, extended narrations, narrative ecosystems).

CASE STUDY N. 1
The contents of this part will be illustrated through a particular case study: the international success of the TV series falling into the Nordic Noir genre, a subgenre of "procedural" crime from Scandinavia, which has influenced global television and given a drive to the establishment of the so-called European Crime Drama. The Nordic Noir parable is particular since it is a subgenre initially produced by public broadcasters and later widely practiced by Netflix. It properly highlights the drastic reformulation of series and miniseries in more compatible directions with the characteristics of the new television environment dominated by SVODs. We will show how the success of Nordic Noir series and of its followers, produced in many other European countries, has been determined by a mix of factors. These involve the visual level (with the prominent role of landscape and the unprecedented interactions between the visual and narrative levels), the format of these productions (more compatible with binge watching and on-demand practices than with the broadcasting environment), and the narrative structure, readable according to the category of "narrative complexity", which leads the viewer to question narrative and textual mechanisms.
The following series will be analyzed: Forbrydelsen/The Killing (2007–2012, Denmark: DR); Broen/The Bridge (2011–2018, Sweden/Denmark: DR/SVT); The Tunnel (2013, UK/France: Sky Atlantic UK/Canal+); Broadchurch (2013-2017, UK: ITV); True Detective (2014-present, USA: HBO); The Fall (2013–2016, UK: BBC); Trapped (2015-present, Iceland: RUV); La forêt/La foresta (2017, France: Netflix); Dark (2017-present, Germany: Netflix).

SECOND PART
The second part of lectures is dedicated to sociologically focused aspects and aims to highlight the ability of contemporary television series to amplify what has always been the prerogative of fiction, and in particular of TV drama: the ability to talk about social changes, the emergencies of private and collective life, contemporary processes and actors, contributing to the processing of fears and the shaping of desires, social imagery and shared identities.

CASE STUDIES N. 2 AND 3
This part is illustrated by two case studies First, we will examine how the USA series produced in different years deal with the phenomenon of bullying and violence, illustrating how the narrative models of recent productions permit to draw - thanks to the narrative complexity and the interweaving of vertical and horizontal storylines - these phenomena in a much more complete and multifaceted way; the second case study is the growing presence of young and very young people, and in particular of girls, within television series attributable to genres once traditionally male: science fiction, action-adventure, fantasy (and hybridizations of these). By analyzing several productions, among which Hanna (Amazon, 2019), The 100 (CW, 2014-present), and Humans (Channel 4, 2015-2018), it will shown how contemporary series produced in different cultural contexts bring on stage adolescents and adolescents as a metaphor, a symbolic transposition of a broader socio-political agenda, and of themes and issues that not only concern young people.

. READINGS FOR ATTENDING AND NON ATTENDING STUDENTS
Please, be aware that the readings from books that are not available in the University Library, will be provided by the teacher and shared in this folder: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vjyhizjxx3811fr/AACVLWiXmkHE8MGV5m1U3jcia?dl=0

• Introduzione e Capitolo 1 di “Platform Society. Valori pubblici e società connessa”, di van Dijck, José. (a cura di G. Boccia Artieri e A. Marinelli), Guerini 2019.
• Capitolo 2 “La crisi del capitalismo digitale”, da Arvidsson, Adam. “Changemakers: il future industrioso dell’economia digitale”, 2020 (lettura presentata in coppia da studenti)
• Capitolo 4 “Il capitalismo industrioso”, da Arvidsson, Adam. “Changemakers: il future industrioso dell’economia digitale”, 2020.
• Capitolo 11 “Netflix e i suoi fratelli”, da Menduni, Enrico, “Videostoria. L’Italia e la TV 1975-2015”, Bompiani 2018 (pp. 230-242) (lettura presentata da studente 1)
• Capitolo 1 “introduzione. Un medium in cerca di una nuova casa” da Andò, Romana e Marinelli, Alberto, “Television(s). Come cambia l’esperienza televisiva tra tecnologie convergenti e pratiche sociali”, Guerini, 2018 (pp.7-20) (lettura presentata da studente 2)
• Capitolo 1 “La complessità e il suo contesto”, da Mittell, Jason, “Complex TV. Teoria e tecnica dello storytelling delle serie TV”, Minimum Fax 2015.
• Capitolo 1 “Dalle narrazioni estese agli ecosistemi narrativi”, da Pescatore, Guglielmo, “Ecosistemi narrativi. Dal fumetto alle serie TV”, Carocci, 2018 (pp.19-30) (lettura presentata da studente 1).
• Capitolo 5 “Tecnologia, istituzioni, industria. L’ambiente economico e normativo degli ecosistemi narrativi”, di P. Brambillla, da Pescatore, Guglielmo, “Ecosistemi narrativi. Dal fumetto alle serie TV”, Carocci, 2018 (pp.92-105) (lettura presentata da studente 2).
• Carini, Stefania “Radici e sviluppi del Nordic Noir”, in “Link”, n. 21, 2017, disponibile al link https://www.linkideeperlatv.it/nordic-noir/
• Mabritt Jensen, Pia “Fiction 1/C’è del drama in Danimarca”, in “Link”, n. 21, 2017, disponibile al link https://www.linkideeperlatv.it/drama-danimarca/
• Mabritt Jensen, Pia “Fiction 2/Le basi per una crescita internazionale”, in “Link”, n. 21, 2017, disponibile al link https://www.linkideeperlatv.it/danimarca-ep2/
• Creeber, G. [2015], Killing us softly: Investigating the aesthetics,philosophy and influence of Nordic Noir Television, in «Journal of Popular Television», 3, 1, pp. 21-35
• Marit Waade, A., Melancholy in Nordic noir: Characters, landscapes, light and music, «Critical Studies in Television», First Published December 19, 2017 (presentato da studenti)
• Capitolo 5 “Media e violenza femminile”, da Giomi, E., Magaraggia, S. “Relazioni brutali”, Il Mulino 2017, pp. 135-158 (presentato da studenti).
• Giomi, Elisa “(Young) Sisters in Arms. La girlification dei generi audiovisivi tradizionalmente maschili”, in “Zapruder. Rivista di storia della conflittualità sociale”, n. 50, pp. 80-97
• Capitolo 5 “Donne armate nelle serie Tv: Non uccidere, Forbrydelsen/The Killing, The Fall, True Detective 2 a confronto”, da Giomi, E., Magaraggia, S. “Relazioni brutali”, Il Mulino 2017, pp. 175-195.
• Wakeman, S. (2018). The ‘one who knocks’ and the ‘one who waits’: Gendered violence in Breaking Bad. Crime, Media, Culture, 14(2), 213–228. Disponibile al link: https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659016684897

ADDITIONAL BOOK FOR NON ATTENDING STUDENTS: Rossini, G., Le serie tv, Il Mulino, 2016