Italian TV serial production is interesting not only in its peculiar, often paradoxical, production traits, but also because of its adventurously happy results, sometimes due to creative constraints by claustrophobic Italian television market. TV series have a physiognomy and an “Italianness” also evident in their language, since they show distinctive characteristics in terms of modes of representation and communicative pacts, in which to settle a whole television history and visual culture. This essay begins to outline this aspect from a particular vantage point: that of detective and crime series, whose history is deeply rooted in Italian culture and whose dominant traits are so different from most recent European TV series. Far from being a sign of recession, RAI public service broadcasting – in which Il commissario Montalbano naturally represents a relevant case – reveals the persistence of specific and well embedded traits, albeit evolved over time (a particular dynamic between opening and closure; an overwhelming and static narrative; a parataxis and accumulation of criminal performances, which closes continuously narrative development around the circle of the crime; a urban and landscape component which provokes and creates diversions, etc.). The traits are rooted and shaped in Italian culture, starting from the privileged relationship never exhausted with its literary matrix, but also from the complex and typically Italian interconnection in cultural and media domains created by giallo.
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12
WHODONIT? RAI TV FICTION PRODUCTION BETWEEN DETECTION AND GIALLO
Paola Valentini, Università di Firenze




  Abstract
  Italian TV serial production is interesting not only in its peculiar, often paradoxical, produc-
  tion traits, but also because of its adventurously happy results, sometimes due to creative

  an “Italianness” also evident in their language, since they show distinctive characteristics in
  terms of modes of representation and communicative pacts, in which to settle a whole tele-
  vision history and visual culture. This essay begins to outline this aspect from a particular
  vantage point: that of detective and crime series, whose history is deeply rooted in Italian
  culture and whose dominant traits are so different from most recent European TV series. Far
  from being a sign of recession, RAI public service broadcasting – in which Il commissario
  Montalbano
  embedded traits, albeit evolved over time (a particular dynamic between opening and closure;
  an overwhelming and static narrative; a parataxis and accumulation of criminal performances,
  which closes continuously narrative development around the circle of the crime; a urban and

  and shaped in Italian culture, starting from the privileged relationship never exhausted with
  its literary matrix, but also from the complex and typically Italian interconnection in cultural
  and media domains created by giallo.




studied just from a strictly technical perspective – as said in 2003 by Eleonora Andreatta (now

public television in virtue of its extraordinary power to represent the national imaginary and for
the simultaneous opportunity to aggregate a large and various audience.”1 It still remains a great

these products as pieces of a pattern of audiovisual narrations which convey aspects not only of
Italian society and its needs and repressions, but also of the images to which society continues to
relate and of the representational modes and practices which characterize it from time to time.2
   In large part this unique theoretical perspective, focused mainly on production quota and de-
tails, strategy and goals, can be attributed to the anomalous Italian production system, “a closed

CINÉMA & CIE, vol. XII, no. 19, Fall 2012                                                        25
PAOLA VALENTINI

                                                                                          apart          3

from transforming from an independent to a contractor and a simple project executor for RAI or
Mediaset. This is an element that certainly slows down creativity and experimentations in many
occasions. As stated by Carlo degli Esposti, producer of Il commissario Montalbano:

  In Italy, since there is no market, it is the network that decides a product’s value. It is not the market to
  determinate the price, but the buyer. Without competition, the buyer is so strong he can force indepen-
  dent producers, who are creators, investors and cultural promoters of the idea, to be mere executors of
  productions. There is no equal relationship between broadcaster and producer, but a dependent rela-
  tionship: the producer is a slave, he cannot afford to buy back his own product.4

  TV drama production, as well as the adventurous manufacturing of the series, in opposition to
the solid organization and the widespread competition of formats that characterize the other TV
genres,5

with its substantial condition of consolidated duopoly. Even just investing in a pilot for only two
potential customers is opposed to any commercial practice. The TV channel La7, for example,

2012 orientating itself however toward a big movie-style operation. Vi perdono ma inginocchi-
atevi
                                                   6
                                                     addressed in an everyday perspective, that

                                                                                                    -
ever, this movie-style operation choice rejected serialization, even in the form of a double episode,
to gamble on the single big media event. It is not a coincidence that this made-for TV movie was
inserted into the collection Film Evento, hosted by director of La7 News Enrico Mentana, that had
already aired relevant movies, such as Il Divo (Paolo Sorrentino, 2008). What happens on satellite
TV – which lies outside this article, focused on TV series produced by public television, and in


might remember here Romanzo criminale – La serie
                                                                                        Quo
vadis, baby?                                                                      7
                                                                                    Relevant
names and big budget are used in order to hide TV behind cinema. Although in every other na-

reveals prudence and timidity which is not shared, as we shall see, in Europe and that, while rely-
ing on certain “reactionary” and reassuring characters of the public broadcasting, has its roots in
                                               8
                                                 such as Italy is.


with a high international potentiality, capable of crossing European and other boundaries, but
also with a strong transnational vocation, when offering, as we shall see, an image which is au-
thentically Italian but can also simultaneously bring together “Italianness” and the idea of Italy

26
                            WHODONIT? RAI TV FICTION PRODUCTION BETWEEN DETECTION AND GIALLO

as developed abroad. There is no doubt about the role of the international co-productions – as
experienced in 1984 with La Piovra (1984-2003), which counting on the investments of French

on the television screens of those countries. However there is more.
  In front of an initial investment of 47 million Euros, Il commissario Montalbano has led RAI to
collect 72 million and has been sold to many foreign channels, including the Australian SBS, US


Il ladro di merendine was to compete with the giants of the small screen, a variety show on Rai-
                                              La casa dei sogni), and a similar detective drama lead
by a well recognized actor and loved by television audiences, namely Enrico Montesano playing
in L’ispettore Giusti. Both, the series debuting on Canale 5 and the consolidated competition of
the variety show could scarcely compete against Il commissario Montalbano, which immediately
snatched a 24.45% share of television viewers with its 6,251,000 spectators – one million more
than its competitors. And the success of this product never diminished, supported by an audience
of over 6 million spectators for eight seasons. When moved to RaiUno, Gli arancini di Montalba-
no nearly reached 10 million spectators and; on 2 November 2008, the episode La vampa d’agosto
                                                                                                   Il
commissario Montalbano has been very long in Italy and the twenty-two episodes of the series
aired almost three times, often rerun consecutively. Even the prequel, Il giovane Montalbano
(2012-), an operation that could not count on the attraction of the star of Montalbano played by
Luca Zingaretti, exceeded expectations, and its six episodes made RaiUno prime time leader with
an average of 22% share in March 2012.
   Distretto di polizia (2000-2012) is not far behind, debuting on 26 September 2000 immediately
                                                                                                    -

over 32% share. Also, in this case, the longevity of the program was maintained and season elev-
en, broadcast in 2011-12, has held a strong audience with about 3 million viewers, a share around
13.50%.



Italian TV series: mode of production

  Italian TV series, however, seem to have their own physiognomy and “Italianness” not only
in terms of production. They also have linguistic elements and characters in which to settle a
whole history of television and visual culture, which this article begins to outline from a particular
vantage point, that of the detective and crime series, whose history is deeply rooted into Italian
culture.

                                                          The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin arrives in
Italy on TV dei ragazzi
Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Nevertheless, these products were still marginal in the programming


                                                                                                   27
PAOLA VALENTINI

no real strategy for serialization and audience involvement, mainly treated as if they were small
                                                                                     teleromanzo,




mentioned of La Piovra, not surprisingly often named as “the Italian answer to Dallas”, the only
big investment in the serialized narrative television since the golden age of TV serial capable to
survive in full phase of American invasion.9
  But it is only in the second phase, the TV series explosion during the Nineties that Italian tele-


the Eighties, both for the lower availability of movies that could be suitable to television needs, as

offered by the birth of dedicated theme channels and, at last, by the EU Directive of 1989, the so-
called Television Without Frontiers. The latter required not only the free circulation of European


from 10% to 20%, in production and co-production of national TV programmes.10
  At the end of the Nineties Italy is still last in Europe for production of TV series, but the series
                                                                      Un posto al sole from October

time. The last episode of La Piovra 4 aired on 20 March 1989, featured the death of the hero, com-
missioner Corrado Cattani (Michele Placido), and was followed by 17,200,000 spectators with an
astonishing 58.91% share, never reached before by a serial drama. In 1993, the spreading success
of Amico mio
                   Un medico in famiglia                                                             -
caster tries to create continuity from one season to another, airing its almost 80 episodes with very
few interruptions between 1998 and 2000.
   The explosion of the Italian series and the economic base of this process, the creative constraints
                                                                      11
                                                                         should not, however, distract
from the fact that the Italian TV series production has acquired its own physiognomy that cannot
just be closely related to commercial and contractual characteristics of its format. Closely related
to their production chain, that tries to get out an industrial product from the handcraft, TV se-
ries also show distinctive characteristics in terms of modes of representation and communicative


broadcasters – which are rooted in the culture of typical Italian serial dramas.


Italian investors are evident and related to different budgets: made-for-TV movies, distant from

28
                            WHODONIT? RAI TV FICTION PRODUCTION BETWEEN DETECTION AND GIALLO



continuous serials with a strong US-style industrial chain, that present twelve or twenty-four epi-
sodes every year and continues from season to season.
  The special formula which, however, all of these formats assume, reveals a typical inclination

to indicate hybridization, promiscuity, and distance from the US serial models, this production
yet deserves a deeper analysis than the usual easiness to dismiss the Italian anomaly. I argue that
                                                                                      teleromanzo
almost an archetype of the way of using the serial elements, emblematic of Italian culture – and of
cinema culture, catching typically national styles of detection and mystery.



Closure of serial


opening and closing that is deeply rooted in the Italian television heritage. The completeness of
serials is in fact always absolute; at both macro and micro levels, the narrative is mostly completed
without presupposing a real suspension into the future, either of the single episode or from one
episode to another. Single episodes have a high degree of autonomy and continuity between epi-
sodes, which has often more to do with the dynamics of life than with the strategy and the building
of suspense.
  Il commissario Montalbano naturally represents the most evident case. The closure of the serial


Inspector Salvo Montalbano. In the early Nineties, with record sales of La forma dell’acqua, this
novel series had led to the emergence of a genuine literary event. The literary origin of the proj-
ect is an additional element in strengthening the closing of the text, according to the best Italian
tradition.
   The fact that the so called “teleromanzo” used to have strong closing episodes should not be
                                                                               La cittadella (1964)
                                                                     feuilleton, closes each part of
Archibald David Cronin’s novel in seven chapters, characterized by strong core themes (the ac-


the couple and their departure to town). The eruption of tragedy (the loss of a child) has postponed
the onset of the next installment in a process well in contrast to the typical never-ending serial. The
voice over seems to contradict what happens, predicting future disasters; but this is not enough, in

          12
            On the other hand, there is the different case of I promessi sposi (1967) directed by
Sandro Bolchi. Director’s philological and exegetical attention to Manzoni’s text does not pre-
clude the fact that each of the seven episodes organizes itself around solid and concluded thematic


                                                                                                    29
PAOLA VALENTINI



the most they are entrusted once again to the frame narrative and to the words of the novel “read”

  This closure is typical and it often characterizes serials, as it will become even more evident an-
alyzing detection as TV genre. The narrative form of Montalbano series is not different from that
committed years earlier in Le inchieste del commissario Maigret (1964-1972) by Mario Landi,
respectful of the boundaries of Simenon’s narratives. The frontier of the novel remains strong
and it is used as a reinforcement of completeness. Without detracting from Camilleri’s novels, the
boundary of the story is sacred and inviolable, the proof is given that the only hazard is the order
                                                                             Il ladro di merendine, that
immediately offered an effective portrait of the protagonist; but no mixture is accepted if not, in
some cases, the union of two stories.13
  Closure is also internal to the texts and, as well as complete closing of criminal cases, also
storylines between episodes centered around the private life of the Inspector are convoluted and


a true narrative turning point. In the second episode of season four, Gli arancini di Montalbano
(2002), both mysteries – the murder of a couple passed for an accident and the false accusation
of theft for the faithful maid’s son – dissolve completely without any possible after-effects. Also
private narrative line is totally healed, not developing the relationship between Montalbano and
his girlfriend, who wants him to go on vacation to Paris, but closing with the long-awaited New
Year’s Eve dinner with the beloved arancini. Moreover, even the big dog Orlando, adopted by
Montalbano in the previous episode Il senso del tatto, that could give rise to a new story line, is
                                                                                       Le ali della
       (2008), punctuated by quarrels on the phone with Livia, concludes with a phone hung up,
but also with the reassuring words of the woman “And bravo! You’re always the same Montalba-

Montalbano’s injury, the effect will be even more evidently enveloping and much of the narrative

possible real development, thus moving to a paradoxical plan, completed by the dream of his own
death in the last episode of season eight. In L’età del dubbio (2011), while dreaming, Montalba-
no ends up his relationship with Livia observing the possible new storyline with Laura (Isabella
Ragonese) ending with her death. Once again, to emphasize the impossible opening to new narra-


  The dominance of the closure in the Italian serial is therefore not simply a mode of produc-

completely shot before airing.14
with suspense as one of his principal mechanisms, should focus on dilatation and on delay – the
dynamics of the Italian serial seems to overwhelm the audience in a static way, more than to
drive forward ceaselessly. The difference catches the eye if we glance at non-Italian products,
with which the Italian viewer has to deal mainly on theme satellite TV channels. Leaving aside

30
                             WHODONIT? RAI TV FICTION PRODUCTION BETWEEN DETECTION AND GIALLO

                                                                                                   24

very interesting results. In Danish Den som dræber                        Those Who Kill) the
ten episodes revolve around the Serial Crime Unit of Copenhagen Police, led by brave detective
                                                                                             -




not only for the outcome of the investigation, but to be sure for the safety of the detective herself
                                                                               Liget i skoven, Corps
in the woods) is nothing less than buried alive. 15




order and reconstruction of broadcast TV. Nevertheless, this does not mean that from the narrative
point of view, as well as visually and stylistically, the series turns into a totally exposed and open
narrative.
  But the most relevant Danish case is Forbrydelsen (The Killing
been aired in Italy, on digital terrestrial channel Rai4.

and broadcasted in Italy by FoxCrime.16 The innovative idea of the creator Søren Sveistrup, often
associated with the archetype of Twin Peaks, resides in the only crime to be solved, the death of




of the second season), between the emergence of mysteries and red herring in a gray pre-election
Copenhagen.
  The examples could continue with the neo-polar French production by Canal+. In Braquo
(2009-) created by Olivier Marchal, an endless spiral of violence and corruption emerges episode
after episode and drags away the four policemen from any case and episodic logic that is not the
discovery of the reasons for the suicide of their leader, revenge and ultimately redemption.17 Hunt-
ed (2012) is unconventional in both the narrative and content, exhibiting violence and sensuality
of the body, most often exposed to the eyes of the viewer, of the protagonist Sam Hunter (Melissa

broadcaster Cinemax, this product unravels the plot around the special agent, leaving the viewer
in full suspension at the end of each episode.18 Another interesting production is          (2009-,
in Italy         ), in which the solution of the cases clouds up gradually, transformed into oppor-
tunities to reconstruct the past of the criminologist Chloe Saint Laurent (Odile Vuillemin), who


of his wife and the responsibility of a child.19

is the British drama Luther (2010-). Not far from Luca Zingaretti, Idris Elba also gives the Chief

form of serialization, limited to 4-6 episodes per season and therefore similar to what happens in

                                                                                                   31
PAOLA VALENTINI

Italy. Creator Neil Cross greatly emphasizes intellectual acumen and investigative capacity of the
                                                                                                 -
olent London.20 Nevertheless, the involvement of Luther in the case is very strong and profoundly
changes in the course of episodes, bringing about a transformation. Equally, private life events




side, whom Luther helps to escape from the insane asylum – unravels through all the seasons,
opening them to next, unforeseen developments. Not surprisingly, the series offers a reverse pat-


themselves are an additional trip to the mind and personality of Luther that open up to mysterious
developments, unforeseen and unexpected choices of the protagonist, more than to the disclosure
of the criminal.
  On the other hand, as shown before, Italian TV serial tends to close claustrophobically, com-
municating the sense of an eternal return, rather than of a narrative development, and installing
a temporality that has more to do with the myth than with the history. No coincidence that the


the US products from the Seventies “actions become routines, punctuated by small partial goals,
which recur cyclically.”21
  The same thing also happens in the continuous and more industrialized serial. In this case, the
resistance to opening is also installed by the non-temporal continuity of the different seasons, of-

this attitude is just due to production reasons, such as the engagement of the actors. For instance, Il
maresciallo Rocca

a miniseries of only two episodes with season six.22 However, this product remained credible to

narration. Too often these situations are dealt with strictly in terms of production, following the
economic logic of the spin-off or sequel, and forgetting the communicative dimension of the TV
series, whose fundamental (mimetic) feature is represented by the rhythm between episodes and
between seasons.
  Il maresciallo Rocca                                                                            -
ering of the protagonist with the sons or with the woman he is attracted to (adopting a puppy or
not, how to get a dinner date, etc.) are always resolved within the single spin, with a traditional
narrative structure which, not coincidentally, the authors Laura Toscano and Franco Marotta de-

development is more pronounced passing season by season; if the evolution of Salvo Montalbano


adopts a child in season two, loses his wife (Stefania Sandrelli) in season three, remarried in sea-


32
                            WHODONIT? RAI TV FICTION PRODUCTION BETWEEN DETECTION AND GIALLO

proof is that the tragedy of the death of his wife is consumed in the penultimate episode, Crudele
destino, which aired on 18 March 2001, so as to avoid any exaggerated cliffhanger and give the
character time to recover his identity in the next episode, letting the story close and resolve by the
end of the third season, with a lot of renewed balance and a bravery award for the Marshal.



Disclosures of landscape

   This brief review can already lead to two considerations. First, it is clear that, although it can
be a driving force from the point of view of production, it is not entirely correct to identify, as
it’s often done, La Piovra as a prototype of the Italian television series. Originally conceived as

                                                                           23
                                                                             is a very common trait
in Italy. However, quite different is the clear infringement of the authentically Italian model of
autonomy and episodic completeness. In fact, cliffhanger is the dominant structure, not only mac-
roscopically in the transition from one season to another (the death of Cattani in season four, etc.),
but also at the level of single episodes, not coincidentally never titled, refusing to close around a
                                                                                                     -


at the end of last episode. La Piovra represents the exception to an extremely serialized formula

Romanzo criminale, La squadra,                                       .24
  Moreover, it is not a coincidence that this type of serial is mainly broadcast on Italian Public
Broadcasting System. Police drama is by far central on Italian Public System, while it has very
                                                25

offering an in-depth real world view, which mainly coincides with the reassuring one of Public TV.
Il giovane Montalbano, prequel to the popular series and aired in 2012,26 did not challenge in any
way the prototype, always offering a rigid episodic scan, not only for what concerns the criminal
matter to be investigated, but also for the private life of the young protagonist, whose twists, in-
cluding new lovers and quarrels with his father, always resolve within a single episode. The model
of State Television, also in such a recent example, imposes an investigation with the geometric
features, British rational deduction-style, that solves everything in the celebration of whodonit and
that avoids opening at any set of problems, putting all the pieces in place.
                                                                                                  Dis-
tretto di polizia: the doubt, the real duality are inherent in the environment, and in its ambiguous
                                                                                                      -
amples of series trying to open up to a more serialized formula and to create a greater connection
between episodes. And they seem doomed to failure. Il segreto dell’acqua has recently ditched the
share of RaiUno to only 10%, even in the face of the attraction usually hold on the audience by the
                                                                           27
                                                                              The failure of the series

independence of the episodes, forced to a rapid initial summary of the previous installments. On

                                                                                                    33
PAOLA VALENTINI

the other hand, especially in commercial television, the abnormal serialization, for Italian habits,

case of Distretto di polizia, a TV series with different production and narrative characteristics, not
feeding on large elements of call as the derivation from literature or the presence of stars beloved
by the audience, but on “the idea of genre and of invention of worlds” such as that of a police sta-
tion, the X Tuscolano, and the reconstruction of the community that revolves around it. Therefore,
the serialization plays an important role and the trajectories of the characters are developed in


                                                               Distretto di polizia
the emblem of a mode of production typical of the already industrialized series. This starts with




collect in police stations and newspapers the chronicle of real cases, to ensure verisimilitude and
realism to the narrated events. The production itself is never-ending, because scripts are delivered
                                                                                                     -
ever, the centrality of detection and of the crime solving, as well as that of the return to the order
given by the investigation that ended the episode, show that the compressed serialization and the
tendency towards closure is evident even in the highly industrialized continuous serial, in which
the degree of autonomy of the individual episodes still remains very high, and the personal life
of the protagonists, as the hardest element of inter-episodic continuity, seems nevertheless to be


detective drama. In September 2010, welcoming the tenth season of Distretto di polizia and the
                                                                                                      -
rari was not “able to restore a representation of the city as a threatening space, as a clash of urban,
social and narrative disorder.”28 Nothing could be further not only from the mood of the series, as
told by the production, but also from the Italian intellectual climate, distant from that dichotomy

of the last twenty years from traditional TV is right in not drawing more on the noir mood, even
                                                 polar, which was the conceptual and iconographic
                                                                                                -
ment operated by Italian giallo, an inevitable connection given the cinematographic vocation of
these series, that starts with an intensive use of the made-for TV movie formula and the unprece-

the series and even from season to season. In fact, the claustrophobic closing of the serial requires
to recall the centrality of the crime scene and crime rituals in the Italian giallo from Mario Bava
to Dario Argento, from Lucio Fulci to Riccardo Freda, that create a parataxis, an accumulation of
criminal performances which closes continuously narrative development around the circle of the


                                                                                                      -

34
                              WHODONIT? RAI TV FICTION PRODUCTION BETWEEN DETECTION AND GIALLO


in the episode La voce del violino                                      La vampa d’agosto (2008)
or even the horse collapsed on the beach in La pista di sabbia (2008).
                                   giallo heritage is strengthened by setting and by the game be-

Italian series. Perhaps the importance of urban and landscape component in these serial formulas
is ignored a little too easily, again with a myopic eye focused only on production methods, for
which of course the performance and promotion of the Italian territory offers important opportu-

unique productive perspective – to liquidate a central aspect of the television series as a pure act


tradition of Italian cinema civile (that of Francesco Rosi or Elio Petri – bond validated when Da-
                                             La Piovra), why not to consider that Viterbo of Mares-
ciallo Rocca, Rome in Distretto or Sicilian districts in Montalbano participate in some ways in
the particularity with which the eternal city is dotted by Mario Bava in La ragazza che sapeva
troppo (The Evil
Leo (Milano calibro 9 or La mala ordina

  Quoting Franco Moretti, who compares novel to movie, “the novel accustoms us to ‘see’ the city
by throwing a glance, not really distracted but discontinuous.”29 This discontinuity also charac-
terizes the Italian series, both for the cento


seem practicable and is resistant against any path except that of the gaze, as Salvo Montalbano

the man and his surroundings distilled in the Italian culture much more authentically than many
                                                                                                    -
                                                                   30
                                                                      it is a distant and indifferent

tied to the giallo.




                                                                              Il Mulino, no. 2, March-April
    2003, p. 343. Translation from Italian to English always by the author.
2   Almost unique exception – which, however, dedicates a really small space to Italian production and adopt

                                                 , RTI, Milano 2008.
3   Maurizio Costanzo, Flaminia Morandi,                                                                    -
    riale, Carocci, Roma 2003, p. 36.
4   Idem, p. 38; see also Pino Salerno (ed.),                                                               ,
                                                                       Produrre TV. Dallo studio televisivo a
    Internet, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2009.

                                                                                                          35
PAOLA VALENTINI

5    Of course, there are also the formats – as Médico de familia
     Italy as Un medico in famiglia, or Un posto al sole based on the Australian Neighbours. However, these
     are exceptions, as contents – the only part truly free in format adaptation – is obviously dominant in

     Cardini, La lunga serialità televisiva. Origini e modelli, Carocci, Roma 2004.

     Narrazioni televisive e identità nazionale
     approach adopted on some case studies presented in this article. However, Buonanno is mainly oriented


     see Francesco Casetti, Federico Di Chio, L’analisi della televisione. Strumenti, metodi e pratiche di
     ricerca, Bompiani, Milano 1998; Milly Buonanno, L’età della televisione. Esperienze e teorie, Laterza,
                                                                   Le nuove forme della serialità televisiva.
     Storia, linguaggio e temi, Archetipo, Bologna 2008.
7    Certainly of great relevance, also from the point of view of its innovative production dynamics, is the
     case of Romanzo criminale which, however, is outside detective drama genre, focus of this article. See
                                              La televisione convergente. La tv oltre il piccolo schermo, RTI,
     Milano 2010.
8    Emiliana De Blasio, Michele Sorice,                                                                     -
     liana, Dino Audino Editore, Roma 2004.

     as much as the decade of the Eighties, in which it is located. For example, this is the time when in Italy,




     and television which are then reversed again in the Nineties, with the new regulations on movies broad-

   conferences during Mostra del Nuovo Cinema di Pesaro, then published by Marsilio; see studies and data
   published in Lino Micciché (ed.),                                                   , Marsilio, Venezia
   1998; among most recent contributions see “Dossier. Cinema e TV,” in Link, vol. 3, 2004.
                                                                                                         -
   en Parliament inside SMAV Directive 2010/12/UE) see Roberto Mastroianni, La direttiva sui servizi di
   media audiovisivi e la sua attuazione nell’ordinamento italiano
11 See Federico Battocchio, La produzione televisiva, Carocci, Roma 2003.
12 La cittadella is organized around the story of his life that the protagonist Andrew Manson (Alberto
   Lupo), now an old man, tells to a young doctor. His reconstruction opens and closes each episode, fram-

13 TV serial script is always by the author of the novels, Andrea Camilleri, assisted by Francesco Bruni and
   Salvatore De Mola. Episodes are always directed by Alberto Sironi.
14 It is clear that the industrialized manufacturing with its initial offer limited to the pilot and the creation
   of no more than two episodes, is ontologically dominated by the opening in the narrative development,

   2005 a bounty hunter serial The Catch), sometimes turn into something else (Mulholland Drive by David
   Lynch, as the pilot ordered by ABC to double the success of Twin Peaks was converted in 2001 in movie
                                                                                                    Lost
   always by Abrams).
15 Ten-episodes series, produced by Miso Tv, was aired by Danish TV2 between 13 March and 15 May
                               Fortidens skygge

                                                                 Loro uccidono on satellite channel FoxCrime

36
                               WHODONIT? RAI TV FICTION PRODUCTION BETWEEN DETECTION AND GIALLO

    on Friday prime time, from 7 October till 11 November 2011, with n

                                             Forbrydelsen
    epis
    episodes each (unreleased in Italy), in Autumn 2009 and 2012. In 2011, US Fox Television has produced

   by Fox Crime in Italy.
17 Season one (8 episodes) was aired on French Canal+ from 12 October till 2 November 2009, followed by
   a new season in 2011; in Italy it was scheduled by satellite channels FX and FoxCrime from 2011.
18 The eight episodes of season one – still ongoing – almost entirely located in London and created by the
   father of The X-Files for Kudos production, were broadcasted on BBC One from 12 October 2012 and

19 Created by Fanny Robert and Sophie Lebarbier, this 6-episode serial was broadcasted by French TF1
   starting from 23 April 2009, followed by three 12-episode seasons in 2010, 2012 and ongoing 2013. In
   Italy it was broadcasted by FoxCrime from 2010 and on Cielo.
20 Produced by BBC itself, Luther
   season aired in 2011 and a third is forthcoming in 2013; in Italy FoxCrime aired reputedly British serial

21 Federico Di Chio,                                                                      , Bompiani, Milano
   2011, p. 205.
22 Il maresciallo Rocca,


   two episodes of miniserial Il maresciallo Rocca e l’amico d’infanzia (2008).
23 La Piovra was aired by RaiUno from 1984, for ten seasons till 2001 (44 episodes), including two pre-
   quels
24 One partial exception is the show Romanzo criminale (2008-2009), perhaps the only true heir, in this in-
                                                 La Piovra; partially, however, considering the exceptional

    Film, followed by a second season in 2010) and the particular genesis of the TV series, derived not only
    from a novel, but also from a successful movie, both considering its unusual narrative construction,
    wrapped up even more on the group of characters and their actions, rather than on an almost impossible
    real development. The proof of its exception is that another experiment, conducted a few months before,
    Quo vadis, baby?

   by the closure of the episode around the solved criminal case. The case of La squadra (RaiTre, seven
                                                                                    Hill Street Blues strategy,
   that is to say to focusing on characters, on their personal cases and relational dynamics, rejecting the
   episode title, but however giving importance to the solution of crimes within the single episodes. Even
                                                                      (Canale 5, 2009 and 2010, ten two-hour
   episodes each season), which is almost unique, both for its hybrid nature which crosses several genres
                                                                         Televisione convergente, cit.
25 There are a lot of example in RAI production, only referring to the last decade, from Don Matteo to Ho
   sposato uno sbirro, from Il Maresciallo Rocca to L’ispettore Coliandro and again with Commissioners
   Montalbano, Manara, Nardone or De Luca. To this long list Mediaset responds with a few examples,
   including Distretto di polizia and Ris (this one in fact contaminated with the medical drama that leads to
   other nature).
26
   and producers have already announced a second one. Again the subject comes from some stories by Camilleri,


                                                                                                            37
PAOLA VALENTINI

27 Directed by Renato De Maria, TV series, produced by RAI and Magnolia, was aired on RaiUno from 11
   September till 2 October 2011.
               ,                                              Corriere della Sera, 8 September 2010.
29 Franco Moretti, Segni e stili del moderno, Einaudi, Torino 1987, p. 158.
                                       Post-War Crises and the Chronotope of Film Noir
   (ed.),
   1998, pp. 129-170.




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