High-brow television, tele-cinefilia e altri ossimori: il discorso mediale e sociale su serie tv e qualità

High-Brow Television, Tv-cinephilia and other Oxymorons about Tv Series and Quality Since Henry Jenkins’ now classic work was published (2006), the studies about fandom remarkably flourished, in parallel with the boost of a new wave of quality Tv dramas in the United States. The attitude of downsizing the “tv” element from the discourse about tv series stems from this scenario, both in traditional and in social media. At the same time, some more high-brow aspects are emphasized, such as the relationship of the new serial forms with the narrative structures of cinema and literature. The essay will take into consideration some of the most common oxymorons deriving from these premises, which are deeply rooted in the Italian Tv series debate, such as “quality tv”, “expanded cinema”, “tv-cinephilia” etc., with the aim of considering both their risks and their opportunities. Furthermore, in the last decade a great variety of texts are grouped under the “Tv series” label, but they are very different as far as content, production values and audience reactions are concerned. The discourse on TV series, however, hardly recognizes the differences between a longstanding mainstream success such as, for instance, Grey’s Anatomy and more recent, and supposedly more “high-brow”, ones like True Detective. So, what does these High-brow new series can be described? And what does a quality Tv series looks like?