Dystopian Nostalgia. Oxymorons in Pandemic Television

The chapter will focus on the reinterpretation of dystopia in the media in the light of the pandemic. The shock of the lockdown has highlighted how indispensable it is, for the scholar, not only to find keys to interpret the present in real time, but also to re-read the closest events with critical distance. After the pandemic, the very meaning of “dystopian world” becomes an inescapable challenge for researchers: in spite of ourselves, we have lived firsthand in a de-humanized society, in ghostly, deserted and silent cities. During the pandemic, TV has proved to be both a mirror and a sounding board for post-lockdown dystopian everyday life: in an unpredictable time reversal, the small screen returned to the center of our "segregated" daily lives, becoming relevant even to audiences who were traditionally distant from it. When our reality became dystopian, our reaction was to turn to nostalgia, reflected and amplified by TV programs and audiovisuals on digital platforms. To escape the harshness of the present, we immersed ourselves in the rewatch of sitcoms and classic series: nostalgia has become the key to survive the uncertainties of our dystopian present (and future?). In this perspective, the renewed popularity of teen drama is particularly relevant: during the pandemic, this genre appealed also to adult viewers. Successful Italian examples such as Skam or Summertime will be considered, for their capacity to involve adult audiences in young adult stories and make them remember their carefree teens, by presenting a nostalgic world where it seemed comfortable to turn to in hard times.