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Images of the European Crisis: Populism and Contemporary Crime TV Series

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2020

Federico Pagello
Federico Pagello*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento delle Arti, Università di Bologna, Via Barberia 4, 40122Bologna, Italy. Email: f.pagello@gmail.com
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Abstract

During the last two decades a dramatic shift in the production and distribution strategies of TV series has taken place on a global level. This article discusses how these broad changes also led to a transformation in the form and the themes of European crime series, which emerge as ideal objects to study the representation of European societies in contemporary popular culture. The article looks at recent serial crime dramas such as La casa de papel, Suburra, and Peaky Blinders, which have abandoned the classic formula of European crime TV series, usually focused on the figure of the detective and primarily addressed to a national audience. Designed for an international market, these series provocatively concentrate on the figure of the criminal and adopt an explicitly sensationalist approach. The article argues that this style and the bleak depiction of European society in these series are both an expression and a critical representation of the rise of populism across the Old Continent.

Type
Focus: Crime Fiction as a Mirror of Europe’s Changing Identities
Information
European Review , Volume 29 , Issue 5 , October 2021 , pp. 574 - 587
Copyright
© 2020 Academia Europaea

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