A Lost Generation. Youth and Its Illnesses in Italian Medical Drama

Abstract

With few significant exceptions, medical drama turns out to be quite an uncommon genre in the Italian scripted production. Nevertheless, there have been significant examples of TV series that have integrated medical storylines within their narratives or, vice versa, of medical series contaminated with tropes from other genres. Among the most distinctive hybridizations is the one with teen drama or, more generally, with stories specifically centered around children or teen characters. In the 2020-2022 timeframe, at least four titles – Mental (2020), Fino all’ultimo battito (2021), Everything Calls for Salvation (2022), Lea – Un nuovo giorno (2022-) – attempted to address the relationship with youth from different angles. After a diachronic review of the evolution of medical-related series in Italy (Gisotti and Savini 2010) and their relevance on the overall scripted production of the last three years (Scaglioni 2021, 2022), the paper will question, through a content analysis (Ye and Ward 2010) the frame representations that the four TV series offer of the new generations. The goal of the analysis is to verify any variation between the tones and depictions adopted by broadcast TV and digital platforms in narrating medical stories.

Keywords

Children; medical frames; Italy; teen; young adult.