Dark Narratives or Sunny Stories? Appropriating Global Teen Drama in Italian Netflix Originals

The chapter highlights one of the television serial genres that features prominently among Netflix’s first Italian originals: teen drama, i.e. stories representing teenagers and young adults, mainly (yet not entirely) targeted towards such demographics, both in Italy and abroad. First, it inserts the first steps of this genre’s development inside the larger trends of the platform’s Italian productions; then, using a media production approach, the analysis draws on in-depth interviews with screenwriters and professionals involved in the production of two Italian teen dramas, Baby (2018-2020) and Summertime (2020-2022), as well as on informal conversations, other documents and promotional materials. The reconstruction of the development, writing, making of and release of these series highlights both the degree of innovation brought by these narratives in the Italian television scenario and a complex negotiation between local traits, global stereotypes and (inter)national audiences.