Abstract
Abstract The renowned Italian television series La piovra is known as the first important televisual intervention on the Mafia, but its aesthetic and thematic contributions to contemporary programming are often forgotten in television scholarship. This article positions La piovra in the development of the current trend of ‘quality’ television series by focusing on the show’s exploration of the subgenre of male melodrama. Through an analysis of the two primary characters, the hero Corrado Cattani and the villain Tano Cariddi, we can see how La piovra is not just an exposé of organized crime but is also a complex meditation on the vulnerability of Italian masculinity in a time of gender upheaval in 1980s Italy. It is this particular thematic concern, rather than organized crime, that likens La piovra to the current wave of male-themed quality television series and makes a critical re-evaluation of the series so timely.
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