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This article has been published in: Ocula 22, Be cool. How a Cultural Icon is Born

author: Andrea Bernardelli (Dipartimento di filosofia, scienze sociali, umane e della formazione, Università di Perugia (IT))

Cult Tv Series, or Tv Series’ Cult. Series Protagonists as Cult Icons in the Era of Complex Tv

language: italian

abstract: Last generation TV series – the Tv series of the last two decades – seem to be a true obsession for their audiences, to the point these series can be defined as cult series. The main element which raises such veneration is the protagonist’s figure, or of a character who becomes a cult icon, and the mechanisms that make this possible. So the question is whether a good marketing campaign suffices to create the worship of a TV series, or if on the contrary, we should also work on building up a protagonist that could become a cult icon for the audience. Can we determine which narrative strategies can induce this process? And how can a cult character be built in television series?

citation information: Andrea Bernardelli, Serie tv di culto, ovvero il culto delle serie tv. Protagonisti seriali come cult icons nell’epoca della complex tv, "Ocula", vol.21, n.22, pp.199-217, April 2020. DOI: 10.12977/ocula2020-16

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