Disney+ Series The Shards, Based on Bret Easton Ellis Novel, Examined in Italian Essay

The Shards, a Disney+ television series adapted from Bret Easton Ellis's latest novel, is the subject of an Italian-language essay by Tommaso Tuppini and Anita Romanello, published on September 17, 2026. The essay, titled "Carne e celluloide: The Shards," situates the series within a lineage of 1980s cinema, arguing that the decade was bookended by two mirror-image films: Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and Rob Reiner's Misery, both based on Stephen King novels. In The Shining, a writer is driven to violence by isolation and misguided ambition; in Misery, a best-selling author is kidnapped and tortured by his most fervent reader. Between these poles, the teen-movie genre emerged and flourished, with global hits such as The Goonies, Stand by Me, The Breakfast Club, and WarGames. The essay contends that, despite appearances, these were not coming-of-age films: they do not depict initiation into adult life. The adolescents remain adolescents, and that is presented as acceptable. They neither approve of nor rebel against their parents, who, when present, serve merely as a backdrop to make the children stand out. According to Tuppini and Romanello, The Shards—Italian title Le Schegge—draws on and blends all these elements, particularly adolescence. The essay was published on the Italian cultural website Doppiozero.