The Rise of Seriality in Television Narratives

The term 'series' has increasingly entered everyday language over the decade from the first episode of The Sopranos in January 1999 to Netflix's expansion outside the United States in 2010. In Italy, it seemed to give a cosmetic touch to episodic television narratives that were called, at best, 'fiction' and, at worst, 'telefilm' or 'soap operas,' largely remaining guilty pleasures. However, much had already happened in American television, with reverberations felt locally but leaving no significant linguistic traces. The mature path of television seriality had been charted by Hill Street Blues (first episode in 1981), Twin Peaks (1990), ER (1994), and partially by other shows.