C.It was a time when it was easier to find a needle in a haystack than a woman at the center of an Italian fiction. Not that women were missing, on the contrary. However they lacked character and visibility was often subordinated to that of the male protagonist. Even when as Sister Angela in God help us or Valeria Ferro of Do not kill, were in the center of the scene, their name not appearing in the title. Now, however, it is a whole other story. From Mina September to Imma Tatarannifrom Blanca to Lolita Lobosco as far as Petra, Fosca Innocenti and the journalist Viola, whose stories are told in Purple like the sea it’s all a flourishing of female fictional heroines. Not necessarily strong, but resilient.
Social workers, magistrates, policewomen, journalists, lawyers and nuns. Women who bend over, but like rushes they always come back on their feet without breaking. And they are also a guarantee for the ratings of the networks that have bet on them.
Italian fiction: the boom of women
Mina Septemberoptimism and complicated affairs of the heart
Although down compared to the previous season, the new events of Mina Septembermake the ratings on Rai 1 Sunday evening travel at full speed. The social worker played by Serena Rossi – transposed from the novels of Maurizio De Giovanni – has few rivals on TV. Always with the heart divided between her husband Claudio (Giorgio Pasotti) and the attractive gynecologist Domenico (Giuseppe Zeno), Mina makes sympathy and warms the heart. Because in her life she faces heart problems like in a romantic comedy, but also much heavier things, like discovering her that her best friend. she was her father’s lover (and that Irene’s son is therefore her brother). To save her, and to conquer the public, is the optimism with which she faces more or less serious stumbles, and the kindness with which he approaches the people who come to the clinic where he works.
All crazy about Imma Tataranni, the magistrate with a normal life
She has just taken her leave and we are already missing her. Yeah, after all, Imma the magistrate, unconventional as much as normal, is one of the most irresistible characters of Italian fiction. One that has been loved also and above all for the ability of Vanessa Scalera, the actress who shaped her giving her that rough character with the powerful, to whom she does not discount, and in solidarity with those in need. And an unconventional spirit made of extravagant looks, bold and boisterous combinations, despite the authoritative profession of magistrate. Also for her – taken directly from the novels of Mariolina Venezia – heart problems are the order of the day: Imma is married, but the presence of the young Marshal Calogiuri – who, not too secretly, is in love with her – creates more than one havoc. And it makes you dream.
The cynical reign of Petrainspector in Genoa
From books to TV also the heroin passed from the novels of Alicia Giménez-Bartlett to a series directed by Maria Sole Tognazzi on Sky. Petra Delicato she is a cynical woman, hard on herself and on others, nonconformist, twice divorced and proudly alone. As firm and intelligent as it is unresolved, with an absent social life and domestic worries reduced to zero. To give her the soul is Paola Cortellesiwhich he returns from the lunatic and hasty inspector a painful and melancholy portrait.
The cases he deals with, set in Genoa, do not help him. location different from the Catalan set of detective novels; but a happy choice for the drama with its identity as a capital city yet peripheral, oppressed by the mountains and open to the sea, vertical and horizontal. Next to Petra is the fundamental shoulder of the deputy inspector Antonio Monte (Antonio Pennacchi), workmate and night chatter, a man capable of smoothing and shaking (within limits) connects her. Secluded from the Rai public, in just 2 seasons and 8 episodes, Petra it has carved out an authorial recognizability which yields very little to self-satisfaction.
Paola Cortellesi is the inspector Petra Delicato in the second season of “Petra” (Sky)
Soon the return of Lolita Lobosco
Lolita is in charge of investigations – like everything else that works today, even the heroines of Italian fiction are heroines of crime. She is a deputy commissioner with a name full of double meanings to which Luisa Ranieri it transfers determination and sensuality where, in short, formal protocols and rules take precedence. What does it look like? Thus: «for a woman being in the police is not a walk in the park. Especially if you are 40 years old, you wear a fifth bra and your name is Lolita ». But she nevertheless manages to stand up to a handful of subordinates. And she in love she capitulates in front of the charm of Danilo Martini (Filippo Scicchitano)a 30-year-old journalist.
Now in its second season, Lobosco is the yellow-pink TV transposition of a paper heroine born from the imagination of Gabriella Genisi.
Blanca, as unlikely as it is loved
The most unlikely – but the most resilient – of the detectives is the most successful. Arrived on Rai 1 at the end of 2021, she is a blind girl always born from the imagination of a writer, Patrizia Rinaldi. Specialized in the décodage of audio filesBlanca has developed the extraordinary ability to “see” sounds and transform them into colors. Interpreted by Maria Chiara Giannetta has transversally conquered the publicso much so that we then saw her landlady for one evening at Sanremo Festival 2022.
In fiction it is flanked by Giuseppe Zenoin the role of Inspector Michele Liguori, e Pierpaolo Spollonin those of cook Nanni (who later turns out to be Sebastiano, the boyfriend of his sister Beatrice who died in the same accident in which Blanca lost her sight). A second season is coming, which will shoot at the end of the year.
Viola Vitale and Fosca Innocenti
On Mediaset the heroines of a TV series all to themselves are Viola Vitale and Fosca Innocenti. The first is the protagonist of Purple like the sea, aired in recent weeks on Canale 5. It has the face of Francesca ChillemiJournalist who returns to Palermo in search of his never known father. Next to her is the actor of the moment, Can Yaman in the role of the Sicilian-Turkish inspector Francesco Demir. Here too the tones they are yellow-pink and skirmishes are worth more than investigations. The same goes for Fosca Innocentiassistant manager with a sixth sense for smells that he recognizes with incredible precision, and a weakness for his best friend Cosimo. The two are staged by Vanessa Incontrada and Francesco Arca.
In the convent of God help us
They don’t investigate, but deal with one problem after another the nuns of the convent of God help us. They are heroines, but they rely on God to find the right way to solve the human cases of each episode. A cast that after six seasons he is preparing for an epochal revolution: the farewell of Elena Sofia Ricci than in the shoes of Sister Angela he had always carried the shack forward. The baton will pass to Francesca Chillemiin the cast since the first season as Azure. Spoiled ex girlfriend, a wedding behind him with Guido (Lino Guanciale) met a tragic death with her son, struck by the “call” and became a novice, it will be she who will take the reins of the series in the seventh season.
Elena Sofia Ricci in Flowers above hell
The pink wave of fiction continues coming soon with new characters who are candidates to win the affection of the public. For example Elena Battagliacharacter played by Elena Sofia Ricci in Flowers above hell. A sixty-year-old profiler dealing with cases and the first signs of Alzheimer’s, based on the novel by Ilaria Tuti.
Elena Sofia Ricci in “Flowers over hell”. (Rai)
And then there are the Six women of the miniseries of the same name (always arriving on Rai 1). Their names are Anna, Michela, Alessia, Viola, Aysha, Giulia, and I’m led by the protagonist played by Maya Sansa (PM investigating the disappearance of a girl). The other actresses are Isabella Ferrari, Ivana Lotito and Denise Tantucci.
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