La mossa del cavallo. Sull'influenza di Il commissario Montalbano nella caratterizzazione delle investigatrici nel crime televisivo italiano contemporaneo

This essay examines the relationship between Italian crime television series featuring “Mediterranean” female investigators and Il commissario Montalbano. While these series owe a clear debt to the Montalbano model, they also develop independent narrative paths by negotiating between different storytelling and televisual traditions, particularly the “poliziesco all’italiana” and Mediterranean noir. A key focus is the construction of the investigators’ identities, which diverge from Montalbano’s through distinct narrative strategies and cultural frameworks. The essay highlights how these series reinterpret genre conventions to articulate alternative forms of female subjectivity within the Italian TV context, challenging the male-centered legacy of the original series.