Masterpiece, the Italian Literary Reality Show is Improving!

 As soon as the first episode of Masterpiece was over, polemics started in the Italian press - yet the show didn't do badly in a country where readers are few and far between: almost 700,000 viewers for a 5,14% share, pretty good considering it airs very late, starting at 11 pm. Reactions on Twitter were numerous and ranged from positive to frankly negative ("it will generate so many small monsters"). Essentially, the critics felt that what was wrong with the show was that it didn't talk enough about literature: it was too much like Masterchef, the current popular talent show for cooks



As the Corriere della Sera noted, literary discussions aren't the point of the show: it is about writers not books; television needs people not words. There was one thing the show did achieve, and this was noted by several commentators: it managed to demolish the widely-held assumption that anyone can write a book, that all you have to do is sit down in front of a computer. The writing test that follows the "full-immersion" experience showed this, almost painfully as the writers struggled to produce something that could be deemed literary within half an hour. 

The second episode aired last night (Sunday 24 November) confirmed that this was indeed at the heart of the show: this time the full immersion experience took place at a Neapolitan wedding and a soccer game played by blind people. The four aspiring writers were profoundly diverse, ranging from a young, cool female psychologist to a mature Don Juan lawyer,  a self-assured older woman (age 66) and retired schoolteacher, a Serb shopkeeper, a mountain of a man who looked like a truck driver with frizzy hair. 

The test of writing about their experience made it immediately clear who would make it and who wouldn't - at least to me and I'm sure this was so for anyone watching.  It was the big one with frizzy hair, Nikola Savic, a refugee from the Balkan wars, an ex-Yugoslav. Even though Italian is a second language for him, there was strong pathos in what he wrote about the experience of going blind (that had been the jury's request).

What was remarkable about this episode is how much the Masterpiece producers seemed to have learned from the errors in their first airing. 

First, they've cut back on the section that introduces the contestants; it's shorter and more fun to watch. A full 15 minutes was lopped off (the show now ends at 12:15 pm). The reading by the contestants of excerpts from their novel that was rather boring and incomprehensible, has now been reduced to a few lines that run at the bottom of the screen, a great help in understanding as some contestants tend to have very heavy accents. The off-screen commentator expedites what we see and the selection of the 4 contestants for the "full-immersion experience" now comes early in the show.

Next, for the "elevator pitch" test, they've introduced a literary celebrity, Walter Siti, a winner of the 2013 Premio Strega  the most prestigious literary prize in Italy, with his book "Resistere non serve a niente". Walter Siti, after the pitch, sat down with the jury to discuss the two contestants books that he had actually read and helped the jury decide. This brought considerable clarity to the selection process...And no surprise here, Nikola Savic was selected to be among the 12 finalists to be considered for the Masterpiece prize (the winner's novel to be selected by Bompiani for a first 100,000 copies print run).

Finally, with short messages off screen, they've reminded viewers  giving all the related web addresses: to read the contestants' novels, tweet (hashtag #masterpiece) and Facebook  The presence of the show on the web is definitely on the rise: the number of "likes" has doubled in the last three days and stands now, as I write, close to 4200 likes.

Can we declare the show a success? 

I think it's getting there. Even though the writers' behavior on the show is rather civil (lots of embraces, but then we're in Italy!), Masterpiece has successfully maintained its harsh reality show nature. This was particularly noticeable this time  at the end of an interview that had gone badly for the contestant.  She had provoked the jury, refusing to tell them what she did for a living (she was an administrative assistant in a clinic), contending that only her book mattered. And from there, the interview had quickly degenerated in a battle of words, ending with her book thrown at her as she walked off - quite literally, a full arc across the stage (see my screen shot). And she was of course, given a chance to rebuke the jury for their reaction: "Next time," she said, "instead of throwing me a book, De Carlo should throw me flowers!"

As always, the final verdict will come from the audit ratings, and for the moment the show is suffering possibly because the first episode wasn't good: it got 633.000 viewers, some 70,000 less than the first episode, for a share of only 3,91%.  However, it isn't game over yet. The Corriere della Sera, in its culture page this morning, gave the show its approval: "fewer contestants, more writing"

Ten more episodes are planned, we'll see how it goes - I will keep you posted!

If you want to see the episode, you can view it here.