ESP, Extra: Liminal investigations between chronicle, conspiracy theories, paranormal and new cults

At the beginning of the 1970s, the landscape of Italian television dramas intersects with transforming trends, allowing the crime genre to emerge as a fertile ground for experimentation. Detective stories draw upon 1970s counterculture and open up a cryptic universe no longer knowable by reason alone. Thus, a new narrative movement begins that lasts the entire decade, inspired by the subjects of the fantastic with supernatural mysteries dominated by the occult. These productions deconstruct the pedagogical mission of early television and find new trajectories for television drama. The most groundbreaking works of this period are often forgotten or confined to the category of minor productions: ESP and Extra . First framing the period historically, and then turning to a textual and culturological analysis of the two titles, this article attempts to shed light on the fracture created by the two sceneggiati in Italian TV. It explores the way these works recounted 1970s society and prefigured that of today.