Engaging with complex television crime drama: Moral and artistic value in Gomorra: La serie (Seasons 1–3) and Twitter audience responses

Using Gomorra: La serie (Seasons 1–3) as a case study, this article examines how complex television crime drama engages with moral and artistic values. It proposes a novel framework that integrates analytic aesthetics with empirical audience research and film analysis to investigate whether and how this genre can shape viewers’ moral responses. The first section outlines the critical and public discourse surrounding the series. The second introduces the concept of ‘cinematic moralism’ to describe how Gomorrah’s narrative and stylistic choices are meant to elicit a morally reflective response from viewers. The final section explores how Twitter users engage with the series’ ethical cues, revealing a disconnect between intended and actual audience responses. The article supports a cautious view, suggesting that while fiction may invite moral reflection, empirical evidence does not confirm its power to improve moral judgment or function reliably as a source of moral learning. This conclusion aligns with Gregory Currie’s call for caution regarding the idea that fiction can serve as a reliable source of moral knowledge.