“Pesci piccoli”, an Italian comedy in the style of “The Office”

The new series is available from June 8 on Amazon Prime Video comedy of the Neapolitan group The Jackal entitled “Small fish – An agency. Lots of ideas. Little budget”. Six episodes of thirty minutes each in which all the essence of The Jackal who choose to set in their story is compressed – as in every workplace comedy self-respecting – in a provincial creative agency. The protagonists are Fabio Balsamo, Gianluca Fru, Aurora Leone and Ciro Priello, a group of creatives who work in a small agency that deals with second-tier and above all local customers. They are joined by Martina Tinnirello who plays Greta, a communication professional who is purged from a large agency in the north due to an incident with an illustrious client (Achille Lauro) and who is mobbed for this and sent to work in an agency in the south.

Here she finds a very different reality from the one she was used to, not only in terms of the type of clients she has to work for. In fact, colleagues are a close-knit group, each with their own role in the office ecosystem, interested in working well but also – and above all – in living in an environment that is not very competitive and where people feel good. There is no careerism but the ability to relativize and resize, no one is left behind and everyone’s little foibles and obsessions are welcomed and valued. A place where profit and results are not necessarily in first place but, aware of their limits and possibilities, everyone does what they can – lightly.

This paradigm shift for Greta will be a new perspective on her work and also on her existence, even managing to glimpse that it’s not so bad to be a small fish. The Jackal achieve all this with a well-balanced writing, far from the episodic risk that could have occurred but with a well-played irony and a compact narrative structure. In short, they do not betray their essence but go one step further in terms of dramaturgical structuring and storytelling. Let’s be clear: for those who have shining examples of “office” comedy in mind (especially of British extraction), there is nothing so innovative. However, the series is so because it reduces that lesson of the Italian context, reworks it and makes it immersed in a language of identity. “Pisces piccoli” is an interesting series, which hides yet another unexpressed potential. The series is directed by Francesco Ebbasta who is also among the screenwriters together with Luca Vecchi (of The Pills), Alessandro Grespan and Stefano Di Santi.

What are the references of Pisces Piccoli?

As mentioned, the references to which The Jackal look for this series are clear and direct. First of all it stands out The Office (in its various versions), series sets precisely in an office which, mixing the pure fictional language with that of mockumentary, tells very incorrectly the various characters – starting with the boss – who enliven the workplace. There to be the master – as well as a touch of farce – is the black comedy, the incorrect and pungent irony. This is not lacking in another possible parallel, that of the editorial office of a provincial newspaper where the protagonist of After Life (Ricky Gervais) works, which is also teeming with some unlikely characters, all united by a certain awareness of the objective limits of context in which they work.

What is the tone of the series?

An interesting and not obvious ingredient that “Pesci piccoli” manages to obtain is a mix of irony and laughter with however some emotional moments of taste that counterpoint the story and make it effective even on a deeper level. The series is in all respects one pure comedy but – here too the Anglo-Saxon school docet – you can glimpse embryonic intuitions of how to make the story compelling also from an emotional point of view. All very measured and without overdoing it but this seems to be the right way.

What is the tone of the three-bar series?

“It’s another day of compromises with life for the mild-mannered Fabio”.

“Go and get oak”.

“I voice over your lives because they suck”.