Valley of crime: The Po Valley as the theatre for Italian television crime drama in the third millennium.

This article examines Italian television crime dramas set in the Po Valley, a peripheral region in Northern Italy that has emerged over the past two decades as a significant social and narrative space for noir and crime storytelling. It highlights how the Po Valley functions not merely as a backdrop but as an active "actor" embodying local tensions, moral ambiguities, and historical traumas, while also reshaping broader cultural perceptions of Italian identity. The analysis focuses on series such as *Fog and Crimes* and *Inspector Soneri*, noting their complex narratives, ambiguous anti-heroes, and unconventional female detectives who challenge traditional gender roles. Furthermore, the article discusses how these productions employ a "glocal" approach—rooting stories in specific local settings while adopting international crime genre conventions—to engage both national and global audiences, contributing to new forms of translocal storytelling and regional cultural visibility.