History Series / Boris2007

* AffablyEvil: Claudio, the young, nice and enthusiast network delegate that keeps supporting Renè and his idea of quality for ''Medical Dimension''. However, it was chosen by Cane to lure Renè into it and making him just do another ''The Eyes of the Heart''. [[spoiler: Or so it looks like, but in the end we find out it's subverted: Cane was playing both Claudio and Renè, since he plans to sabotage ''Medical Dimension''. Claudio leaves as soon as he finds out.]]

** In "Stopper", former football player Sergio Brio appears as himself, as he was supposed to be a SpecialGuest on "Medical Dimension". He spends the episode being annoyed by other characters's reactions to him: [[ProfessionalButtKisser René]] pretends to be an enthusiastic fanboy even if he clearly didn't know anything about football, Stanis goes into a narcissistic rant about actors being superior to football players, and Biascica still holds a grudge against Brio for a controversial football game played 30 years ago.
** In "Nella rete", famous director Paolo Sorrentino appears as himself. He wants Fabiana to play a role in his new movie and tries to convince her to leave "Medical Dimension".

* AxCrazy: Mariano Giusti, a (InUniverse) recurring guest star who has the villain role of The Count in ''Eyes of the Heart'', is certifiably insane and destructively violent (a fact the troupe tries to defuse by leaving Alessandro to keep him calm -- a thing he does under Mariano's threat of death by baseball bat mauling).

* BigBad: Dr. Cane might count as this. He doesn't want to stop the protagonists, but causes all the meddling that troubles them. [[spoiler: Fits the trope in season three, when he's actively planning to make Renè's work a disaster, see ScrewedByTheNetwork below]].

* TheBusCameBack: Season 4 features the return of almost the entire main and guest characters from the previous seasons, but an unexpected one is Guido, the actor playing St. Peter. He reveals he's the same hopeless actor who was supposed to portray the cyclist in ''The Climber of the Andes'' when René accidentally gives him the same exact TheReasonYouSuckSpeech as he did thirteen years previously.

* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: ''Machiavelli'', a fiction directors are assigned to when producers just want them out. Subverted, however, since Renè gets quite fond of the idea and leaves ''The Eyes of the Heart 2'' of his own will to do ''Machiavelli''.

* DarkestHour: 3x12, "Into the Network", [[spoiler: Renè is utterly destroyed and can't do anything anymore, not even keep the actors, and by the end of the episode he leaves the set himself.]]

** CreatorBacklash: InUniverse. Most of the crew hate working on the SoapWithinAShow ''The Eyes of the Heart'', especially the director Renè, though he's good at pretending otherwise. Many of the actors (Cristina, Mariano, Orlando Serpentieri, Remo Arcangeli) also hate the soap and end up leaving.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Dr. Cane, once he finally appears. He acts cheerfully with Renè, but he's just [[KickTheDog kicking the dog]].

** The opening of Season two (and three) shows the characters in an aquarium, with Lorenzo unwillingly breaking the glass in the end. In season three Lorenzo unwillingly breaks Renè's aquarium.
** Which is in itself another brilliant foreshadowing: Federer (the goldfish Renè bought for the new series) is lost and replaced with another random one [[spoiler: as ''Medical Dimension'', we will find out, loses is purpose and becomes just a series like any other. That the replacement turns out to be Boris, the fish bought for ''The Eyes of the Heart'', only makes it more brilliant, since Renè will end actually turning it in ''The Eyes of the Heart 3''.]]

--> '''Renè''': We are fucking done with quality! We want ''shit''!
* HeelFaithTurn: Mariano, between season one and two, have some kind of epiphany that makes him a nicer and softer person. The quote above takes place ''after'' that epiphany. We only see a glimpse of him before it, and it's him burning down the stage.

** Curiously, when it looks like Renè will lose the job. Not being tied to ''The Eyes of the Heart 2'' makes him consider doing some quality work again, but in the end the show is succesful, so he keeps the job and the money. He eventually leaves for ''Machiavelli'', but season three shows it's just another one of those. The season itself turns in yet another one with ''Medical Dimension''.
** The whole season three is one for Renè.

* KickTheDog: When Renè meets at last Dr. Cane, after [[spoiler: being told the EvilPlan. He cheerfully tells Renè that, since ''Dimension Six'' failed like ''Medical Dimension'' was supposed to, Renè's series will never be aired at all.]] He ends it with a gift, a little box containing "the future". [[spoiler: The box is empty.]]

* MeaningfulName: Biascica's last name literally means 'slurs' (as in 'to slur', the speech impediment) -- a thing he does liberally.

* NakedPeopleAreFunny: In the season one episode "''Like Lars von Trier"'', everyone is forced to work naked on-set to assuage Corinna's insecurities during the shooting of a sex scene.

** In the end [[spoiler: we don't know if Arianna and Alessandro stayed in touch, or if he followed the scriptwriters' trail or started working on something better, we don't know where all the main characters went, except Duccio and Renè. The last shot has him pondering about answering a phone call (Lopez calling him to work on ''The Eyes of the Heart 3'', but he doesn't know it), but it ends before showing us if he does.]]
** Although played straight in the series, the trope is ultimately averted overall, as we do get a proper conclusion in [[TheMovie Boris - The Film]]

** [[spoiler: It's also Dr. Cane's EvilPlan in season three: he leaves Renè free to work on a fiction following actual criteria of quality (or the nearest thing he can get), but ''Medical Dimension'' is planned to air the same night the champions' league's on, so no one will watch it and it'll prove that "a new television isn't only possible, but not even desirable".]]

** ''My Africa (part 1)'' includes a parody of ''Series/{{Lost}}'''s iconic eye-opening season 1 shoot.
** Again in ''My Africa (part 1)'', Corinna's arrival on the set has numerous elements that recall Kate Winslet's arrival on the titular ship of ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}''.
** The beating of Lorenzo in ''The Daughter of Mazinga'' is a recreation of "Gomer Pyle"'s beating in ''Film/FullMetalJacket''.
** In ''Caught by the Network'', the network exec gives Lopez an empty blue box, recreating the same scene and subsequent fadeout from ''Film/MulhollandDrive''.
** In ''The Deaf-mute, the Senator and the Future of Our Country'', the ghosts of René's mentors appear in much the same way as the Force ghosts do in [[Franchise/StarWars Return of the Jedi]].
** Split-screen cuts in the episode ''Use the Force, Ferretti'' are an homage to [[Series/TwentyFour 24]]. Also obviously [[Franchise/StarWars the name of he episode]].
** On that note, a ton of episode titles are obvious or less-than-obvious citations from movies and other works, such as ''The Sky over Stanis'' (a pun on the original title of Wim Wenders' ''Film/WingsOfDesire'', "The Sky over Berlin"); ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Logo No Logo]]''; ''Use the Force, Ferretti''; ''[[Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest The Importance of Being Well-Liked by Lawyers]]''; ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture''; ''Stanis Must Not Die'' (riffing over the Italian title for ''Literature/{{Misery}}'', "Misery Must Not Die"); ''My Africa'' (the Italian title for ''Film/OutOfAfrica'').

* SpoilerTitle: ''The Climber of the Andes'' gives away the resolution of the episode's plot, namely a guest actor unsuitable to portray a formerly-addicted cyclist and a Peruvian extra equally unsuitable to portray a drug addict. [[spoiler:The two roles are swapped, with the cyclist being rewritten into a Peruvian rock climber.]]

** In-universe [[spoiler: in ''The Eyes of the Heart 3'', Corelli is blind but says he will keep doing his job using "the eyes of the heart... 3". Renè thinks Stanis adding the number is overdoing it, but they haven't time for another one.]]

** Claudio telling Renè he's leaving and that "''Medical Dimension'' is a trap."
** 3x13 ("Back to the Future- Part 1"). We already saw Renè [[spoiler: asking the screenwriters for "their usual shit", but we only get the true extent of his HeelFaceTurn when he tells what they are about to shot: ''The Eyes of the Heart 3''.]]

* ExecutiveMeddling: It happens a lot InUniverse. Many episodes are about a change demanded by the executives (more often Dr. Cane), like the introduction of a comic relief, the re-shooting of a scene, or firing the makeup worker since [[BlatantLies the series was in decline because of the makeup]](in truth, she was simply the only employee not recommended by someone).

** On that note, a ton of episode titles are obvious or less-than-obvious citations from movies and other works, such as ''The Sky over Stanis'' (a pun on the original title of Wim Wenders' ''Film/WingsOfDesire'', "The Sky over Berlin"); ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Logo No Logo]]''; ''Use the Force, Ferretti''; ''[[Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest The Importance of Being Well-Liked by Lawyers]]''; ''Film/BackToTheFuture''; ''Stanis Must Not Die'' (riffing over the Italian title for ''Literature/{{Misery}}'', "Misery Must Not Die"); ''My Africa'' (the Italian title for ''Film/OutOfAfrica'').

** DoingItForTheArt: InUniverse. Renè sometimes wants to shoot some good scenes or make a good series but, unfortunately, not only it's often impractical, but sometimes the studio itself doesn't want to make a good show, as it would make the mediocre but popular and cheap ones to look bad by comparison.

* TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised:
** Although the series ends with its third season in 2010, the aptly titled 2011 feature "Boris - The Film" serves as the proper finale. Being it a theatrical release, it overlaps with [[TheMovie The Movie]].
** Subverted with the series's revival in 2022, with a fourth season being published.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Allison is initially skeptical of ''Life of Jesus'' because she cannot see the "ghost", or the main character's trauma, in order to make the story more engaging. René and the screenwriters are initially left scratching their heads because they cannot find HiddenDepths in the character of ''Jesus''. The solution? Invent that Jesus had inherited generational trauma from Joseph about the Massacre of the Innocents.

* CoitusEnsues: At some point, the screenwriters are working on the script of an episode and can't think of anything to advance the plot involving Giorgio and Giulia, until one of them suggests to let them have sex, out of nowhere.
-->'''Screenwriter''': Wait… I've got an idea. Let's make them have sex, all of a sudden, out of nowhere!
-->'''Other screenwriters''': Genius!