Jams is a 2019 Italian tween drama produced by Stand by Me for RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana. It has four seasons.
The main characters are four middle school kids: Gioia, nicknamed "Joy" (played by Sonia Battisti), Alice (played by Giulia Cragnotti), Max (played by Andrea Dolcini), and Stefano (played by Luca Edoardo Varone) whose initials spell the name of their friendship group, the Jams. All the seasons focus on heavy issues like child abuse and bullying, involving both the Jams and their schoolmates. However, there aren't overly disturbing scenes, as the writers still tried to make the series lighthearted and suitable for the target audience.
Tropes:
- Alpha Bitch: Melissa is extremely vain, snotty, and treats all the others as inferior people. That said, she is not popular and even her "friends" tolerate her at best and often dislike her attitude (including her initial Hopeless Suitor Gianmaria). This improves as she becomes more of a Lovable Alpha Bitch in later episodes.
- Amicable Exes:
- Alice and Max break up at the end of season 2, but they remain close friends, as both are still Jams members.
- Stefano and Joy are a couple for most of the show, but they break up in season 4. After many arguments, they become friends again, and Joy accepts that Stefano is in love with Alice now.
- Ascended Extra: The first season mostly focuses on the four protagonists, the Jams. From season 2 onwards, the series starts giving more depth and focus to many other schoolmates.
- As Himself:
- The celebrity chef Alessandro Borghese appears as the judge of the cooking contest in season 1.
- Young singer Martina Attili appears every time there is a music contest.
- Break the Cutie: Every season, one of the kids suffers something traumatic, before being helped by their friends (or family members, in Joy's case).
- In season 1, Joy interacts with a neighbor who turns out to be a sexual predator. Made worse by the fact that the guy was also supposed to be a friend of her parents.
- In season 2, Max gets bullied and cyberbullied in a cruel way. He temporarily stops going to school because of it.
- In season 4, Stefano falls in with the wrong crowd, when he starts to hang out with high school thugs. The consequences are terrible.
- Break the Haughty: It happens to Melissa in season 3 for the Internet Safety Aesop. She falls in love with her online friend/admirer, who is later revealed to be an adult when she meets him in person. She runs away just in time.
- Bully Hunter: Charlene becomes one in season 4. She stands up for some girls who were bullied by other male classmates, talks to the principal, and starts an anti-bullying campaign in the school (similar to the one at the end of season 2).
- Content Warning: Every season 1 episode starts with this warning: "This story is about teamwork, great friendships, and first loves. But it's also about secrets and things you have to say NO to. After watching, if you want, talk to your parents or a close adult."
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Melissa is usually catty and disdainful towards everyone. After her Jerkass Realization in season 2 and her Break the Haughty storyline in season 3, Melissa understands the importance of empathy and friendship, though she never loses her big ego.
- Dogged Nice Guy: In early episodes, Gianmaria follows his crush Melissa like a puppy, and does everything to please her, despite being always mistreated. Eventually, he gets fed up with her, and falls in love with Charlene.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Angelo, a secondary classmate who has long hair. Being still a preteen like the protagonists, he looks like a young girl. Averted in season 4 with his new haircut.
- Dumber Than They Look: Max is an awkward, bullied, Athletically Challenged dork with glasses and a terrible haircut (though he gets better in season 4). Despite his nerdy traits, he is not a good student at all, and there is even a running gag that Max hates studying and is the most Book Dumb of the Jams.
- Enemy Mine: In season 3, Joy supports her enemy Melissa and gives her advice, as they both shared similarly scary experiences involving an adult. Joy already knows what Melissa is going through.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite being a vain and bossy Alpha Bitch, even Melissa is against the open cruelty of other school bullies.
- Fun with Acronyms: The Jams are named after their initials: Joy, Alice, Max, and Stefano.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble:
- The Jams are two girls (Joy and Alice) and two boys (Max and Stefano).
- It also applies to their rivals, The Best. They are two girls (Melissa and Chiara) and two boys (Gianmaria and Oscar).
- Give Geeks a Chance:
- The dorky Max ends up with a pretty and athletic girl named Margherita. It helps that she is also a Gamer Chick who likes playing soccer online with Max himself.
- The nerdy bookworm Gianmaria eventually gets over his crush on Alpha Bitch Melissa, and ends up with the the equally smart Charlene, who is also quite pretty.
- Gratuitous English: Played for laughs. The protagonists chose their group name Jams to participate at the cooking contest, thinking that an English name for their team would have been an original choice. It turned out that all the other teams had English names too.
- High Hopes, Zero Talent: Max loves soccer but is terrible at it. He is only good at soccer video games.
- Knight of Cerebus: Joy's adult predator in season 1 and Melissa's adult predator in season 3 made everything much darker. Thankfully, both girls talked to their parents (who called the police) before anything too bad happened.
- Narrator: Alice acts as the narrator, breaking the fourth wall in every episode. In season 4, the boy nicknamed Smash also becomes a second narrator.
- Only Known by Their Nickname:
- Joy's real name is Gioia, the Italian version of her name.
- Dario is nicknamed Smash due to his passion for tennis.
- Pair the Smart Ones: Gianmaria is the nerdy know-it-all of the class. In later seasons, he ends up with Charlene, the smartest girl in the school.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: In season 2, Max is bullied by some cruel boys who call him "retarded".
- Reformed Bully: At the end of season 2, Melissa writes a song about her feelings of guilt for mistreating her friends, especially Gianmaria. In the same episodes, some of Max's bullies apologize for they way they acted.
- Soapbox Sadie: Alice always stands up against injustices. Especially in season 3, where she fights for a cause against a tree being cut down.
- Token Evil Teammate: Out of The Best (rival team of the Jams), the only evil member who is willing to play dirty is Melissa. The other three are well-meaning and often speak against Melissa's behavior.
- Toxic Friend Influence: In season 4, Stefano gets in trouble after he starts hanging out with older teenagers who persuade him to gamble and play poker with them.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Max to his childhood friend Alice (they end up as Better as Friends after dating in early episodes), and Gianmaria to his childhood crush Melissa. Both Max and Gianmaria find healthier relationships with other girls.