# Tear Along the Dotted Line (2021)

> A Roman cartoonist and his cynical armadillo conscience reflect on life and love during a road trip outside the city.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/112269

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 6
- Episode runtime: 20 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: animation, comedy, drama
- Created by: Zerocalcare
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Zerocalcare, Valerio Mastandrea, Chiara Gioncardi, Ambrogio Colombo, Michele Foschini, Paolo Vivio, Alessandra Sani, Ezio Conenna
- TMDB rating: 8.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15614372/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: none
- Tone: wistful, wry, self deprecating, melancholic, breezy

## What critics say

Audiences broadly find the adult animated miniseries a cute, personal and reflective piece, though some viewers consider its talky navel-gazing thin on story.

## Synopsis

Tear Along the Dotted Line (2021) is an Italian adult animated comedy-drama miniseries created by Zerocalcare for Netflix. Adapted from the author's own comic books, it follows a cartoonist in Rome, voiced by Zerocalcare himself, whose constant companion is a sardonic armadillo conscience voiced by Valerio Mastandrea. Across six short episodes of about twenty minutes each, the protagonist's restless inner monologue wanders between memories of his path in life and a tentative romantic interest, while he and his friends leave the city for a journey into the surrounding countryside. The engine of the show is less plot than mood: small wandering conversations, anxious self-examination, and the friction between the narrator's wish for meaning and the ordinary mess of friendship. Its comic panels and hand-drawn movement give the storytelling a loose, sketchbook quality, with the register shifting between wry, self-deprecating humor and quieter melancholy. Viewers who enjoy the confessional animation of BoJack Horseman and the autobiographical comics of Fun Home will find resonance here, as will anyone drawn to introspective, graphic-novel-style comedy about a creative adult who cannot quite stop thinking.

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