Lovable guy, well developed plots, alluring, perhaps with too much resemblance to Montalbano

maria-ricci-1983

You cannot refer to this show without bringing in Montalbano.The strong and the weak aspects are quite related to Andrea Camillieri's character, in a way.

Schiavone is as lovable, picturesque and local as its predecessor.
Rocco and Salvo are both quite effective, earnest, individualistic detectives, remarkably better than their peers, with a strong commitment to put the evil guys in jail, but a penchant for overstepping boundaries and taking justice in their own hands.(This is a cliche in many detective shows, right.)

They both have a neurotic behaviour in terms of love relationships which renders them unable to commit in real terms to an actual partnership.

They both work in a breathtakingly beautiful landscape-- seaside Vigata in the south, in the case of Salvo, and northern snowbound Aosta in Rocco's case. In both series, the landscape and scenery have a major role to play.

They both work in a small town questura (police station) with similar teams, where smart, loyal juniors (Pierron / Fazio) coexist with the funny crew of clueless, dumbass agents. These (D'Intino / Catarella) bring out the worst of their bosses, exasperate them to death, but also infuse some comedy relief into the gritty, sordid cases. And when they turn to do things right, it is always despite themselves. (Both Catarella and D'Intino have something on with their bosses' doors, which is quite funny, by the way.)

Both Rocco and Salvo swear, throw things and lose temper as a hallmark, women find them irresistible in their low-key flirty ways, they tend to be in conflict with procedural propriety, and they look the other way when rules contradict their natural sense of justice. Also, they both have a similar bromance with their boastful and genius pathologists, who are strong characters in themselves...

Lovers of Italian crime shows will soon recognize more similarities in both series.

However, there is a female bright young detective here instead of Mimi Augello as a sidekick, and Rocco goes farther than Salvo in his troublesome behaviour. He is a heavy weed-smoker (an early joint at the office is his "morning prayer"), a Robin Hood to thieves, and has a heavier dark past upon his shoulders. The relationship with his band of crazy friends is a nice parallel story, and the acting is superb, really fantastic. Makes you fall in love from the very first episode.

(Rocco's relationship to his wife has already been developed in Bron/Broen last seasons, and has similarities to River plotline, so it was a bit of a deja-vu for European crime shows fans.)

In short, if the cliches and resemblance to Montalbano doesn't bother you too much, there is a lot to enjoy in this first season of six, 100-minutes episodes. It is a lovely show, well developed and produced, remarkably well performed, and very entertaining.

score 9/10

maria-ricci-1983 8 October 2018

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4385480/