Il segreto dell'acqua

This series was extremely slow-moving with long-looks and wasted time when nothing is happening. There is way too much time spent on personal relationships (love triangle, brothers' relationships with their Mafia father), which makes the detective work almost seem like background. There is a comic element with some of the characters in the police unit. This series could easily have been three episodes instead of six. We don't recommend it.

Outstanding television series reminiscent of the middle period films of Ferzan Ozpetik--some of whose actors appear in this series.

The story is superbly crafted, the acting superbly executed, and the camera work first rate.

Those motif's we have come to love in Ozpetik, such as the emphasis on a core group dynamic, the appearance of an older wisdom figure, the importance of books and book wisdom appear here too in a production direction by DeMaria in a highly engaging tale that keeps us riveted to the end. DeMaria should receive high kudoes for his production as should the actor Riccardo Scamarcio --who recently appeared in an English speaking role as a rent boy in London Spy with Ben Wishaw.

Not to be missed

This is partly the fault of the casting team. The one-eared mafia man was ludicrously miscast, screaming orders in what approached a falsetto voice. I found his over-the-top yelling hilarious rather than frightening. None of the baddies exuded a real air of menace or evil.

The cops were the usual heterogenous bunch of losers, melded within days into an effective crime fighting force by the supposedly irresistible personality of their new boss who'd been exiled to Palermo from Rome for misbehaviour. It's not believable.

There were only 6 episodes, so the obligatory love story had to be introduced more quickly than usual. It was totally unconvincing both how it happened and more so, that it happened.

I'm actually wondering why there was a "secret of water" at all. Why couldn't the speculators simply have applied for a legitimate licence?

Characters lost their lives with monotonous regularity, usually before they were to reveal vital clues that would have solved the investigation. I didn't care about any of them apart from one where the director got the tension just right and had shown their backstory in detail meaning the viewer could actually worry about their death.

We knew who the miscreants were from the start and if the cops had had the slightest bit of nous, they would have too.

Did I waste my time on this? Borderline. It's just on the right side of watchable,