Nebbie e delitti

Far more intelligent than any of the popular detective shows out of the USA, this is a fantastic series set in the town of Ferrara in the Po River Valley, famous for its fog and rain. One of the great things is you rarely see a sunny day in this series. The intelligence and dry humor of the detective, the affectionate and comical relationship with his assistant, the romance with the stunningly beautiful blond Italian speaking Russian attorney, the character who plays the coroner. This all may be too subtle for the other reviewer, but the character and plot alone place this series up with Morse.

Each episode is pretty ingenious, raising both moral issues and the perennial issue of the detectives stubborn insistence on getting to the truth above all else....

The writers of this series broke two GOLDEN RULES early on. Rule #1 Don't force the viewer to start to dislike the main character.

Luca Barbareschi'S treats his girlfriend, Natasha Stefanenko like crap. By doing so he pushes her away. You keep yelling at him to stop acting like a jerk and start treating her nicely. She is in love with him and he can't see it.

Rule #2 Don't have the girlfriend of the main character sleep with a total scum bag. I thought her character was smarter than being taken in by this dope head. Why was she even talking to this low life?

From that point on I never cared what happened to either character.

Fortunately the series was canceled.

Cool male Italian detective, Soneri, with likable goofy sidekick and good looking girlfriends. Stories in the series are interesting and easy to follow. English subtitling is so good that this viewer and his spouse found the dialogue easier to follow than many stories in English, for example, in the Inspector Lewis series.

The hero's constant cigar smoking seemed phony when first encountered but we got used to it. The Russian girlfriend became tiresomely predictable after a while but the series editors found a way of sending her home and providing Soneri with a new love interest.

Good cinematography. Fun to experience Italy.

We like the series. Hope to eventually see all available episodes.