Rocco Schiavone

An excellent series....best I've seen in a long time....give it a chance and you'll be hooked

Happened upon this series & I'm so glad I did. Characters are great & the episodes are paced well. Love the humor sprinkled throughout and the underlying love story. Give this a try - I believe you'll like it if you like crime stories.

/refers to all 4 Seasons and episodes/

Well, I mean, no constant sunshine, lambent sea, people with a few sexy clothes, but high snowy mountains, cold and moisture - this is Aosta, almost Switzerland, far away from Rome, a real hinterland... But crimes occur there as well, although not often, so the personnel is not too gifted and experienced. So Mr. Schiavone (splendidly performed by Marco Giallini, who was before unknown to me) has to deal with both current crimes and his "demons" from the past, sometimes helped by some dubious childhood friends and balancing on a thin line of right and wrong...

In spite of some evident exaggerations in depicting some officials, the Series is pleasant to watch, gloomy crimes are stressed by the bad weather, and the wrongdoer is not revealed too soon. Schiavone´s past enables to include leitmotifs in addition to the cases to be solved (usually 1 per episode), thus being part of the modern, 21st century approach and moving beyond Poirot-Wallander type of series.

Roco Schiavone is a touching and beautifully made mystery series. A brilliant detective who grows up in Rome with thieves as friends, but thieves with honor and a belief in only taking from those who deserve it. Rocco loved his wife, and continues to be haunted by her as she tries in vain to get him to "live his life' without her. He is sent to work in a beautiful but freezing location in the Italian Alps. Everything about this show is wonderful from touching and often funny dialogue between the motley crew Rocco works with, to the moments he spends with his wife's ghost, to the adorable dog he adopts after his owner is found dead, to the exceptional and pitch perfect acting. A special show indeed. The only other mystery I like as much right now is Vera, they are both beautiful, rich and moving mysteries.

These comments are based on watching the first season in Italian with English subtitles.

Protagonist Rocco Schiavone is a cop from Rome who has been demoted and sent to the alpine town Aosta; he hates the mountains, he hates the cold and he hates most of his new colleagues. As the series starts he is in a relationship but it is clear that the only woman he truly loves is his late wife. He also smokes cannabis, in the office and isn't above a little breaking and entry to obtain evidence! Other regular characters included younger officer Italo Pierron, who Rocco usually works with; the competent Caterina Rispoli and Michele Deruta and Domenico D'Intino, a duo dubbed 'Laurel and Hardy' by Rocco thanks to their infuriating behaviour. Each episode contains a self-contained murder mystery, which often forces Rocco to head into the mountains he so dislikes after a few episodes longer plot arcs start to emerge with cases being linked and Rocco being in considerable danger.

I really enjoyed this series; each mystery is intriguing in its own way but it is the characters that make it such fun, once the longer plot arc begins the tension rises nicely. Marco Giallini is great as Rocco; a grumpy character could so easily be unlikable but he makes the character easy to like. The rest of the cast are impressive too. I can see why this series is compared to earlier Italian export 'Inspector Montalbano'; there are many similarities, with scenic alpine settings replacing the scenic Sicilian settings and some character similarities; however it doesn't feel like a copy of that show. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of subtitled crime drama or those who understand Italian. I hope we don't have to wait too long for more seasons to be released in the UK; I need to know what happens next.