I bastardi di Pizzofalcone

I'd watched the first two seasons of this on MHZ before I'd started on the series of books. If you love this series, you absolutely must get the books and read them! Start with "The Crocodile" which takes place before any of the "I bastardi" episodes, but is an absolute marvel of a book, introducing you to Lojacano and Piras, as well as Maurizio De Giovanni's style of writing. I came to love Sicily through the Montalbano books, and these, though quite different, give one a great appreciation of Naples, much more than one gets by visiting the Musei or going to see Pompeii.

Then the first actual "bastardi" book, where you are introduced to the other police officers you will know through the series is a must. That book is essentially covered by Season 1 Episode 1, but adds in much of the background from "The Crocodile." The casting is fantastic--I can't imagine anyone seeming more like Lojacano than Alessandro Gassman. And the rest are similarly well cast, down to the idiotic flashing of sunglasses than Angrisiano does playing Aragona. He's perfect, as are the rest. Very well done. This series is as well-matched to the books as the Montalbanos, or the Campion series, or Suchet as Poirot.

Assolutamente perfetto!!

Seems like every other detective series out there starts out with a troubled detective w/personal issues. The cheaper series then follow the formula of a mostly panning camera of talking heads (lots of talking). In this series we get the usual cheap found dead body in the beginning followed by lots of incidental "just everyday talking"; dining, wine, light romance w/no seen sex. Usual detective team conflicts & off beat personalities to relieve boredom. This series adds, probably an Italian cultural thing, extra model attractive females; extra dining & wine; a few long camera shots of a bay; lots of scenes of bland building facades. But, scenes of the usual Catholic inspired emphasis on excessively ornate & furnished interiors.

Plots differ for each agonizingly long episode (90+ min) until the brief confession (usually least expected) at the very end. Really poor forensics, and highly improbable sleuthing. Series film quality seemed '70s like w/audio that was poor (almost dubbed like), and video just as bad.

Suggest watching their E.U. neighbor's series "Spiral" or most Swedish/Danish.

This is a great show, beautiful camera work, full of scenes of Naples. The recurring characters are interesting people with interesting lives that do not detract from the stories. Each plot is unique and not a rehash of Agatha Christy or any other of the mystery shows I have watched. The twists do not come out of nowhere.so rewatching it is a pleasure I really am enjoying this show. Make more!

The series presents itself as an atrociously shot early 00s soap opera with romantic crime series dreams. It fails miserably at being anything else than a perfect example on how to waste production budget. The dialogues are bland, most shots are cringeworthy extreme close ups, photography sports what looks like a 12 y.o.'s first attempt at creative color correction, and one of the songs in the O. S. T. Is a blatant plagiarism of Hanz Zimmer's Time. Everything else is subject to personal tastes and interpretations, and even in this I've never happened to like fiabesque representations of the city of Naples, which is a city whose soul, in order to be properly narrated, is something that requires a narrative craft that this series could only dream of.

Amazing "mise en scene" and cinematography. Very interesting characters, fine actors. Very cool stories. Great location. Naples scenery and architecture are wonderful. This is about as good as streaming gets! The main detective is objective, driven, and humane. The secondary "crew" are very fascinating. You can't "outguess" what the mysteries will reveal. Subtitles work well, as they should.

Sometimes Italian streamed shows are too esoteric or too cute. This is very sophisticated and satisfying.

Each character among the police crew has a "secret" or background story that is important in its own right. "Giorgio Pisanelli" is one of the more intersting and mysterious ones. But every single one of them has a back-story worth consideration.