I bastardi di Pizzofalcone

This is a poor attempt to copy "Montalbano", right down to the quirky cop at the entrance to the police station. The characters are not as rich as many other detective series. Attempts are made to make them seem interesting by giving them problems and issues with which they deal outside of work. As with many French and Italian series, there is the inevitable lesbian relationship (one seldom sees gay male relationships, maybe because they with to preserve the image of Machismo or the French lover, who knows). The episodes drag, and become very formula driven as the series progresses. The sets are either very grubby, crumbling old buildings, or crumbling old buildings filled with ornate carvings, frescoes and furniture.....very Italian!

It's watchable but just expect mediocrity, nothing else!

Love for the rich and vibrant traditions of the ancient city of Naples fills every scene of this series, but the vibe is fresh and contemporary. The cinematography is first-rate, and the acting is superb. Each lead character is well fleshed out, and the character roles in each case are brilliantly cast and acted, be they innocent children or mob bosses, concierges or architects, young lovers or old widows and widowers. The older characters are especially fine, including detective Giorgio Pisanelli, played by Gianfelice Imparato, who, despite his colleagues' skepticism, is doggedly on the trail of a serial killer. It may not be the most original whodunit, but there is plenty of eye candy, and the music is good. It just sings. Of course it does, it's Napoli!

I have not yet seen the first two seasons of this series, and my experience is limited with the start of the 3rd one, so I will not be rating it.

Even though we may be new to a concept and a set of characters, there are certain things that are supposed to work within the framework of a single episode. And they definitely did not work in the opening of I bastardi di Pizzofalcone S03.

First and foremost of all: The basic premise is that this band of renegade cops survive a bombing as they were celebrating at a fine restaurant. We see how the location is devastated, we learn that a waitress has died. The explosion is a huge one. However, none of the lead characters (who are suspected to be the target of the bomb attack) has died. Furthermore, they have ridiculously small injuries. The whole thing just does not add up. Regardless of who bombed the restaurant and for what reason, the visible, physical "knot" that we are expected to emotionally and mentally invest in simply does not function.

That's one huge problem. So huge that, you lose interest in the whole mood and the individual histories of the characters. The way the outcome of the bombing is depicted reminded me of the dynamite explosions in the Looney Tunes cartoons. Bomb goes off, we see dust and smoke all around, and the character reappears intact, with small bandages on his head. That was almost exactly how the physical outcome of that key attack was handled in that very first episode of S03.

And it was not the only "physically improbable" thing that annoyed me as a viewer: In one scene, we see Gassman walk a back street as some guy is tailing him from 7-8 metres behind. Our cop turns a corner, obviously to ambush or shake off his follower. Then the guy turns the same corner, cannot see Gassman and moves forward looking around for at least 50 meters. At that point, Gassman reappears from behind, as he had hid in an alley.

Now, that is the laziest and most stupid way of trying to convince the viewer how a cop can handle such a situation. It is a simple abuse of the editing process. Gassman could not have have gotten 50 meters ahead of his follower within the time frame in which he had disappeared from eye sight. For some viewers, such things may not matter as they extend the suspension of disbelief to every single aspect of a fictional narration. However, it matters for me. Especially if the concept is one that kind of intends to build up a realistic world of cops and criminals.

Of course a single episode is never enough to judge a TV series by, however the kind of approach I got to see in this one honestly raised quite a few red flags.

So far, this one falls way behind not only the majestic "Il commissario Montalbano", but also behind mediocre Italian cop show like "Nero a meta".

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.