Don Matteo

Don Matteo is a charming Italian television series about a priest who investigates crimes in the little town of Gubbio, Italy. The interaction between characters: the priest, police, mayor of the town and others is delightful with some comedy. The mayor of the town who is a stunning, bright woman is dating the head of police. There are funny episodes with the housekeeper and her husband. There's no blood and guts, sex or profanity: Just good stories each episode. The scenery is lovely. The theme music is really enjoyable. The English subtitles are absolutely excellent. And, in my opinion, Terence Hill, who plays Don Matteo (Father Matthew) has the charisma of Cary Grant.

Fr. Matteo is fine family fare and always has a moral or two to make one think. I do enjoy all of the characters, but I would not recommend binge watching more than one season at a time. It is more enjoyable to come to it fresh.

One huge distraction -- or, rather, attraction, perhaps -- is watching Mr. Hill's hairline recede. It would not even have entered my mind, except in the first episode, the Bishop tells him that he is too good-looking and implies that if, among other things, he were bald, he would be less of a temptation to women.

Each episode, it becomes more and more obvious that his hair is "thinning"; and each episode, the makeup folks try other ways to conceal that fact. A fun pastime in itself! Plus, the camera folks zoom in and take off the top of heads, so that we see less and less of Fr. Matteo's less-and-less. Perhaps related to this issue, Mr. Hill's character has less of a role to play and the feuding officers become more prominent. That is a bit of a shock, and sad, because the show is supposed to be about Don Matteo.

This is a highly recommendable series about a priest who helps police to solve mysteries in the beautiful Italian village of Gubbio. The priest Don Matteo is played by Terence Hill in his usually light hearted, mocking way and his personality, with the excellent supporting actors, is what gives this series a special glint: Natalina his housekeeper (french actress Natalie Guetta) always grieving for no being married, Pippo the sacristan (Francesco Scali), Francesco Scali and Simone Montedoro as capt. Anceschi and his successor capt. Tomassi, always trying to avoid Don Matteo snoops in the police cases and especially maresciallo Cecchini (Nino Frassica), special friend of Don Matteo and who always pass him the information about cases to help him solves the mysteries. The relationship between Gubbio inhabitants is as important as the cases and provides the humour touch that makes the series so enjoyable. In the last season Gubbio has been changed to Spoleto, causing people's protest in Italy. Interesting mystery cases mixed with humor, charismatic characters and a beautiful town location. All this makes the perfect combination for a successful and non alcoholic cocktail: no sex nor violence but good vibrations and final ending morals makes this series a good entertainment for the whole family not to be missed. Undoubtedly, highly recommended.

It is just that series who you deserves. Charming, touching, full of humor and proposing one of best roles of Terence Hill who gives to Don Matteo the fair traits defining a good priest who feels his mission more complex than you expect.

Nice dialogues, good doses of tension and drama, reasonable solutions and a wise exploration of the human nature.

In short, a good series with the only basic sin of change of cast time by time , sure, in the name of good cause but transforming it in a sort of puzzle.

It is that kind of old fashion and pure italian series, charming and cool , surprising in some moments and profound honest. And this , today, is more than a precious virtue.

I've enjoed watching this lovely Italian series throughout the years. However I sometimes do find it frustrating how the cast keeps changing over and over again and it seems like for some characters the writers only knew what to do with them for a season. After that the character is gone and never seen or mentioned again.

Then again it is refreshing to see new faces I guess, but some of the storylines kind of just don't get closure. Or by that I mean we as a viewer have no idea what happened, after suddenly in the next season they are gone and there's no explanation.

Well at least I guess we got something, when they showed what happened to Tommasi and Anceschi, so we got some sort of closure. Even though Tommasi seemed to be a fan favorite and I also think he should've stayed for a longer time. Seasons 6-10 I think were the golden era of Don Matteo.

Acting has been brilliant and especially during the later years it has brough tears into grown mans eyes. Keep up with the good work!