Stefano Sollima
Gomorra - La Serie

I must start with a preamble. I've always absolutely hated the "Italian" way of making TV series. First of all, you need a method; carrying a story forward means managing to be original, balanced, with scripts that are always well "thought out" and never improvised; in a sense, one must have a very specific target audience. I think that this target audience is the main problem. The need for ratings often makes products somewhat suitable for everyone's tastes, ending up depleting their communicative/artistic potential. This happens much less in America, partly due to budgets, partly due to a larger linguistic audience; even the most niche TV series has its own substantial share of ratings.

With Gomorra, I skip any preamble and get straight to the point, trying to highlight my critical perspective.

Right from the start, I certainly don't expect it to pass this fateful maturity test that (as I said) doesn't concern the average Italian series. Several friendly sources, who share my tastes in cinema, music, chicks, etc., have not dissuaded me but have tried in every possible way to convince me to watch it. Stefano Sollima directed ACAB, a remarkable work on the firsthand experience in the riot police environment, as well as the series Romanzo Criminale (which I haven't seen but will catch up on shortly) where positive critiques also seem rather unanimous.

I live near Naples; I know and speak this dialect perfectly. I deal with people who have the same character traits as the characters portrayed almost continuously, so consider me somehow "fully involved".

The story takes place between Secondigliano and Scampia (waaaaaaaa really?) and the plot is practically a translation of the Scampia feud (2004-2005) into the present day.

The Camorra is not experienced in all its facets as it is in Garrone's Gomorra (illegal waste management, prostitution, counterfeiting), but the focus is on the struggle for drug trafficking.

Right away, you can sense Saviano's touch: a very well-educated person, a courageous investigative journalist, whose testimonies have been extremely useful for public opinion, but who sees the evil of Naples primarily within the dynamics of the Secondigliano hinterland. It's as if to say: the cancer is localized in those two or three neighborhoods, those neighborhoods are the source of the demonization of Naples' image. In reality, the Neapolitan "mafia-like" mentality is a widespread metastasis. And it has only arrived in those neighborhoods indirectly. Any Neapolitan citizen can testify to this.

Let's move on to the actual TV series, although I feel compelled to recommend reading to those who have already finished or seen a substantial part of the episodes (there are several spoilers that are impossible to omit).

The fact of introducing the Savastano family at a stage of perceptible decline seems right from the start like an excellent choice. And any deja-vu effect with Tornatore's masterpiece is avoided, which instead focused on the clan's rise. You are immediately thrown into a reality where catastrophe is always around the corner, ready to reshape all the dynamics involving the protagonists. There are no actual moments of stasis in twelve episodes. Keeping the tension at consistently high levels explains practically the product's success, which is very difficult to find boring by the end of the viewing.

Characters, and characterization. Let's start with the protagonists, all with theatrical backgrounds from Fortunato Cerlino, to the very seductive Maria Pia Calzone, to Marco D'Amore. The way they express themselves, the frequent modulation of voice tones, the mimicry, are a clear indication. It is often felt that delving so deeply into the character (typical of theater actors) creates an almost paroxysmal impact and, perhaps for this reason, becomes less believable.

The acting level generally remains respectable, even from the extras (local people whose acting experience maybe maxed out as a tree in a school play) the effect of sounding like a nursery rhyme is almost never felt. As for characterization, the fact of focusing the story on a few characters allows you to experience them fully and perhaps this is also one of the keys to success – Breaking Bad taught us that. Some of them are destined to enter the collective imagination, especially Salvatore Conte, whose contrasting attributes create a unique, inimitable character. For Genny Savastano, here's where the painful notes begin. It's the biggest script hole in the entire series. He is presented to us as a brat unable to woo an illiterate girl in a club and after being (15 days? A month?) with the narcos in South America, he returns as the toughest mafioso ever, thinking that there are people who, after a year in the military, return more gullible than ever. This clashes heavily with the hyper-realistic nature of the series.

And undoubtedly the best aspect remains realism, the execution (more than the idea) of what is put into place. The sensation of "being there" and witnessing events firsthand remains the strong point throughout the story. The language always appears spontaneous without politically correct artifices: for example, I don't recall ever hearing expressions like "mi ha fa semp nu bucchin" or "ne Gennà ma a quant jè can un te fai na chiavata?" on TV. Less the idea, indeed. Everything that surrounds and represents the Neapolitan hinterland is evil, the purest evil. There is always an attempt to give the impression that having any contact with the Camorra automatically translates into total involvement from which it is difficult to disentangle; all the souls living in Scampia and its surroundings appear inexorably sad, forced to live with conspiratorial behaviors, and whose only escape seems to be latent or explicit affiliation with the clans, the future repercussions of which always have fatal outcomes on their poor and useless lives. Certainly, there's a will to show a different conception of ethics, one that surrounds degraded contexts, but everything eventually appears extremely exacerbated. In the second part of the TV series, where the carnage on the streets is as massive as in Gaza, the outcomes of the events often appear increasingly predictable, contributing to depleting the narrative potentials – many – that are often thwarted at their inception.

The best and most original episodes remain those away from Scampia. From the tales of Don Pietro in jail capable of organizing continuous reprisals, to the Iberian episode – perhaps the best overall – also strong for its twilight atmosphere from which the inexorable cataclysm begins; leading to the descent into the hell of the Northern money-laundering broker.

I'll try to conclude here, as it's possible to write poems about each single topic; I've probably detailed too many and superficially covered others. My message should be singular:

-          Gomorra is undoubtedly an innovative series, bold and in many aspects goes without the conventional pitfalls of the average Italian series, in this being not very Italian;

-          It must be watched, period. The execution may also prove to be deficient and lacking in various aspects, but it will certainly not bore you.

-          Tell me where you've seen characters represented as well as Salvatore Conte and Imma Savastano.

Encouragement score awaiting the next season (2016 Pio Cane), hoping for a greater balance between the analyzed criticalities and the development of a less redundant plot.